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Every web search result in Brave Search is now served by our own index

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Re: Every web search result in Brave Search is now served by our own index

#331

Post by rkuska »

lmm wrote: post #221
GCA10 wrote: post #26

Just started testing Brave Search, and it scored a rare 100 on the first test: If you type in the name of a favorite boutique hotel, will you get that hotel's true website -- or the usual hairball of third-party intermediaries? (For anyone who's ever tried to modify a reservation, the difference is astonishing. If you're booked with the hotel, all kinds of adjustments are at least possible. If you're booked with Book…

> (For anyone who's ever tried to modify a reservation, the difference is astonishing. If you're booked with the hotel, all kinds of adjustments are at least possible. If you're booked with Booking, Travelocity, Expedia, etc., it's somewhere between hard and hopeless.) That's utterly backwards IME. On Booking.com, most modifications are the push of a button (that, crucially, is right there in the UI that I already kn…

Booking.com allowed me book a room in a hotel that was closed due to renovation - which I didn't know. I learned that a week prior my trip because I messaged the property (as I had a special request) and received automatically generated reply.

Since then I book directly. Most recently I booked a hotel which had 2+1 night free. Booking.com was offering full price for 3 nights stay.

Re: Every web search result in Brave Search is now served by our own index

#332

Post by creativenolo »

bazmattaz wrote: post #149
kashkhan wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

using Brave on an iphone for Youtube is a godsend. Almost as good as desktop experience. Youtube app, Safari and Chrome suck enough to be unusable

Can I ask what’s so good about YT on Brave? I use the iOS app but could change. Does it block ads?

Ads, offline saving and playback continues when the phone is locked. All triggered by pressing a “+” button for add to playlist

Re: Every web search result in Brave Search is now served by our own index

#333

Post by cristiioan »

I'm not sure if I will add it to my searx instance. The problem is that Brave gets more shady over time(shady BAT "donations" to creators, Brave VPN, ads on the homepage, and the let's not forget the crypto).

I get that they need to pay employees.

Re: Every web search result in Brave Search is now served by our own index

#334

Post by newswasboring »

cristiioan wrote: post #333

I'm not sure if I will add it to my searx instance. The problem is that Brave gets more shady over time(shady BAT "donations" to creators, Brave VPN, ads on the homepage, and the let's not forget the crypto). I get that they need to pay employees.

How is any of this shady? I understand calling it unnecessary and they should probably remove the crypto parts asap. But shady?

Re: Every web search result in Brave Search is now served by our own index

#335

Post by somenameforme »

AlotOfReading wrote: post #330
somenameforme wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The crypto stuff is opt-in only, including on mobile. If you accidentally enabled it, you can disable it by clicking on the settings icon and going to 'Brave Rewards' and turning off 'Brave Private Ads.'

This comment was completely incongruous with my previous Brave experiences, so I went ahead and did a fresh install on a clean system. * The wallet is enabled by default. * The new tab page shows crypto ads by default. I couldn't figure out how to opt-out of these despite a couple of minutes in the "customize dashboard" menu. I know the option exists, but it's well-hidden. * The BAT rewards icon is enabled by default…

So your complaints seem to come down to 2 icons, and a what's shown on the new tab page. To disable icons, right click on them and select hide. To change what new tab pages show search for "new tab page shows" in the settings and change it to your homepage, or a blank page - as preferred.

Most people referring to the "crypto stuff" are talking about that program where you get an ad every once in a while and get some crypto for viewing it. I'm certainly not a fan of it, and would not use (let alone recommend) Brave, if it was imposed.

Re: Every web search result in Brave Search is now served by our own index

#336

Post by conical »

ww520 wrote: post #303
rjh29 wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your hotel double books you, they're out of rooms and can't help. If Booking.com double books you, they can pull strings to give you a different room in any hotel on their site (and they do). I don't doubt you had that experience personally, but it doesn't match my experience at all, and I spend 1/3 of my life in hotels.

If a hotel double booked you and you showed up, the hotel would walk you to a nearby similar hotel all paid for by the hotel. The “walk” process is a standard industry practice.

This whole reply thread looks astroturfed.

Re: Every web search result in Brave Search is now served by our own index

#337

Post by TylerE »

JimDabell wrote: post #297
SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My point is that they aren’t on the side of the booker. They are on the side that makes them the most money. Incentives are not aligned to provide the best possible experience for consumers. I would have expected them to at least say “this is not ok, we are looking into this relationship with this hotel. We own responsibility for this hotel that we ostensibly vetted to be adequately integrated with our systems to not…

Yes, but you are blaming them for being unable to resolve what appears to be an unresolvable problem that a hotel you booked directly wouldn’t be able to help with either. Incentives don’t matter there if nobody is in a position to do anything. I think Booking.com is by far more reliant upon repeat customers than hotels. If a hotel screws up a booking, sure the customer isn’t going to come back but they probably were…

A reasonable approach would seem to be to confirm the booking with the property within, say, 24 or 48 hours so if it’s overbooked you’ve at least got a chance of getting something else.

Re: Every web search result in Brave Search is now served by our own index

#338

Post by scarface74 »

rjh29 wrote: post #256
TylerE wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you’re booked 3rd party you’re much more likely to be the one bumped I. The first place. You’re also likely to get the least desireable rooms on the least desireable floors.

People say that but it doesn't ring true in my experience. Let's face it, you're just paying more for the same service if you book directly.

I mostly deal with Hilton brand hotels for both work and our newish “hybrid digital nomad” lifestyle where we hop across cities in the US for 7 months a year.

We stayed in Hilton brand hotels for around 160 days over the last year.

You don’t get loyalty points and days don’t count toward status when booking through a third party. With Hilton, those loyalties points can account for 20%-35% toward future stays. Meaning if I spend $100, I will get points worth $20-$35 toward future stays. Based on rooms I’ve already booked this year with just points, we are staying free for 25 days in 5 cities this year. Of course point accumulation is a lot slower for most people. But there are a lot of people who stay in hotels using other folks money when traveling for business.

Most hotels chains also have a “lowest price guarantee” where they will match a price found on a third party site.

This isn’t even mentioning all of the hassle you can avoid dealing with hotels directly if things go wrong or if you just don’t like the service.

Last year, I booked a 7 day half work half personal stay in San Francisco at the Hilton Financial district. It was a run down dump. I went to the front desk, told them I would be cancelling the rest of my stay and booked another hotel - the Hilton Parc 55 - for the rest of the week.

The first hotel charged me for one night. That would have been much more of a hassle going through a third party site. First you would have to hope that Hilton gave the money back to booking.com and then go through the hassle of getting your money back from them.

On that same note, I booked a regular room at Parc 55, messaged the hotel on the app before I got there and asked did they have any free Diamond upgrades available. They upgraded me to the fitness room - with a gym inside the room - for free. You don’t get those benefits when booking through a third party.

Re: Every web search result in Brave Search is now served by our own index

#339

Post by scarface74 »

labster wrote: post #310
ww520 wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Numerous times I’ve booked direct with the hotels and it’s cheaper than or same as 3rd party.

Booking.com requires the cheapest price, unless you are talking about the price from the hotel’s rewards program, which they will push very hard. It’s a contract loophole that works out for everyone except the non-savvy (or privacy-conscious) consumer.

For reference: to be part of a hotels “rewards program” just requires you to create a free account.

What privacy concerns are you alleviating by not signing up for the hotels loyalty program? They are going to ask for ID when you get there and many require a credit card hold.

Re: Every web search result in Brave Search is now served by our own index

#340

Post by marginalia_nu »

kragen wrote: post #217
marginalia_nu wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> search.marginalia.nu consisted of 1 Swedish engineer and 1 server last I heard and still managed to outclass DDG in a number of query types relevant to me. Still just 1 dinky lil' consumer hardware server in my living room. I think what is limiting the project the most is the hardware. Like I can definitely squeeze more out of it, but I could probably do 100 times more if I had any sort of operational budget. But a…

Does this mean you have more engineers working on it now? That was my reading of the grandparent comment's implications. BTW, thank you very much for offering this service, even though I don't use it often.

No I'm still solo developing.

Would having a few more people working on it make stuff move faster? Undeniably. But I don't think lack of manpower is an obstacle at the moment in the same lack of hardware. It's reasonable to expect there's an upper limit to how big a project you can manage as a single developer, but I don't think I'm there yet.

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