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DuckDuckGo removed the ability to filter search results

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Re: DuckDuckGo removed the ability to filter search results

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You forgot - more likely to recommend your service to friends and family when they ask their power user friend which service to use. A move like that is shortsighted at best, not good business sense.

I think this one is really overrated. My family never asks my input on what to use; they always buy Apple stuff, inkjet printers with expensive ink subscription services, etc. If I try to talk to them about, for instance, getting a laser printer instead, it goes nowhere. Heck, just getting them to use Facebook Messenger to talk to me since I'm living on another continent is almost too much apparently. In my experienc…

This isn't because they don't want advice, it's because there isn't enough competition for the advice to be useful. It's not like Google spies on you and Microsoft doesn't. It doesn't really matter to them whether the Windows PC they buy is from Dell or Lenovo and they don't want to hear how to build one out of parts from Newegg and install Linux on it if it can't play the games they want to play.

Companies are then safe to ignore you recommending against their products when the users have no other viable options. Until they do. Then they become Kodak or Blockbuster Video because someone else makes a better product than theirs and they're so unaccustomed to customers having a choice that they lose the market.

Re: DuckDuckGo removed the ability to filter search results

#82
post #63
post #27

I’ve also noticed that “”’s stopped working as expected there recently. Sample query: “lowes pet bedding”. The quotation marks do something; they remove some results from tractor supply and home depot. However, many results don’t contain the word “lowes” or “bedding”. For example: https://animalcare.lacounty.gov/licensing/ And, none contain the exact phrase. Google does the expected thing (return one result). Annoyin…

The quotation marks work for me: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=%22lowes+pet+bedding%22&atb... I notice in your HN post, you're using fancy quotation marks; I assume you're not using the same while searching DDG.

I get 2 good result, then oddly I get

https://www.bizseek.co.uk/simons-books-01458-272313

Re: DuckDuckGo removed the ability to filter search results

#83

I debated bringing up Kagi at the top level here, since I already commented on it in a reply, but honestly I really want them to succeed and shit like this is why. It's a paid search service, and I'm honestly really happy with that distinction and what it entails. Being paid means that they can deliver on and support features that users can use to get the best results for them, without worrying how those features may…

> They are working out the kinks with the pricing scheme You mean being way too expensive? I appreciate them wanting to stay afloat but they need to bring the cost per search down drastically. They are doing something wrong behind the scenes with regards to spend or optimization.

Why do you think their prices are unreasonable? Just curious.

1.5 cents per search doesn't sound expensive, although if you do 100 searches per day that's $45 per month...

Re: DuckDuckGo removed the ability to filter search results

#84
post #77

I debated bringing up Kagi at the top level here, since I already commented on it in a reply, but honestly I really want them to succeed and shit like this is why. It's a paid search service, and I'm honestly really happy with that distinction and what it entails. Being paid means that they can deliver on and support features that users can use to get the best results for them, without worrying how those features may…

Can I use Kagi without linking any real-world identifiers (including credit card details) to my search queries in any way? I'm very much interested in a high-quality search engine, and certainly willing to pay for it, but unless the above condition is satisfied, it's a non-starter for me.

Their privacy policy is here: https://kagi.com/privacy

The short answer to your question is: yes, you can use it without linking any real-world identifiers to your search queries. That is explicitly stated in the linked privacy policy. With that said, I guess it's possible that they are violating their own privacy policy. That seems like a bad idea from a legal perspective, and I don't have any reason to suspect they're lying, so I'm not too worried about it.

Re: DuckDuckGo removed the ability to filter search results

#85
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There is no real competition in search (and in social media, and in email, and in operating systems, and in browsers, ...). This is factually untrue. There's plenty of competition in social media and OSes, and Firefox still exists. For social media, there's Diaspora (yeah, I know, no one uses it), and for OSes you've got to be kidding: there's dozens of Linux distros out there or you can easily roll your own with va…

Firefox is near the lowest market share in its history, and declining further. Linux accounts for somewhere between 0.5% and 3% of the desktop OS market, depending on who you ask. Mastodon, Diaspora, Lemmy etc. are niche products used by far fewer than 1% of people. That's not competition . That's "some geeks built some stuff and a couple of people use it occasionally". If there were just two car manufacturers, and o…

>Firefox is near the lowest market share in its history, and declining further.

Yes, but for now, it works just fine. Much better than Chrome IMO in fact. As long as Mozilla gets enough funding to continue development, this shouldn't change.

>Linux accounts for somewhere between 0.5% and 3% of the desktop OS market, depending on who you ask.

Why does this matter? It works fine for countless people and companies. I'm using it at work right now, and have been using it exclusively at work for many years. Marketshare is meaningless with Linux anyway because almost no one pays for it, so of course it doesn't show up in marketshare surveys.

>Mastodon, Diaspora, Lemmy etc. are niche products used by far fewer than 1% of people.

But they exist and work. If people don't like Facebook et al, they're free to switch, and they have no right to complain.

>Competition doesn't simply mean "other stuff exists".

Yes, it really does. Those things are all viable alternatives. That's the definition of competition.

Re: DuckDuckGo removed the ability to filter search results

#86

I debated bringing up Kagi at the top level here, since I already commented on it in a reply, but honestly I really want them to succeed and shit like this is why. It's a paid search service, and I'm honestly really happy with that distinction and what it entails. Being paid means that they can deliver on and support features that users can use to get the best results for them, without worrying how those features may…

> They are working out the kinks with the pricing scheme You mean being way too expensive? I appreciate them wanting to stay afloat but they need to bring the cost per search down drastically. They are doing something wrong behind the scenes with regards to spend or optimization.

yea, the tool tip says "200 searches is enough for 99% of Internet users", but I doubt their target demographic is the 99% that don't need more.

Re: DuckDuckGo removed the ability to filter search results

#88
post #63
post #27

I’ve also noticed that “”’s stopped working as expected there recently. Sample query: “lowes pet bedding”. The quotation marks do something; they remove some results from tractor supply and home depot. However, many results don’t contain the word “lowes” or “bedding”. For example: https://animalcare.lacounty.gov/licensing/ And, none contain the exact phrase. Google does the expected thing (return one result). Annoyin…

The quotation marks work for me: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=%22lowes+pet+bedding%22&atb... I notice in your HN post, you're using fancy quotation marks; I assume you're not using the same while searching DDG.

Doesn't work for me. Like the GP, I get results unrelated to Lowes, bedding or even pets.

Re: DuckDuckGo removed the ability to filter search results

#89
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can I use Kagi without linking any real-world identifiers (including credit card details) to my search queries in any way? I'm very much interested in a high-quality search engine, and certainly willing to pay for it, but unless the above condition is satisfied, it's a non-starter for me.

Privacy.com might help

Privacy.com is US only. And of course, Privacy.com "virtual cards" are still linked to your real-world identity.

Re: DuckDuckGo removed the ability to filter search results

#90
There is also a (related, I assume) PR to remove the search syntax page from being published entirely[1]. It's dated December, so it may be fair to assume this has all just been documentation-publishing that hasn't been done yet, as others have posited. That says nothing of the rationale/efficacy of such filtering/syntaxing, though.

[1] https://github.com/duckduckgo/duckduckgo-help-pages/pull/152

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