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Compare Google, Bing, Marginalia, Kagi, Mwmbl, and ChatGPT

danluu.com

21–30 of 493 posts

Re: Compare Google, Bing, Marginalia, Kagi, Mwmbl, and ChatGPT

#22
post #16

Do search engines censor political topics these days? If you search "truthsocial" on ddg, the truthsocial.com website is the first hit. But if you search "trump truthsocial", it doesn't give you trump's truthsocial page, and doesn't even give you truthsocial.com within the first few pages of search results. Since ddg uses bing, does anyone know what is happening here at bing? It looks like google results are similar.

[deleted]

Re: Compare Google, Bing, Marginalia, Kagi, Mwmbl, and ChatGPT

#24

I reckon these days search is pretty difficult and everyone knows how to game it. I recommend using a search engine that lets you effectively change which sites are shown. You can do this with Kagi, or with Google's Programmable Search Engines - I'm sure there are more too. In particular I block Youtube, not because they aren't sometimes correct, but because I don't want videos polluting the regular results - it just…

I'm a big fan of the non commercial site search engines because of the gaming aspect. If you're not generating revenue from the clicks the game mostly goes away.

I'm not saying people aren't entitled to make some money, but it clearly incentivizes user hostile behavior.

Maybe make it an option because legitimate sites like journalism also use this model.

Re: Compare Google, Bing, Marginalia, Kagi, Mwmbl, and ChatGPT

#25
post #16

Do search engines censor political topics these days? If you search "truthsocial" on ddg, the truthsocial.com website is the first hit. But if you search "trump truthsocial", it doesn't give you trump's truthsocial page, and doesn't even give you truthsocial.com within the first few pages of search results. Since ddg uses bing, does anyone know what is happening here at bing? It looks like google results are similar.

[flagged]

Re: Compare Google, Bing, Marginalia, Kagi, Mwmbl, and ChatGPT

#26
I have recently started using kagi after seeing a recommendation here.

From what I understand, it aggregates results from multiple sources rather than having their own indexer.

The results aren’t really any better, but the lack of ads and videos in the results makes for a cleaner experience.

I also haven’t yet taken advantage of the extra features to block certain websites from results.

Personally, I pay the $5 mostly in an attempt to support another competitor in the space.

Re: Compare Google, Bing, Marginalia, Kagi, Mwmbl, and ChatGPT

#27

I feel like you could reboot yahoo directory and have more utility that most searches.

The return of something like Yahoo Directory would be most welcome. There is great utility in having more than one approach into a data space. That we have been stuck with essentially one way in for over a decade means that there is a great deal out there which would be great to access but which has been rendered invisible.

Re: Compare Google, Bing, Marginalia, Kagi, Mwmbl, and ChatGPT

#28
post #7
post #3

Search was the biggest feature of the web in the early '00s. Now it's such a mess. I can't imagine Search will ever be amazing again, given all the complexity of providing quality while still avoiding all the crap.

Is it actually more complex to provide good results, or is it just more profitable not to? I have a hard time believing an organization like Google doesn't have the resources to provide a search engine that's just as usable as what they had 6 years ago (around the time I feel like the decay really set in). Seems a lot more likely that it's just more profitable to serve up garbage sponsored content.

Definitely more profitable not to. Especially as Google is an ad company, not a search company.

I’d rather see a world with numerous paid/subscription search engines, that are motivated to do nothing but return search results well. I expect you would see some of the SEO crap getting solved.

Re: Compare Google, Bing, Marginalia, Kagi, Mwmbl, and ChatGPT

#30

I feel like you could reboot yahoo directory and have more utility that most searches.

The return of something like Yahoo Directory would be most welcome. There is great utility in having more than one approach into a data space. That we have been stuck with essentially one way in for over a decade means that there is a great deal out there which would be great to access but which has been rendered invisible.

https://ooh.directory/
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