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DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble

dontbubble.us

11–20 of 219 posts

Re: DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble

#11
Yeah this is an important issue. Google apparently ranks results (for you personally) based on some 57 inputs, even when not logged into Google services. In short results suffer from a self-reinforcing feedback loop, forever constraining what you see.

I wonder how easy it is to get "clean" or "default" results from Google?

And I know it's been discussed many times , but just how easy would it be to maintain real anonymity across the web?

Re: DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble

#12
We often forget that, although it's obvious search engines filter results, the information we see on social sites is also filtered.

Consider users of Reddit. Now most of them would consider themselves very open minded and enlightened, yet their is active discouragement for radical ideas without due consideration as to their merits. It's just easier to downvote and look at Mario cake.

Overall, I think in a way we NEED filters to remove the faff, but be careful to keep a social circle which encourages radical ideas to be bought out into the light of logic and due consideration,

Re: DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble

#14
post #11

Yeah this is an important issue. Google apparently ranks results (for you personally) based on some 57 inputs, even when not logged into Google services. In short results suffer from a self-reinforcing feedback loop, forever constraining what you see. I wonder how easy it is to get "clean" or "default" results from Google? And I know it's been discussed many times , but just how easy would it be to maintain real anon…

Incognito/private browsing + going through DuckDuckGo (even for Google queries, with !g prefix) works for me. (Edit to add since I can't reply: going through DDG avoids Google redirecting to country-specific variation).

Re: DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble

#15
post #2

I noticed a while ago that a collegue and I got different results when we googled for our company name, but I didn't know that it's now happening in such an extent. I've added DuckDuck to my FireFox search engines.

It's not happening to any extent, it's just a new FUD concept that is meant to sell books an confuse people, if you seek more info you can dig deeper into any set of initial results. Personalization == relevance.

Re: DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble

#17
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've set it as default on Chrome. Maybe google is better - I'll get more python libraries and less news stories about sheep (or Darwin laureates) getting swallowed by pythons, but I can live with that. Besides, I'm pretty good at typing "google" if I need it.

You can just add !g to the end (or beg) of your search and it will take you right there.

Actually, this is super handy! When I know I want the wikipedia article I just add !w at the end.

Ditto for youtube (!yt) etc etc

Re: DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble

#18
In all seriousness, this is actually my main use case for the private browsing mode in chrome: to search google without the filter bubble(1)

It's quite shocking to see just how much those results differ from the ones I'm usually served, actually.

I know it's actually supposed to be 'awesome' to have every search tailored to _you_, but it just makes me feel uncomfortable that I'm not seeing the internet "the way it's supposed to be seen" - if that makes any sense.

(1): Or at least a smaller bubble, considering it still knows my location - even though i use google.com, my os, my browser, etc...

Re: DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble

#19
post #11

Yeah this is an important issue. Google apparently ranks results (for you personally) based on some 57 inputs, even when not logged into Google services. In short results suffer from a self-reinforcing feedback loop, forever constraining what you see. I wonder how easy it is to get "clean" or "default" results from Google? And I know it's been discussed many times , but just how easy would it be to maintain real anon…

No it's a non-issue, and by the way Google probably uses much more that 57 'inputs' (signals) to determine relevance. Personalization is just a different term for relevant results and this is just FUD, the source of which is people who don't understand the technical aspects.

Re: DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble

#20
post #15
post #2

I noticed a while ago that a collegue and I got different results when we googled for our company name, but I didn't know that it's now happening in such an extent. I've added DuckDuck to my FireFox search engines.

It's not happening to any extent, it's just a new FUD concept that is meant to sell books an confuse people, if you seek more info you can dig deeper into any set of initial results. Personalization == relevance.

That's funny, when I search for "filter bubble" I can't find anyone refuting it.
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