DuckDuckGo seems very limited in searching

TheQuantumAlpha

@DoctorG honestly, Brave Search paired with Vivaldi is the best combo, in my opinion. The two of the best worlds together!
DDG is degrading in quality and losing its core values.
I have been using DDG from 2010 to 2022.

quicksand4627

I personally prefer Mojeek and You.com. Mojeek is a independent search engine and it's growing rapidly.

paul1149

Qwant also "gladly" complied with government requests for censorship of the war in Ukraine, at which point I sent them packing. I think Brave search has come a long way; it's databases are mature now. The only bad thing is they apparently have given up independent image searching, defaulting to the user's choice of Bing or Google for that. I have been using Startpage for a couple of years now, after being convinced they still are respecting privacy. But I just switched my default back to Brave; I think it's better now.

Catweazle

Personally, I don't like anything about Brave, less for reasons of its efficiency, but more, what is also important to me, the business ethics it has, more than debatable, as I was able to verify recently in Mastodom from a user who tried the search engine BraveAI for information on the LGBTI movement in the United States, with the answer that it was an organization of sick people, corresponding to the orientation in the sphere to the far right of the Brave company and its CEO.
In the past there was a scandal because Brave diverted searches to associated crypto companies, which reduces confidence in using them, although they promised not to do it again. As I said, business ethics is also important, even in a valid product.
https://decrypt.co/31522/crypto-brave-browser-redirect

TheQuantumAlpha

It's not for everyone, as everyone has different opinions.

To me, i find it more in line with my values, and I often find it soft on that.
Aside from the crypto, which I do not care about this currency, and do not want anything to do with it, I find it's results more truthful and accurate, exempt of modern days propagandas.

I would allow my children more on Brave Search, than DDG, for these reasons. (Swisscows is my choice for this, as it has no adult content, and displays strong ethical and traditional values)

I wouldn't call Brave "far right", as it can be very "left" sometimes.

I simply don't care about all the new "trendy" beliefs, and appreciate not being inundated with it.
Their business practices seems adequate to me, respectful to the user.

Different people, different beliefs, different opinions, different search preferences.

Catweazle

@TheQuantumAlpha Swisscows certainly is the best choice if you have childs, it shows family friendly results, yes or yes, not customizable in the settings.

But here are the post of a user in Mastodon. Independent of the opinion in policy everyone have, the sense of a search engine is to show neutral and reliable results, not influenced by policy o other interests, which in Brave is cuestionable.

https://social.vivaldi.net/@[email protected]/110067876717492525

TheQuantumAlpha

@Catweazle as I said, different person, different opinions.

To me I fully agree, or at least in part, with the captured statement.

I don't find it "unreliable" or not neutral. Results have pretty neutral in my opinion, and reliable. I'm a researcher, a scientist, being thought to discern what I deem good information and what isn't.

It all comes down to what you're politically aligned to.

Mastodon, to me is more extreme than twitter, and I take every information with a grain of salt.

With respect.

Fubero

It's been half a year since I switched from Google to DuckDuckgo and I'm completely satisfied. I tried using Google for a trial run, but I just don't like it anymore

Catweazle

@Fubero, same. The problem of Google and other which logs the searches ("to improve the user experience" as they should say, is apart from the privacy problems, the problem of the filter bubble, which made the searches not reliable and put the user in a information bubble, same as asking someone which alway agree with you, even if you are wrong. When I search something I want a reliable answer and not necesary an answer to my like.

DoctorG

@Fubero Google tracks by IP (WLAN, ISP), thus gives results related to region and city and neighbourhood.; not what users always want and need.

RiveDroite

@DoctorG I'm not going to lie, for anything local Google is by far the best. ie searching for a store or restaurant, etc.

DoctorG

@RiveDroite said in DuckDuckGo seems very limited in searching:

for anything local Google is by far the best. ie searching for a store or restaurant

Yes. That is true. Google is giving better results.
even if i used my german postal code DDG throws dozens of useless links from country-wide(!) deli services which des not deliver at my region. Thats how some companies bought better positioning in DDG in the past months.

Catweazle

@RiveDroite, same results in Startpage, which use the Google engine, but don't track you. The difference is that you must put your search of restaurants with your ubication from where you want the results. Even in Andisearch you can ask for the best stores or restaurants in or near from xxxx, and it will give you good results.

RiveDroite

@Catweazle Yup! I've tried StartPage and it's decent.

Right now I'm trying out Brave search, which is looking okay.

fjc1029

@TheQuantumAlpha Yes, many times the search with SC is similar to DDG I find.

Streptococcus

@Catweazle said in DuckDuckGo seems very limited in searching:

@bodvar, anyway is a good choice to use several search engines, what you don't find in one, you'll find it with others. Qwant is a valid search engine, you can try also Mojeek, Startpage, Ecosia, or also one of the AI searches I named before (soon all search engines will include AI)
https://andisearch.com
https://www.perplexity.ai
https://you.com

I tried all three of those search engines and none of them worked, except with Safari. With andisearch and you.com I get a blank page, except with you.com, SeaMonkey tells me I need to allow cookies. Why? I do not need to allow cookies with other search engines.
With perplexity.ai, I briefly get a page which clears and gives me only an error message about a client-side exception. The error console lists multiple errors.

Hadden89

@Streptococcus said in DuckDuckGo seems very limited in searching:

andisearch and you.com I get a blank page

Same on Vivaldi actually. I tried to block cookies for the sites and got a blank page.

Catweazle

@Streptococcus, (???) I use them at daily base in Vivaldi, also in mobile, even as PWA without any problems, same with all other people I know which use them, all working flawless with all ad and trackerblocker I use active and Vivaldi last stable.
Can it be for the Ban of AI tools in your country? If it because of this it is the only explication, although in these three this ban is somewhat absurd.

alt text

https://andisearch.com/?query=%s
https://www.perplexity.ai/?q=%s
https://you.com/search?q=%S

Streptococcus

@Catweazle
It cannot be a block of AI tools in my country because these work with Safari. Maybe it is because I did not allow cookies. With Safari, I have to allow cookies because Safari is not very configurable in that respect. I do not see why a search engine should need cookies. The ones I use all the time work fine without cookies.

I tried using two of the AI search engines with Safari for something technical and the responses were not very helpful.

Catweazle

@Streptococcus, it`s possible, everything use cookies, but it depends which one they use and for what reason. AFAIK in the mencioned there are nothing what need to be blocked. In my case with the Site Bleacher extensions anyway everything is deleted after closing the page. At least Andisearch has one of the best PP I've ever seen in the search engines