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Brave Search replaces Google as default search engine in the Brave browser

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Re: Brave Search replaces Google as default search engine in the Brave browser

#311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I really wish a search engine would empower me to provide a URL ban list that gets applied server-side instead of filtering on the front end (if anything). The irony is that Google wants all our information "to improve our user experience", except they don't want our ban lists.

I can’t remember if it was a former feature of Google search or a Chrome extension, but that capability used to be available in Chrome. w3schools was on that list, among other republishers and whatnot. Loved it. Maybe someone else can augment my hazy recollection.

Yes! I swear I remember banning some of those spam domains in 2010 or so. IIRC, I thought it was part of Google search.

Re: Brave Search replaces Google as default search engine in the Brave browser

#312
For non-technical searches, mostly stuff relating to news, politics, or Covid, Google is next to useless at this point due to their attempts to combat misinformation. Even their autocomplete functionality guides potential search queries in an entirely unorganic manner. For instance, something may be trending according to google, while simultaneously being blacklisted as an autocomplete option- if it has Any elements of wrongthink about it.

Re: Brave Search replaces Google as default search engine in the Brave browser

#313
post #295

Just tried it out. Looks nice (except for that unremovable crypto button on the toolbar), but I need SpeechSynthesis (TTS) support. Will stay with FF and use MS Edge for its excellent TTS. The search engine is pretty weak judging from my initial queries.

The crypto button is removable. Have a look through your settings.

Re: Brave Search replaces Google as default search engine in the Brave browser

#314

I keep getting NFT and crypto advert-type popups which put me off using brave.

You shouldn’t have chosen to receive those if you don’t like them? They’re opt in when you install. Feel free to turn them back off…

Re: Brave Search replaces Google as default search engine in the Brave browser

#315
post #87
post #7

I’ve been using Brave search for several months now. I switched the day that it was announced. The quality is fairly good, but I’m having troubling telling whether it’s just my own halo effect or if the initial quality that experienced has started to slip a little as it indexes more widely or something. At first I was impressed with how little spam ended up in top results, but lately exact queries for Python function…

I remember reading in HN an idea about allowing people to customize the weights used to filter search results - a search engine that provided that, where I could use some curated configuration file. Maybe I could have profiles like "cooking", "programming", "news" and help the search engine even better to understand my intent. Or just have the "don't show results from this site again" button from youtube taken into g…

Yahoo had a system along time ago where you could slide results more toward shopping or more toward informational. Like most features like that, it didn't last very long.

Re: Brave Search replaces Google as default search engine in the Brave browser

#316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=tank+man&atb=v156-1&iax=images&ia=... seems fine to me. If you are referring to it being blocked in China, well, are we at all surprised that private companies kowtow to autocratic regimes in favor of making more money?

It seems fine now. But the tank man image was blocked for the whole world and not just china. So they fixed this after an public outcry. But you do not know, what is missing now. Thats a reason for me to not trust them anymore.

> the tank man image was blocked for the whole world

The top story at the time https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27395635

Re: Brave Search replaces Google as default search engine in the Brave browser

#317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can someone fill me in?

Hostility towards users asking questions as seen in the tabstrip API bug. (A really simple thing that I fix on a weekly basis in 4 minutes every time I restart Firefox but somehow next to impossible for Mozilla. Although I should admit they are making it harder and harder for me as well.) Pushing Pocket (which is nice and could have become a nice source of income from users like me who wants to support the browser) i…

Also spending years and millions of dollars on Firefox OS, a totally futile gesture.

Re: Brave Search replaces Google as default search engine in the Brave browser

#318
post #7

I’ve been using Brave search for several months now. I switched the day that it was announced. The quality is fairly good, but I’m having troubling telling whether it’s just my own halo effect or if the initial quality that experienced has started to slip a little as it indexes more widely or something. At first I was impressed with how little spam ended up in top results, but lately exact queries for Python function…

Some years ago Google had the option to remove a website from search results. After a few months they discontinued. It would be nice to know why, if the user adoption was too low, the computational cost too high, or the user experience too bad because users inadvertently removed good results.

Like most features that Google releases, I believe that they use them to train their algorithms and once they get enough human input on a feature from people using it, they remove the feature and turn it over to the machine. We see it on the SEO side all the time. Release a feature, call it a ranking factor, thousands of SEOs jump all over it. The algo learns and then the features importance is removed. NoFollow links are a great example of this.

Re: Brave Search replaces Google as default search engine in the Brave browser

#319

For non-technical searches, mostly stuff relating to news, politics, or Covid, Google is next to useless at this point due to their attempts to combat misinformation. Even their autocomplete functionality guides potential search queries in an entirely unorganic manner. For instance, something may be trending according to google, while simultaneously being blacklisted as an autocomplete option- if it has Any elements…

Joe Rogan also commented on this cover-up a few days ago:

> "Look, if I wanted to find specific cases about people who died from vaccine-related injuries, I had to go to Duck Duck Go. I wasn’t finding them on Google,” Rogan urged.

[1] https://summit.news/2021/10/19/video-joe-rogan-accuses-googl...

Re: Brave Search replaces Google as default search engine in the Brave browser

#320

For non-technical searches, mostly stuff relating to news, politics, or Covid, Google is next to useless at this point due to their attempts to combat misinformation. Even their autocomplete functionality guides potential search queries in an entirely unorganic manner. For instance, something may be trending according to google, while simultaneously being blacklisted as an autocomplete option- if it has Any elements…

I read this as "I can't find stuff because Google blocks misinformation".

Every time I search for politics, news, or covid related stuff I find it straight away. News it right at the top with multiple articles available.

Politics and COVID I find the offical source straight away.

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