Brian DubeDec 13, 2022
C J Silverio

2022 is the year I stopped putting `!g` in front of DuckDuckGo searches to compare Google results, because Google results are now routinely worse.

Friends at the Googleplex: blink once if y'all know this and are trying to fix it; blink twice if you're stuck there because of the health insurance.

Dec 13, 2022 at 8:13pmWeb
Show threadjellalDec 13, 2022
@ceejbot I wish it were like that for me. I still often cannot find what I need on DuckDuckGo, while Google gives an answer immediately. 😅 Though I have to admit DuckDuckGo has gotten a lot better than when I first used it.
Show threadDiane PattersonDec 13, 2022
@ceejbot Yeah, now I only use G for really finely grained, obscured searches that DDG still isn’t good with.
Show threadmorganDec 13, 2022
@ceejbot are you still finding DDG largely useful? For I think about a year now it's given ~10 mediocre results followed by bizarrely unrelated, geo-localized searches. Almost without fail. kinda frustrating really.
Show threadC J SilverioDec 13, 2022
@morgan As I noted, I've kinda stopped bouncing over to Google for comparison, and this surprised me. I wonder if it's topic-specific?
Show threadJeroen Franssen 🇧🇪Dec 13, 2022
@ceejbot You should give https://search.brave.com a go, interested in your findings. My search engine for quite some time now and actually very seldomly have to use another. They do their own indexing
Brave Search

Search the Web. Privately. Truly useful results, AI-powered answers, & more. All from an independent index. No profiling, no bias, no Big Tech.

Brave Search
Show threadDavid WillmoreDec 13, 2022
@ceejbot My experience is completely the opposite. Specifically, DDG searches have gotten vastly worse in the last couple of months to the point that I may stop using it.
Show threadMobile Suit GolemDec 13, 2022
@ceejbot every search I've done in the past 6 months on Google, using the same searching methods I've used my whole life, provides a bunch of hyper seo optimized content scraping sites, and nonsense blog posts. Never the information I actually wanted, from sources anywhere near reliable.
Show threadSteve BrecherDec 13, 2022
@ceejbot I'm still using !g for technical/coding questions -- after DDG's results seem not on point -- sometimes with success.
Show threadreverecheDec 14, 2022
@ceejbot DDG still doesn't do verbatim 😕
Show threadDazbertDec 19, 2022
@ceejbot I'm no expert, but both seem to have gone downhill for me. DDG is less bad, so it's rare I resort to Google, but it's got to the point where after a cursory search for answers, I now often think: "If the internet is this hard to use, I'll just take a guess instead."