this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2023
1091 points (98.1% liked)

Technology

58143 readers
4394 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] brewery@feddit.uk 53 points 11 months ago (2 children)

What difficulties are you finding with it and are you switching from Google? The results are as custom as Google given they haven't scraped your life history so wondering if that's it? I've been using DDG without any issues. About once every 6 months I struggle to find something so try the Google bang but have never found better results. In fact, I was shocked last time how crap the Google results were, just full of AI generated crap and SEO based crap.

To be honest, DDG is also struggling with that now as it's based on Bing. I have been trying a public searxg but not found it very good so far.

[–] 1984@lemmy.today 8 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Try Kagi. You may love it like I did.

[–] Shinhoshi@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Genuinely curious, what makes it so great?

[–] george@lemmy.org.il 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

For me, it finds smaller websites that usually contain the information I need, but aren't SEOd that well so they don't appear on ad-driven search engines. Also the programming lens is great

[–] AProfessional@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

I like being able to prioritize sites I like and deprioritize/block ones I don’t.

[–] mojo@lemm.ee -1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Hell no. Paying for something that's the same as ddg. That's a terrible idea, and the results aren't any better, despite how much their marketing claims it to be and that smaller blogs show up more.

[–] bort@feddit.de 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I guess you get what you pay for then lol

[–] mojo@lemm.ee 0 points 11 months ago

In this case you actually get more for free. Not to mention the paid service is a privacy nightmare since all of the searched are done through a logged in user. Which also means it's incompatible with private browsing. But their marketing says "trust me bro", while they're selling you an overrated product. DDG even simply through a VPN is a million times more private then any logged in service. You need to assume if something is trackable, it will be tracked. Don't follow marketing blindly.

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Results suck, it can't find anything. I really don't think it's related to lack of browsing history.

[–] progettarsi@feddit.it 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

what do you search? i always find everything at first time

[–] clegko@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Not the same person, but DDG results just seem a little bit shittier than Google's results. It's nothing I can specifically put my finger on, outside of "I'm having more issues finding an answer for my query".

I also hate the basic layout of the page, but that's not a DDG problem as such, just a personal opinion.

[–] Polar@lemmy.ca 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I use DDG exclusively now, but I will say, despite the downvotes from these annoying ass FOSS users, DDG is worse.

If I am having some very specific issue with my computer, I will be page 5 on DDG without an answer, but Google will have one page 1.

Also Google Images is light years ahead DDG.

It took a long time to adjust to DDG, but now I am fine with it.

[–] clegko@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

If I am having some very specific issue with my computer, I will be page 5 on DDG without an answer, but Google will have one page 1.

This has always been my number one issue, too. I'm in IT and still struggle to use DDG (and Bing, tbf) for technical issues. The results are either only vaguely related to what I'm searching for, outdated as shit, or completely irrelevant. Automotive stuff is the same. I can be ass deep in DDG results and just be getting shit on top of shit. It's frustrating, because I want to love DDG but it makes it so hard for my general use-case.

[–] 3v1n0@feddit.it 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Just use ddg syntax operators and stuff will improve

[–] clegko@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

While that is true, you shouldn't need to do that. The site should just work properly without diving into the advanced stuff. It's also WAY more annoying to use on mobile.