Except duckduckgo can't find my project and Google can: http://duckduckgo.com/?q=sphela+github https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=sphela
DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble
101–110 of 219 posts
Re: DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble
#102DDG is quite good in regular search. I like their commitment to privacy and so switched my default search engine to DDG. But I noticed more and more that I use google maps almost as much search. I search for places and directions on maps end up going to google a lot. That is brilliance of Google. They built search verticals and so its tough to not use them. If only DDG could do something about that.
We are working on integrating OpenStreetMap, and just yesterday launched some upgrades, e.g. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Valley+Forge%2C+PA or https://duckduckgo.com/?q=black+lab+bistro (map in right column expands to view). This goes with address detection ( https://duckduckgo.com/?q=3+ames+st%2C+boston%2C+ma ) and you can always force an OSM query by adding map to the end. And of course adding !gm will take you right…
Problem with OSM is that it's nowhere near as complete as Google Maps, and I don't see it growing the way Wikipedia did (contributing to Wikipedia is much easier than contributing to OSM)
Re: DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble
#103If I had to tackle the notion of over-personalization in ~5 minutes, I'd say:
- If someone prefers to search Google without personalization, add "&pws=0" (the "pws" stands for "personalized web search") to the end of the Google search url to turn it off, or use the incognito version of Chrome. Personalization tends to be a nice relevance improvement overall, but it doesn't trigger that much--when it launched, the impact was on the order of one search result above the fold for one in five search results.
- personalization has much less impact than localization, which takes things like your IP address into account when determining the best search results. You can change localization by going to country-specific versions of Google (e.g. search for [bank] on google.co.uk vs. google.co.nz), or on google.com you can click "change location" on the left sidebar to enter a different city or zip code in the U.S.
- We do have algorithms in place designed specifically to promote variety in the results page. For example, you can imagine limiting the number of results returned from one single site to allow other results to show up instead. That helps with the diversity of the search results. When trying to find the best search results, we look at relevance, diversity, personalization, localization, as well as serendipity and try to find the best balance we can.
I saw Eli Pariser's talk at TED and was skeptical, although I did enjoy his example of Facebook starting to return only his liberal friends because he only ever clicked on the links his liberal friends shared. I had a number of concerns browsing through Pariser's book, but I would encourage anyone interested in these issues to pick up a copy; it's a thoughtful read.
Re: DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble
#104It is well known that people seek out information that reinforces their own beliefs. And while it may not be ideal for an enlightened population, why should Google/Bing fight this natural inclination? Their job is to ultimately give their users what they are searching for, not challenge their users' opinions. Especially since there are tons of benefits to personalized search, and it may be hard to not throw the baby…
This mentality ("give people what they want") results in the empty, sensationalist journalism that most people dislike. When I read the news, I don't want to be entertained, I want to be informed. The same goes for Internet searches.
Re: DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble
#105Sorry to be pedantic, "beg the question" is being used incorrectly. See http://begthequestion.info/ ("This begs the question: what are you missing?"). Doesn't detract from the overall post.
Re: DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's bullshit because search is filtering and the filtering done by search is being exaggerated by those who peddle this bullshit.
I expect my search to be faithful to the terms I enter. If the results aren't satisfactory, I'll narrow the search with additional terms. Withholding information based on some guess at my political leanings is dishonest. I'd be appalled if a librarian did it; why should I expect less from a search engine?
If you went to a librarian and said "show me Egypt", she would have nowhere to start. A conversation would then ensue about what you are interested in.
Keep going to the library, keep having those conversations, and eventually, the librarian will take you straight to the books you want when you ask for Norway. If you want something different, you'll have to explicitly ask.
What Google is doing is no different. It just happens to have a lot more conversations with you.
Re: DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble
#107The purpose of search engines is filtering content to give you what you want, which might be information, or it might be discussion, or polemics, or gossip. If you want to learn about some topic that has some element of subjectivity, familiarize yourself with the different points of view and read the writing of whoever you are interested in. There are lots of tools on the Internet to facilitate this -- Wikipedia, for…
The purpose of search engines is filtering content to give you what you want
The purpose of search engines is filtering content to give us what we asked for. Unless they developed mind-reading technology, Google doesn't really know what I want and attempts at guessing it will lead to substandard results.
*-- Wikipedia, for example, is built around an ideal of giving people an objective survey of different things.
A website where any amount of divergent opinions get edited down to a single article on the subject (target of edit wars and well-known editorial biases) is hardly "an objective survey of different things."
Re: DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble
#108Personally, not convinced at all. Looks like saying "We are better because we cannot do it yet"
Re: DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
How? I've seen other people link to it, it's just a page with text salad. What is there to use? I don't understand that site.
Yeah, Scroogle's front page is really bad. Here's a link to where you can put in the actual search terms: https://ssl.scroogle.org/
That worked, thank you.
Re: DuckDuckGo: Escape your search engine filter bubble
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
How? I've seen other people link to it, it's just a page with text salad. What is there to use? I don't understand that site.
Use http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/scraper.htm If you are using firefox, right click into the input field and select add keyword search, and add a keyword. Now you can easily search via scroogle entering the keyword and then the searchterms in the address bar.
Thank you, I don't find this site that useful but I was really perplexed at its home page, it looks like it was designed by someone suffering from schizophrenia.