Don't give a single vendor too much control. Spread things out. (Even though most "independent" and "private" search sites merely proxy searches through Google or Bing.)
And since Edge repeatedly steals control of the PDF filetype from Adobe, I switch that also.
They do so many of the exact same things that "adware" and other malware did twenty years ago (changing homepage, changing search defaults, adding unwanted toolbars and buttons), yet we don't have the guts to stand up and call it that.
@aral just imagine all those banks, insurances, landlords, schools who send personal links about you to each other via mail such as yourbank.com/clients/yourfirst.yourlastname/invoice without you even knowing. And with Bing releasing this information you could know at least bank name, insurance name of certain people which is a massive insult to privacy. #gdpr#microsoft#Bing#privacy
Very true, but the second part, mostly irrelevant results is a matter of degree. #Google's results were once fantastic, but these days, a big chunk of the first five pages of a search are irrelevant results, often SEO'd into high positions and knocking relevant results lower.
#Bing (and #Yahoo, #DDG, and others who use Bing's results) are also described with increasing accuracy by "mostly irrelevant results".
But yes, YaCy's results are even worse. I want to set up another YaCy instance, just to crawl sites of interest in various topics. I know there's a major software change needed to get the most improvement in search results, but having the right information in the global index is a necessary precursor to producing good results.
@lxo #Searx is a metasearching front end. If I want it to give the kind of results I want, I need to select good back end engines for it to use.
For example, if it uses #Bing, the results it receives from Bing will be bad ... Searx can mix better results from elsewhere to improve what it gives to its users, but why not just remove low quality searches entirely?
@musicman They don't seem to be running Duckbot anymore, just grabbing results straight from #Bing. And Bing's results were almost as bad as Ask's, last time I checked.
So, yeah, I don't know how #DDG (and to some extent #Yahoo) were able to do it before, but their results were far better than Bing's despite mostly coming from Bing. Now, they're pretty similar ... and overall bad.
I still go to #DuckDuckGo first, but more and more, I find myself going to #Startpage or directly to #Google after a failed DDG search.
#Microsoft #Bing censors Tienanmen Square "Tank Man" search results, even outside of PRC (where they are required to censor such results). Naturally, since most of #DuckDuckGo's results come from Bing, #DDG searches are also censored.
This is a good reason for DDG to switch from being Bing results with a little additional from Yandex and Baidu results to either fully independent or at least being more of a metasearch engine.
New (in 2020) ranking factors used by #Bing. They mostly look good, so one would expect their results to become more relevant to the search over time. Unfortunately, Bing’s results are not improving. In fact, both #Yahoo and #DuckDuckGo search engines, which use Bing as a source, are declining rapidly.
Where Yahoo’s results were formerly almost as good as Google’s, and DDG’s were even better than “the G”, both now give almost identical results as Bing.
If it is compared with #Bing’s search and the built-in #Windows search, it probably is improved. Since today’s my day off and Rich from Mich (-igan) keeps calling to ask about setting up a laptop, I opened Windows Explorer, found the folder, searched for the “IT Setups Guide” document ... it didn’t appear. But when I manually scrolled and found it, it was there under the name I searched for.
In Rich’s defense, he’s setting up a domain laptop for another user in a location that does not have a connection to the domain. I’m not even sure the person who writes that document even covered that situation, but it can’t hurt to ensure Rich has access to the unofficial reference that is now being used in official trainings.
No idea about their filters, but I consider #Bing a failure at search. Their results are barely better than #Ask.com these days. Both #Yahoo and #DDG use their backend, but somehow have better results (but both are in steep decline).
I do admit that it may vary based on the topics one searches for, but I've been trying out #Google alternatives for years, but no matter which I use, I eventually have to use Google (even if indirectly, such as via #StartPage or #Searx).
It’s been years since I touched Java, but someone should really be trying to improve #YaCy’s results. I’m still hoping to host a node on their FreeWorld search network again, but I cannot do so right now.
@mangeurdenuage Is #Qwant really that pervasive? #Google got to be so big because its results were better than existing search providers. Yahoo used to be close (even with a Bing backend) and #DuckDuckGo was even closer (with Bing, #Yandex, and others), but lately, using a non-G search results in just going back to G. . The deep secret among search providers is that the "B" in #Bing stands for "broken". Despite 20+ years of Microsoft pouring money into search, its results are usually comparable in their awfulness with #Ask. . #Seeks & #Searx can get decent results when they're set to use Google as their provider, but if an instance gets popular, it will hit its API limit.
This is a well-known #malware technique that dates back to the days of surreptitiously install browser toolbars in order to switch browser search and homepage settings to some scummy site. Forcibly switching users from “search that works” to the failed Bing search is wrong. IMO, #USDOJ should be seeking a C&D order and a fine.
I intend to host YaCy again (perhaps feeding a #Searx instance, so its results would not be wholly dependent on the goodwill of big corporate search engines).
@blort @johnnynull I noticed years ago that #DDG’s results differ from #Yahoo’s, which differ from #Bing’s. Non-bubbling may be part of it, but it doesn’t explain the sharply different results (or at least sort order of the results) between the Bing and Yahoo.
It doesn’t surprise me that #Startpage’s results differ from #Google’s, even beyond the filter bubble.
As for which to use, I use a variety, including Startpage, but the main one is determined mainly by quality of results, and Startpage’s results are generally inferior to #DuckDuckGo and to #Searx & #Seeks (but far superior to #YaCy or the abysmal results that #Ask gives).