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Google Alternatives

justprivacy.org

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Re: Google Alternatives

#161

Post by prox »

phendrenad2 wrote: post #85
garyrichardson wrote: post #8

I've tried really hard to not use google for search. But DDG is bad. I have it set as my default search. I find myself either: 1) trying duck duck go and then immediately re-searching in google to actually get relevant answers. 2) skipping the search bar and going immediately to google when I know DDG just isn't going to work. Feels like back in the olden days when you had to try Altavista, Lycos and Yahoo to find wh…

We've done this song and dance 1000 times: Someone says "DDG is bad" or "DDG is good" and all of the replies are basically "No, DDG is ". Let's try something new: Let's give examples. I'll go first: Let's say I have a nebulous recollection that there is a wifi module with "NRF" in the model number. If I search for `nrf wifi` on both Google and DDG, which do you think provides better results? Let's look at the top URL…

So here is an interesting one, I’d just searched import plugins for Wordpress, and the top result from Google is a 5 year old review website, while DDG gives me one from this year. The latter being more relevant to my search.

Re: Google Alternatives

#162

Post by mk89 »

oshea64bit wrote: post #153

I'm actually confused if this site was created ironically. * "Google search is malicious, send the same data to Russia with Yandex instead." * Apparently Google Chrome is a search engine. * "Google doesn’t care about users’ privacy that much. It collects your data and uses it for their own purposes." Might just be me, but this reads like a throwaway essay written by an 8th grader. * The site uses Google Analytics. De…

I think that it does well mostly because of the comments, not because of the content.

Re: Google Alternatives

#163

Post by pydry »

oshea64bit wrote: post #153

I'm actually confused if this site was created ironically. * "Google search is malicious, send the same data to Russia with Yandex instead." * Apparently Google Chrome is a search engine. * "Google doesn’t care about users’ privacy that much. It collects your data and uses it for their own purposes." Might just be me, but this reads like a throwaway essay written by an 8th grader. * The site uses Google Analytics. De…

It perplexes me that people are more worried about a foreign power with little direct interest in you and no meaningful control over your life having a small chunk of their data than the government they live under.

Re: Google Alternatives

#164

Post by jwatt »

muxator wrote: post #84
autocorr wrote: post #19

I really like keyword searches in Firefox's navigation bar. They are like lower latency and faster DDG "bangs". What I found is that most of my searches are better served by direct searches on Wikipedia and Stack Overflow. For Linux and software trouble shooting, using Google is better, but at least there's less "privacy surface area" than doing everything through Google. There's also so much SEO-spam on Google/Bing…

Sadly, keyword searches are being deprecated in Firefox Desktop, and are already not implemented in latest Firefox for android. There is a plan to extend custom search engines with that functionality, but it is not clear if it can be a full replacement. I tried to find a link to the discussion where Mozilla took this decision, but apparently the decision process at Mozilla is not very open, or it’s documentation is s…

It looks like some relevant discussion is at:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G65IlLQqooUnRFtrzi-FU79M...

From that it looks like bookmark keyword searches will be auto-migrated to a new user interface in about:preferences that will allow users to create their own "custom search engine", which seems to imply it will have all the features necessary to do what bookmark keyword searches can currently do. Without knowing anything about this change prior to reading your comment, on the surface this seems like a good thing to me since it sounds like it will be a lot more discoverable and usable to your average user than bookmark keyword searches currently are.

Disclosure: I'm a Mozilla developer.

Re: Google Alternatives

#165

Post by UncleSlacky »

639d9435a17 wrote: post #127
rlv-dan wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After using DDG for years, I sometimes try Google when DDG does not seem to deliver. Every time I am disgusted by the sheer amount of crap it shows me. Videos, shopping, news etc. I'll take DDGs clean result list over that any time! (And usually, Google has the same results as DDG anyway)

I made the exact same experience. Sometimes when I can't get satisfying results I try to use google, but in most cases the results are even worse. Googles search results just don't make any sense to me by now. There is one feature that google has which I can't find a good alternative for: Reverse search of images. Hands down, that's a good one, Google.

Tineye was doing it before Google: https://tineye.com

Re: Google Alternatives

#166

Post by deepstack »

garyrichardson wrote: post #8

I've tried really hard to not use google for search. But DDG is bad. I have it set as my default search. I find myself either: 1) trying duck duck go and then immediately re-searching in google to actually get relevant answers. 2) skipping the search bar and going immediately to google when I know DDG just isn't going to work. Feels like back in the olden days when you had to try Altavista, Lycos and Yahoo to find wh…

>But DDG is bad. not necessarily. Depending what you searching. I do find looking for tech documentation, google performs better. Then use something like startpage.com (google proxy) for that. Something I find that google is censoring them, and I can find it on DDG more.

In the end it is all about having good search engine options.

What I don't like about DDG is that they use bing. Hope they start using their own search now that they are getting big.

I dont' trust MS as much as I don't trust google.

Re: Google Alternatives

#167

Post by deepstack »

agilob wrote: post #129

This websites uses Google for fonts, static content and analytics https://imgur.com/a/BUDxbWY Don't trust them

When it comes tech. There are just some people who just don't get and there for looks very silly and hypocritical.

Re: Google Alternatives

#168

Post by kilnr »

kennywinker wrote: post #158
GoblinSlayer wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can make a more specific query instead.

Actually, this in anecdotal, but i believe most of the cases where ddg lets me down are when the query is VERY specific. More general searches seem to have no diff between google and ddg results.

This is my intuition as well. As soon as the query gets too specific, I'll just tack on a "!g".

Re: Google Alternatives

#169

Post by Doctor_Fegg »

zeta0134 wrote: post #61

Is there a good open replacement for point of interest search in the mapping space? This is the main thing I end up switching back to Google Maps for. Open Street Maps is good if I already know my address ahead of time, but at least the Android incarnation (Osmand+) has a search UI only a mother could love. Even if that worked consistently, it seems to just not have more than half of the businesses nearby. Am I missi…

You're not missing an option - OSM simply doesn't have great POI coverage in the US yet. If you have 15 minutes free, register at osm.org and add some POIs for your local area!

Re: Google Alternatives

#170

Post by aembleton »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #121
garyrichardson wrote: post #8

I've tried really hard to not use google for search. But DDG is bad. I have it set as my default search. I find myself either: 1) trying duck duck go and then immediately re-searching in google to actually get relevant answers. 2) skipping the search bar and going immediately to google when I know DDG just isn't going to work. Feels like back in the olden days when you had to try Altavista, Lycos and Yahoo to find wh…

Try Runnaroo. In many cases it's results are better than of anything else, including Google.

It's good if you're in the US. Doesn't give localised results for the UK.
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