I switched to Brave search; I think their search results are from a search engine they acquired, so they don't use Bing or Google unless you tell them to 'mix in' those results. I've actually found Brave search's results to be more accurate and less spammy than Google's, but they still exhibit similar biases in predictable areas.
DuckDuckGo was down
391–400 of 571 posts
Re: DuckDuckGo was down
#392Earlier quoted context omitted.
They probably start with Bing results and do custom filtering, ranking and presentation, so without the initial Bing results they can't do anything.
So basically DDG is the wrapper for Bing Search, not an "independent" search company as they claim.
And Bing lifts their results from Google (https://www.wired.com/2011/02/bing-copies-google/) so in the end it seems like the internet only has one search engine.
Re: DuckDuckGo was down
#393Earlier quoted context omitted.
They probably start with Bing results and do custom filtering, ranking and presentation, so without the initial Bing results they can't do anything.
So basically DDG is the wrapper for Bing Search, not an "independent" search company as they claim.
Wait till you find out who makes some store-brand food.
Re: DuckDuckGo was down
#394> Hopefully DDG will be back soon, as I'm loathe to go back to Google for search. Maybe Kagi is an option for you? I'm very happy with them and exclusively use them for more than a year now after never getting comfortable with DDG.
Kagi has the same problem for me. The results don't load about 50% of the time. I had to cancel my subscription because I couldn't just roll the dice every time I searched to see if it would come back. Happens to all devices on my network.
I've never seen that, maybe some extension, content filter gone rogue?
Re: DuckDuckGo was down
#395I love the acknowledgement that DDG put on their page. We're currently experiencing an issue with DuckDuckGo Search. Thanks for your patience while we get our ducks in a row. In the meantime, you can use other search engines right here by using "bangs" So fun and straightforward.
Interesting how they insist that they use "so much more" than just Bing for their results, but the moment Bing goes down their search functionality is down entirely, unable to show a single result.
Yeah, exactly. They're mostly a front end for Bing. I know they have their fans, and this remark will probably anger them, but I have never understood the point of DDG.
Re: DuckDuckGo was down
#396I hope duckduckgo tries to shift away from Bing. They were lying about the fact that "we rely on different crawlers apart from Bing"
Re: DuckDuckGo was down
#397Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a strange characterization of it. They weren't tracking for MS, their branded mobile browser (distinct from their site) was found to have an exclusion in its built-in content blocker for Microsoft-run tracking scripts in ads. Or put another way, if their browser had no content blocker (like the stock browsers of any mobile OS), their browser would be behaving like all the others. The scrutiny came from the con…
I don't think the parent's comment was that strange of a way of characterizing it. Yes, they block other tracking scripts, but since they have an explicit exception for tracking from Microsoft, it's not a complete stretch to say they were "tracking for MS"; I know technically it's Microsoft doing the tracking, but DDG gives them explicit permission to do so. I think that it's a distinction without much of a differenc…
>why the fuck would I believe their claims that their search engine (which is more or less a proxy for Bing) would be immune from it?
The context of the news was a security researcher conducting an audit of the app. If DDG were, as the GP claimed, performing tracking on behalf of MS then it would be more concerning since there is a difference between performing tracking on behalf of a third-party company and merely excluding them from being blocked via a content blocker that most mobile browsers lack anyway.
A mobile app has much more freedom to do what it likes so if this was the worst that occurred in an audit I'm not of the opinion this mark against them is enough to change my use of them. Many things carry some compromise so one has to weigh if an alternative is better. Use of Firefox by default has Mozilla tracking (hence why some mobile forks exists, including one I use), analytics for sponsored links, non-disableable domain name auto-completion by partners, while use of Kagi search is directly tied to an IRL identity via payment.
For me, I'm comfortable using uBlock Origin on both Desktop and Mobile (via a Firefox fork) unless more egregious facts present themselves.
Re: DuckDuckGo was down
#398So much about DuckDuckGo's claim that Bing is only a part of their search results.
Where did you read such a claim? There is a difference between "only a part" and "largely sourced from". _Of course, we have more traditional links and images in our search results too, which we largely source from Bing. Our focus is synthesizing all these sources to create a superior search experience._ https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/sources...
Unless you have been living under a rock, they have said it plenty of times
Re: DuckDuckGo was down
#399Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a strange characterization of it. They weren't tracking for MS, their branded mobile browser (distinct from their site) was found to have an exclusion in its built-in content blocker for Microsoft-run tracking scripts in ads. Or put another way, if their browser had no content blocker (like the stock browsers of any mobile OS), their browser would be behaving like all the others. The scrutiny came from the con…
I don't think the parent's comment was that strange of a way of characterizing it. Yes, they block other tracking scripts, but since they have an explicit exception for tracking from Microsoft, it's not a complete stretch to say they were "tracking for MS"; I know technically it's Microsoft doing the tracking, but DDG gives them explicit permission to do so. I think that it's a distinction without much of a differenc…
Kagi has its own issues. At least with DDG you could search without logging in and your searches weren't directly tied to your name/address/credit card. Ads are best handled with ad blockers anyway.
This rando's comments (https://old.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/1bmubkd/thoughts_a...) on the filter bubble problem seems like a reasonable concern too. It's best for a search engine to know nothing about you and just provide the best results for what you asked, not what it thinks you want to hear.
Re: DuckDuckGo was down
#400Earlier quoted context omitted.
Brave explicitly claims not to.[1] Brave also does not rely on Bing for results. [1] https://search.brave.com/help/privacy-policy Edit: mojeek claims the same.[2] [2] https://www.mojeek.com/about/privacy/
Last time i checked, Brave was insisting on convinving me to use certain cryptocurrency platforms and it was more intrusive with it than typical web ads, which seemed really twisted, as the same Brave claimed to give ad-free experience. Are they still doing that?
They don't. The cryptocurrency options are all disabled by default and are opt-in.