Not because DDG got better, but just because google got worse.

google is still better for site-specific searches, and google scholar still has minimal AI slop

  • EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    26 minutes ago

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

    …Oh, sorry.

    Hell no. If anything, it’s gotten worse.

    In their defense, however, it’s probably largely not their fault. In my admittedly one-person-sample-size experience, 90% of the searchable Web is either Reddit threads or articles, and with Reddit going officially with Google (meaning DDG doesn’t catch as many Reddit threads as they used to), that leaves most of the searchable Web being articles. Because SEO has to ruin everything.

    So, it’s not really that DDG is shitty (mostly), but that all searches are shitty. Though, with the whole Google-and-Reddit thing, I find Google’s results are noticeably less shitty (though still shitty).

  • toastal@lemmy.ml
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    4 hours ago

    No. DDG still puts less priority in small blogs over Reddit posts. All bigger search engines put way too much stock & rank in corpo social media.

  • FRYD@sh.itjust.works
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    7 hours ago

    I’ve been using DDG exclusively for something like 8 years. It works great for regular text search and I use bing for image searches. I really don’t understand the reluctance of people to switch to it. To me, Google has been borderline unusable garbage for a long time.

    • toastal@lemmy.ml
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      3 hours ago

      Cherry on the shit sundae was a couple months ago when Google started to require JavaScript be enabled for search.

      • yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.ml
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        3 hours ago

        Okay, so this wasn’t just me! I installed NoScript for Chrome on my work laptop as a stop gap for no more ublock origin and thought something was fishy w/ Google’s search page.

  • geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml
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    8 hours ago

    DuckDuckGo AKA Bing is complete dog doo. When you are looking for news it only tries to shove in the Microsoft MSN news page. The algorithm manipulation in favor of Western MSM bias is even heavier than Google. When you search certain terms it refuses to show articles containing those exact terms.

    • synicalx@lemm.ee
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      6 hours ago

      +1, it’s hot garbage and I don’t know why anyone would use it. You’re better off trying to randomly guess the URL of the content your looking for because that’s probably more likely to find it.

  • Match!!@pawb.social
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    9 hours ago

    i switched from DDG to ecosia because of Lemmy and i gotta say it’s even better

    • JustAnotherKay@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      Yeah I think I’m headed in this direction. I’ve also been thinking about one of them self-hostable search engines a lot

  • ceenote@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    My thought always was that DDG was good to set as my default, and if I’m not happy with the results then it’s not a big deal to use Google once in awhile.

  • venotic@kbin.melroy.org
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    12 hours ago

    Not really. If you focus purely on just searching, yeah DDG is decent. But, I find its maps inferior and trying to find answers to some questions can get tedious. DDG I guess is just for people who want guilt-free searching.

  • JackLSauce@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    “just as good”? No, I feel it is (and has been for years) vastly superior but I mostly use it to find documentation or Stack Overflow answers so consistent UI and concise summaries are high priority to me. Take that as you will

    I don’t think anybody can dethrone Google Maps yet but that’s another story

    • JustAnotherKay@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      I don’t think anybody can dethrone Google Maps

      I wonder how the whole “AI is more important than copyright” thing could play into this… Someone could totally program an “AI” map assistant right?

  • slomosapien@lemmy.ml
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    9 hours ago

    100%. I have not used google in about roughly 15 years. DDG has been my daily driver since 2010

  • boreal@lemm.ee
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    8 hours ago

    Better usually in my experience. Google is mostly SEO-sludge anyway. Though sometimes when you need something very specific Google is better but that gap has been pretty much closed during 7+ years I’ve used DDG.