Search engines: Time to take a stand

luetage

@vladimyr Personally I don't want an ugly site icon permanently in my UI – should be optional.

Pesala

@vladimyr The icons should be displayed in the Search with menu too.

As with the bookmarks, there should be an option to show the icon and/or text, or both.

satshow

I use normal google but I go try Qwant for a while.

LakeInHolland

This is definitely a discussion I intend to follow - I have a feeling it may run for some time! My own problem is that whenever I try a different search engine instead of Google I get fewer, and less useful, hits, though this is usually when I'm looking for examples of a term or expression in use 'in the wild' in order to determine if a translation (of a term or expression) that I've come up with is a term or expression actually used by real people writing in the UK. (Fascinating to know the French for search engine is moteur de recherche; perfectly logical, though, and sometimes one rather envies the French with their almost divine Académie. By and large, though, I still favour natural selection!) Having said all that, I'll now try using other search engines. I do already use Ecosia sometimes.

dominicw2

I alternate between DuckDuckGo, Qwant and Ecosia. I tend to use DuckDuckGo the most because I like their UI and dark mode, and I find the programming Instant Answers really useful. I've found Qwant to be particularly good if I'm looking for something in French or German, which is not very often, but once, when I was researching someone in Germany, Qwant found something crucial that no other search engine had. I like the fact that Ecosia plants trees so I use it sometimes too, but I don't like it as much as a search engine.

josephj11

@luetage That's almost the only reason I ever use Google (and based on this, I'll switch to startpage.) When looking up software issues, I often get solutions that are way too old to be useful and restricting the results to the last year really helps.

josephj11

@greybeard One search engine that gets virtually no press is SymbolHound. It allows search terms containing syntactical tokens like braces. Since a lot of Vivaldi users know how to program, they might find it useful.

josephj11

@lakeinholland Another great French word is the one for "computer". It's ordinateur which conveys the sense of putting things in order which I like a lot better than something that's just a number cruncher.

greybeard

@josephj11 Hmm, might try it out but not even HTTPS.

fred8615

I use Bing exclusively. Though only because of the Microsoft Rewards program.

frommhold

@lakeinholland You'd like https://www.linguee.com then. This gives you translations in all major european languages from "real use" examples, i.e. it shows the searched-for term in multiple text snippets. I tend to use it a lot.

ukanuk

So Vivaldi has affiliate partnerships with Bing, and others. Does this mean using the prefilled "https://www.bing.com/search?FORM=INCOH2&PC=IFJ1&PTAG=ICO-c9d0fc87&q=%s" supports Vivaldi, but when I changed it to "https://www.bing.com/search?q=%s" then it would stop supporting Vivaldi?

Ayespy

@ukanuk Yes. Exactly. The first link tells Bing the visitor was using Vivaldi's sponsored link.

luetage

@ukanuk That's the reason why other browsers don't allow you to edit preexisting engines, especially on mobile.

Gaëlle

@porthicault: thanks for sharing this input. We're contacting them right away.

ukanuk

@ayespy Thanks for the info, I'm reverting to the full URL now!

fuller1754

Nice thoughts. I trend toward Bing, but also visit DDG from time to time. It really doesn't matter who you use as long as it isn't Google. Why do I say that? Because Google has a ridiculous 90%+ share of searches. That means the bulk of everyone's information is all being funneled through a single corporation. Unsettling? Yeah. Like I said, my main concern isn't necessarily using a "private" search engine like DDG or Qwant (if you prefer to, that's cool), but merely that search in general be spread among a more diverse and disconnected pool of providers. This will keep them all more honest.

fuller1754

@fred8615 I use it for the results.

prascal

@mossman: I think your QWANT interface problem can be fixed in a simple way. Choose your favourite settings and toggle the dark mode switch in the preference menu on the Qwant main page. Copy the generated link which can be found underneath the settings and replace the existing one (Qwant address field in VIVALDI>settings>search). Make sure to keep the last part of the address [?client=brz-vivaldi&q=%s] and add it behind the generated Qwant link. Same game with Startpage search possible... Hope that helps...

mossman

@prascal Wow... That's quite a necro-bump for this old thread!

Can't say I ever use Qwant but I'll try remember to look at it again when I'm next at a PC...