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Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo grew by 46% in 2021

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Re: Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo grew by 46% in 2021

#71

Post by ThrashBeard »

notRobot wrote: post #56

DDG is my default on my devices, but at this point I've just defaulted to !g-ing every search query just because of how often DDG is not up to the mark. I like the convenience of those Google quick answer box excerpts. And DDG is TERRIBLE for anything remotely regional, and I don't expect it to be fixed anytime in the next decade because I currently live in what's technically a third-world country, so I doubt they'll…

It seemed like DDG improved greatly a few years ago, I started using it and now it just seems like it's slipping again. Of course this is purely anecdotal, maybe it's just in my head but I could've sworn it was better like half a year ago maybe.

And it's not about regional searches but searches in english about general stuff like programming problems that seem to return something very loosely related or a lot of pages in chinese. I paste the same query in StartPage and I get all the answers so I'm testing StartPage as the default for now even though I don't like SP's UI as much as DDG's.

Re: Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo grew by 46% in 2021

#72

Post by npteljes »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #64
johnebgd wrote: post #6

I switched to DDG in 2017 on desktop and in 2019 on mobile. I still revert 1 in 500 searches back to Google since the results aren’t as good. That said, I wouldn’t trade better results to lose the benefit of increased privacy. I also use PI Hole to block tracking at the network level, use UBlock Origin at the browser level, and use Mozilla containers on Firefox to silo my social media accounts so they can’t track my…

Never revert to google, use one of the google proxies like startpage.

I revert to Google (in a Private tab) because if I don't, I can't shake the feeling that Google would have done it better. For me the Startpage etc results are just not the same, because of the localized results for example.

Re: Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo grew by 46% in 2021

#73

Post by up6w6 »

gigel82 wrote: post #57
up6w6 wrote: post #13

I always question myself about how much DDG can improve theirs results until the Bing backend becomes the problem.

I'm confused about this... are you saying DDG is doing something on their own? I always thought they are simply a shell for Bing search.

They have their own partnerships (e.g. Wikipedia), own web scrappers [1] and they actually change the ranking of webpages with their own algorithm (don't remember where I read it). I still have no idea of how much is really Duck and how much is Bing, though.

[1] https://help.duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/so...

Re: Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo grew by 46% in 2021

#74

Post by sh4un »

johnebgd wrote: post #6

I switched to DDG in 2017 on desktop and in 2019 on mobile. I still revert 1 in 500 searches back to Google since the results aren’t as good. That said, I wouldn’t trade better results to lose the benefit of increased privacy. I also use PI Hole to block tracking at the network level, use UBlock Origin at the browser level, and use Mozilla containers on Firefox to silo my social media accounts so they can’t track my…

This is just a minimum for me and this site is usually as close to social media as it gets.

Privacy is one thing, security is another. Lots of script kids out there, but it's the state hackers you need to worry about. Most of their targets are PEPs, journalists, defense contractors etc.

Very rare for anyone to care otherwise as the normal persons privacy and security are not worth much.

Re: Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo grew by 46% in 2021

#75

Post by sh4un »

clajiness wrote: post #35
roylez wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not up to a search engine to decide what is true or false. If they want to play this game, it’s censorship.

Is everyone trolling me? I’m simply asking for a reputable source stating that google is censoring their search results.

Honestly unless you have been living under a rock this is common knowledge and many sources and lawsuits exist. I am not sure anyone is going to waste their time to find you sources when we all know and witness that it has been contrived for how long now?

Re: Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo grew by 46% in 2021

#76

Post by sh4un »

hiptobecubic wrote: post #38
roylez wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not up to a search engine to decide what is true or false. If they want to play this game, it’s censorship.

Surely you don't think that it's Google's responsibility to return any random bullshit that happens to be on the internet? I go there to figure something out. I don't care that some conspiracy theorists believe the earth is flat, if I search for "theory of gravity" I don't want any flat earth garbage.

Part of being able to distinguish the garbage in life is being able to see all sides presented and being smart enough to know what is correct.

Sorry if you need Google to help you with this. You'll probably see 5 pages of ads, old sites, and spam before you see the wacky conspiracy stuff like flat earth and Russiagate.

Re: Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo grew by 46% in 2021

#77

Post by arcatech »

WanderPanda wrote: post #69
teitoklien wrote: post #22

For day to day searching i use duckduckgo by default on every device. Not a lot because of privacy, something about that company ticks me off in terms of privacy. I like duckduckgo’s interface and I feel they genuinely put a lot of effort to ensure people have a great experience using their search engine. Whether its their !bang feature or integration with apple maps or their various themes. (Heck even their no js, s…

Since when is Apple Maps a positive thing? Did I miss something?

You may have missed the years and years of improvement made since it was launched.

Re: Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo grew by 46% in 2021

#78

Post by barkerja »

lillecarl wrote: post #32
darinf wrote: post #20

Neeva is another option for privacy minded folks. Plus it is ad free, and Neeva is also much more than just a wrapper around Bing results. Disclaimer: I work on Neeva :)

I don't have that much of a problem with unobtrusive ads, but I do have a problem with data hoarding. How does Neeva tackle this?

> How does Neeva tackle this?

Neeva is a paid product.

I’ve enjoyed using Neeva, but not having the ability to make it the default engine in iOS/macOS (Safari) has made it cumbersome to use.

Re: Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo grew by 46% in 2021

#79

Post by lillecarl »

darinf wrote: post #52
lillecarl wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have that much of a problem with unobtrusive ads, but I do have a problem with data hoarding. How does Neeva tackle this?

You are in complete control. See the FAQ for more details ( https://neeva.com/faq ), but the main takeaway is data saved by Neeva is only to improve the product for you and you have the option to clear or disable such functionality. Neeva is just really transparent about that. Neeva is a tool for you and no one else. Products that show you ads can’t make such claims.

Thanks for the reply!

I signed myself up but got put in a queue since I'm Swedish. Could I trick your system with a VPN maybe?

Re: Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo grew by 46% in 2021

#80

Post by jimbogr77 »

notRobot wrote: post #56

DDG is my default on my devices, but at this point I've just defaulted to !g-ing every search query just because of how often DDG is not up to the mark. I like the convenience of those Google quick answer box excerpts. And DDG is TERRIBLE for anything remotely regional, and I don't expect it to be fixed anytime in the next decade because I currently live in what's technically a third-world country, so I doubt they'll…

I have exactly the same experience.

I switched to DDG on all my devices but when searching for regional(greek) stuff, the results are bad.

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