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FuckFuckNo. 🤦‍♀️

I just want a search engine that works. I have zero need for a godawful "AI" hallucinating mansplainer in my results. Just… no.

Time to move off of DDG. What else is out there?

Edit: yes, it seems to be for real:
reddit.com/r/duckduckgo/commen…

#DuckDuckGo #AI

This entry was edited (7 months ago)

reshared this

in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

@Mojeek is often my go-to, but many people dislike it due to how different the search results are.

You may be interested in aggregating results using SearxNG, maybe? searx.space

in reply to Alexia :neocat_flag_trans:

I'll throw in another vote for SearxNG. Been using it as my default for a bit now and am usually happy with the results. StartPage used to be my default now I only use it as a backup option.
This entry was edited (7 months ago)
in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

I use @Mojeek but sadly some results for me are bit underwhelming, then I switch to qwant which I find ok but they did have some sketchy things going on.
in reply to katzenberger

@katzenberger @MarkAssPandi All search engines make money from advertising. You just expect them to be 100% free to use and ad-free and cover their expenses how?

I don't think its unreasonable for Qwant to ask to show you ads, especially if they are implemented in a privacy-preserving non-tracking way. The alternative would be to pay a subscription for Qwant.

Elsewhere, Mojeek is nice, but they also introduced AI recently.

blog.mojeek.com/2024/04/mojeek…

in reply to Matt × 🇳🇴 🇺🇦

It would be nice to have paid service like Kagi but without AI and their take on brave ngl
in reply to MarkAssPandi

Someone should update the comparison table on Wikipedia to help people find a good search engine.

🔴 Google = AI / Ads / Tracking
🔴 Bing = AI / Ads / Tracking
🔴 Brave = Cryptocurrency / AI / Anti-LGBT*
🟠 DuckDuckGo = Ads / AI
🟠 Kagi = AI
🟠 Mojeek = Ads / AI
🟠 You.com = Ads / AI
🟡 Qwant = Ads
🟡 Startpage = Ads
🟡 Searx = Complicated
🟢 ???

* Brave CEO has previously financially supported anti-gay marriage law campaigns

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_…

This entry was edited (7 months ago)

reshared this

in reply to Matt × 🇳🇴 🇺🇦

@matt @MarkAssPandi @katzenberger @svenja One thing I'm missing is a search engine that offers subscription.

I don't like subscriptions that much but for a search engine I think it's the most viable model if we want to avoid Ads and tracking. Someone has to pay to keep the lights on.

in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

I can't seem to find anything about a paid subscription on Mojeek's site. Can you point me to where you found info about that?
in reply to Dragonjion

@njion hummm I could swear I saw that somewhere, but this has been a hectic thread. Cannot find the source now. Will try to delve a bit more. Weird.
in reply to Matt × 🇳🇴 🇺🇦

Where has Mojeek said they're doing AI? I can't find anything about it in their newsletter archives.
Edit: I made this post before I learned Mojeek had added AI summarization. I am disappointed in them.
@MarkAssPandi @rysiek @katzenberger
This entry was edited (7 months ago)
in reply to phi1997

@phi1997 @MarkAssPandi @katzenberger Linked up in the thread ☝️ but also here for your convenience 👇

blog.mojeek.com/2024/04/mojeek…

in reply to Matt × 🇳🇴 🇺🇦

@matt @katzenberger @MarkAssPandi

For what it's worth, if we have to do the "lesser evils" thing, I don't see how dropping Mojeek (which has its own index) due to LLM in favor of what will almost inevitably be something using Google or Bing's index is a net positive.

Really the next step is to consider smaller independent indexes (Stract, Right Dao, Alexandria, Yep, etc.) but it seems most folks consider those not usable yet. (personally I disagree, but that's its own can of worms).

This entry was edited (7 months ago)
in reply to Jeremy Yap

@jeruyyap Yuppp. I’ve personally been quite happy with Mojeek and considering I’m making AI shit at work it would be very hypocritical of me to stop using them for that.

I’m just trying to state facts, and not lump my personal opinion in here. 🙂

in reply to Matt × 🇳🇴 🇺🇦

@matt @jeruyyap yeah, I am now considering @Mojeek but I am very wary of moving to another search engine that is buying into the AI hype train. Sigh.
in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

@matt @Mojeek

If you're interested in other options then @Seirdy did an excellent piece on the topic that pretty much covers what's out there for now:
seirdy.one/posts/2021/03/10/se…

in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

Is that confirmed ? I can't see it anywhere on the website, is that only on smartphones or something ? I'd hate to have to find a replacement now, but if they start encouraging that shit, I'm leaving right away.
in reply to Es(tiss)val 🌻

Perhaps give startpage a try? (Or is there something dodgy about them I don't know about?)
in reply to Emmanuel Revah

Ok, why not, I don't know anything about that one. Would you happen to know how they provide suggestions ? I just gave seerX a try and the settings menu seems to imply search suggestions come from google by default ?!
in reply to Es(tiss)val 🌻

I'm not sure how suggestions work.
Startpage is basically a anonymisation proxy to Google search. It gives good results, but it doesn't solve the centrality of Googles point of view of the web.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Startpag…

in reply to Emmanuel Revah

I see… I also note it's got a lot of sponsored results in the top results. Thanks for mentioning that alternative though. I do use invidious when I need to watch a youtube video so it's not that different (even though it's far from being satisfactory). @rysiek
in reply to gnu/m43

You're right 😳 How could I've missed that ? It's there, I just never bother to read all the noise around what I'm interested in. Obviously I should pay more attention. Thank you.
in reply to gnu/m43

Is that the app or the browser version? I use the second and have a totally different look.
Also, is it limited to some geographic areas?
in reply to Eh?!?

I had understood it was the browser for @Mae but regardless of that I use the browser I and I get it too. I'm from France if that matters.
in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

It's just a desktop browser option to use a bot. Don't use it if you don't want to? It doesn't say it's related to search results, in the reddit link.
in reply to pa27

@pa27 well it seems that there is some LLM shenanigans going on in the search results as well:
mstdn.social/@xarvos@outerheav…
@pa27
in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

Hmm.. Well that's crappy then. Having said that, I just tried a quick search and can't reproduce that result. Maybe different search terms. All the search engines are getting crappy one way or another. Back to books maybe!!!
Unknown parent

@ErictheCerise I actually want to pay for search, as that's the only way the incentives align correctly for the search provider in this late stage capitalist dystopia, but Kagi had their… Brave moment and also implement AI crap:
neilzone.co.uk/2024/01/from-ka…
help.kagi.com/kagi/ai/assistan…
in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

How do you know it will be a "hallucinating mansplainer in my results" ?

Why do you think it will?

Jumping to conclusions and then getting angry at those conclusions is not a very good way to get through life....

in reply to Bèr Kessels 🐝 🚐 🏄 🌱

@berkes I'm doing fine with going through life, thanks. And anything that touches ChatGPT or any other LLM in the context of a search product to me is super sus.

There's ample evidence of LLM chatbots providing completely made up results. I am not going to wait until DDG decides it's "good enough" and integrates it more into their stuff.

in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

Search Engine that works, private and anonym? No Problem, enjoy:
swisscows.com/de
in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

startpage.com/
in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

Why not continue to use DDG but simply don't use the optional experimental functionality there?

This would give them valuable feedback for what percentage of their user base is interested in this technology.

From what I can see it's optional and an experiment, nothing they force on everyone?

in reply to Daniel

@djh the fact that they even consider investing time and effort into this is a huge red flag for me. I am not going to wait until that red flag materializes as something even worse.
in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

I use Kagi, it's paid (so no ads or user tracking needed). It has optional AI, but it's based on sources (and it will mention those, like Wikipedia does).
in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

@MetaGer For me Metager has been pretty solid

metager.org

in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

it really sucks! Even #Ecosia has an AI chat now. 🤮​

@ Those responsible for these engines, at least let us choose and give us the possibility to deactivate this crap, please. 🙏​

in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

I feel the question of "what else is there" depends on what you're actually looking for.

If you're just looking to use a large index while minimizing the data you're sending back, then DuckDuckGo still works for that. DuckDuckGo and Qwant use Bing's index, while Startpage uses Google's index, and any of those would work for that purpose.

If you're looking for a independent index for general use, Mojeek probably has the largest index that is not Google, Bing, or Yandex.

in reply to Jeremy Yap

Now if you're trying to avoid search engines that are into LLMs, then your options are going to depend on whether the index provider matters.

If only the service you are directly using matters, then you have plenty of options as there's seemingly endless search engines using Google or Bing (especially Bing).

If where the index comes from matters then you're pretty much out of large mainstream indexes and into small independent ones and a major change in search habits.

This entry was edited (7 months ago)
in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

goddammit, just when their results started being decent enough for me to not use !g or !s as a crutch! JUST LET ME FIND THINGS FFS
in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

i don't think its too bad that you should be jumping ship just yet.
The reddit post by DDG says it is just an addon for its browser and aiming for a freemium model.
It does not affects its search results and it allow speople to experiement with LLM whilst still respcting privacy.
I will continue to use DDG so long as their search results are not infected by AI noise.
in reply to Simon Hobeck

@Shobeck it's a huge red flag to me and I am not waiting to see where it leads if I can avoid it.
Unknown parent

@MotionToExtendDebate it's a huge red flag that they even consider implementing stuff like that.
Unknown parent

@GossiTheDog yeah, I'm aware. I would much prefer a search engine with decent results that is supported by paying customers.
in reply to silverwizard

@silverwizard

I've been using either @Mojeek or #StartPage on my browsers. Over the last two years of using #Mojeek it has become noticeably better, but not so much for StartPage...

in reply to silverwizard

@silverwizard @bobjonkman if you are able to send that into us with the submit feedback button then we can take a look.
Unknown parent

@archliberal Kagi has AI crap as well, plus there's the Brave thing.
kagifeedback.org/d/2808-recons…
help.kagi.com/kagi/ai/assistan…

@GossiTheDog

in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

I’ve been getting a bit wary of DDG ever since I heard ads for it on the radio, about a year ago. This just confirms that concern…
in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

That would indeed be enough not to trust them anymore but it's there on the website from Icecat/Firefox too (see previous posts).

#FuckFuckNo

in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

I'd be down and like it a lot if they used an open-source uncensored AI for t5his, not the MS's garbage. Well, we'll wait and see how they're gonna deal with the backlash from the community
in reply to 1stAmendmentAbuser

@1stAmendmentAbuser can you point me to an "open-source, uncensored AI" that is a model of the size needed for this kind of tasks, please?

Llama does not count, it's been trained at Facebook and nobody really knows what went into the training data.

in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

Mmm, no. You seem to not know what you're talking about so I'm not gonna bother with a person who just becomes aggressive out of nowhere. Pls don't reply.
in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

Recently I started using Ecosia, and it's not bad :)
It uses results from Bing.
But I believe you can also get results from Google, if you want to give up some more privacy.
And apparently, I planted 3 trees already :)

For Google like search results, I'll use Startpage. And for result not coming from big-tech, I like to use Brave search.

This entry was edited (7 months ago)
in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

+1 for stract, it's quite neat. That, plus searXNG and MetaGer are the ones I'm hopeful for.
Unknown parent

FoolishOwl

@cyrus @firn SearXNG is a proxy that searches and collates results from several search engines. It's useful, but it's not a search engine per se, and dependent upon them.

There are some open feature requests to add ChatGPT to SearXNG, e.g.,

github.com/searxng/searxng/iss…

Unknown parent

Alexia :neocat_flag_trans:

@firn SearxNG

Searx is no longer properly maintained

in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

as a reminder, tell a small hint which is worse.

some could interpret this toot in a way that i go back to google, it's equally bad.

i still think duckduckgo is less worse. actually a lot.

in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

Kagi has been good. They do have some AI addons but nothing that I’ve ever interacted with or been annoyed by.
in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

their search results were starting to look more and more like google. Last couple of months the results were lousy and commercial. This explains it.
in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

always vpn to your own host running all your happy tools. One being SearXNG. github.com/searxng/searxng

Goes in a docker easily. It’s nice having a multi engine that cleans and sanitizes along the way.

in reply to Alexia :neocat_flag_trans:

@cyrus I figured you'd know, but I'm seeing the root of this thread getting boosted a lot, and people are clearly looking for options, so I thought it was worth making it clear.

I also think that since it's a feature request, it would help if people pushed back on it. This particular feature request would just add it as one more optional engine among a large number, which can be disabled in the config or by the user, so I'm not terribly worried about it.

in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

it's entirely within their raison d'etre to offer privacy preserving access to services they don't have themselves. Think of this as a VPN for AI access. I've used other search engines that did this for images and maps, at least as an alternative. If they do it then it avoids you being tempted to access them without privacy protections.
in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

I do like searx, but it really is a frontend to a lot of search engines that you can set on your preferences (currently using the searx.be instance)
in reply to Ornaled

@ornaled @GossiTheDog I’d pay good money for a “simple” indexing and quality rating search engine without any other for-profit or content/people farming incentives.
Unknown parent

@jcrabapple how does it make sense to defend "AI" in Search Engine B in a thread that started with me complaining about Search Engine A adding "AI"? Honestly, I am confused here. Help me out.

@archliberal @GossiTheDog

in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

@archliberal @GossiTheDog Their "AI crap" is just a summary assistant that doesn't automatically activate unless you end your query with a '?'. And they're only using Brave's API to pull some search results from them to supplement results from Google, Bing, and their own index.
Unknown parent

@StillIRise1963 yeah, the whole search engines space is bad.

At this point there doesn't seem to be a decent search engine with no AI integration what-so-ever. Sigh.

Unknown parent

@MotionToExtendDebate I don't want to "use AI anonymously". I want to not use tools that have this crap integrated in the first place, as a way of very intentionally not supporting the hype.
Unknown parent

@nus "don't worry about Tool A implementing the Torment Nexus, you can ignore it or turn it off for yourself in the settings." 🤷‍♀️
Unknown parent

in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

@archliberal @GossiTheDog my point is just that if you want a good search engine that doesn't shove AI/LLM down your throat, Kagi is a great option.
Unknown parent

@nus everyone gets to draw the line somewhere. I draw it there. You may draw it elsewhere.
in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

I am reminded of when, against all feedback and better judgement, phone manufacturers universally decided to stop building headphone jacks and physical buttons.
in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

great. let us know if you find a way out of the search engine rollercoaster entirely...

search engines are bad and cannot be trusted. :/