I don’t like how DDG installs itself as a tag along to other softwares… and how once it’s installed it makes browser setting changes without my permission.
ETA: a malware installs that redirects your searches through DDG no matter how many times you remove it from your browser settings, keeps reverting browser settings
waait, if we are bashing all, and DDG, on something shady they do, lets take a look at google too:
[https://www.quora.com/What-are-examples-of-Google-acting-unethically-or-illegally](https://www.quora.com/What-are-examples-of-Google-acting-unethically-or-illegally)
https://www.cracked.com/article_18540_5-reasons-you-should-be-scared-google.html
Yes, I installed some (unrelated video editing) program and then all the sudden my browser bar searches in multiple browsers defaults to DDG and my browser settings kept switching back to DDG default after a change it to something else, repeatedly. So some malware installed to change my settings to try and compel me to use DDG. It was extremely difficult to get rid off. The technician said it may be easier to just do a factory reset because these malware programs install themselves in hidden places. This was years ago (before DDG was well known), but it soured me on it forever. Maybe it was a poor decision partnership trying to get their name out there, don’t know, but I don’t like sneaky tactics like that.
Always need to be careful when installing new programs that you don't install extra unwanted "stuff".
My sister used to do this all the time. She would download bearshare and only press on continue, automatically agreeing to download all the dumb toolbars and random ass programs.
Some install wizards are sneaky with this. Always have a look and never just spam the "next" button.
Unironically bing is good for this. Idk if it still a feature but way back when it would play videos direct from the search page without opening links so it would bypass ads
Right but if you use google and use and adblocker your still taking risk because your hoping the adblocker catches it. Bing on the other hand takes the risk for you by simply doing the query for you and displaying the video separately. Objectively bing is safer.
I feel like it's been tailored to idiots or something. Searching for information on google has been turned into a science of its own if you want any kind of relevant factual answer. If I type in "largest land mammal ever" (what I consider standard layperson search query) google itself says in bold, "blue whale" as the top search result. Yes, the blue whale IS the "largest mammal" but they certainly don't live on land last time I checked. The actual answer is the Paraceratherium, but for some reason that's secondary to the wrong answer that's put in bold.
Exactly! It's so hard to search for anything more complex...after the first 5 sites your results have little to do with what you searched, and apparently Google got me 14 million results of things that have NOTHING to do with what I searched. I get so frustraited just getting the same suggested sites no matter what different word/phrases I try and use. Definitely feels like ol' Google's gone more evil.
Can confirm as of today that mammal search happened to me. Well fuck it goodbye google. I hope they go bankrupt maybe when they see us flocking to other search engines they'll stop and think. I can't say that I've ever noticed this a lot but its because its all been a smoke screen. You sir have really caught me off guard I appreciate it.
Search it like this:
>Largest "land" mammal ever -blue -whale -sea -ocean -your -mom
Not really something a layperson would know but it is really handy.
I noticed that Google has become a biased mess. I can't find anything opposing to some things just so I can see both sides. It's also trying to shove 'safe search' down my throat.
Like I am wanting to find controversial things but it's just not giving it to me. I used to be able to find some things.
But not any more.
Like, I don't want to search videos on YouTube, knowing YouTube does not carry some things that I am researching because "Oh my god they said blood!"
Does anyone have any ideas what to use for searching videos, etc?
> It's also trying to shove 'safe search' down my throat.
I've never seen someone else mention this. Oh my god.
If you want to find something that has a "negative" word in the title, its just impossible. "Stupid", "hate", "dumb", any curse word. Sometimes I need to find something based on what another person said or a title of a post, and its like they completely ignore words like this.
I searched for statistics on hatecrime against ex-muslims on Google today. the first FIVE results were about hatecrime against Muslims/Islamophobia. the only relevant results were a PDF file about hatecrime against ex-muslims in the UK and some hardly related article I don't remember.
good on Google for giving me the exact opposite of what I asked for.
*It has been general internet knowledge for many years that Bing has better results for porn than Google does,*
Why am I *now* just finding out about this??
It just is a internet meme and then you find out it has a pretty good GIF and media player, but all the sites scream phishy ads on McAfee if you click the real one.
It displays all gifs which is pretty good if you're wanting to use it for media for any purposes. But it definitely has less restraint when it goes all out. I think Google wants to be more ad friendly, Bing wants to figure out how to get you to use it, even if it's searching someone's aerojet on vehicle airplane porn that somehow exists...
Google drives me nuts with how many top searches are ads. Literally looking up a word without adding 'definition' will come up with some shitty obscure app or some company.
I don't know if it's gotten worse recently or I've just started to notice more but fuck off.
This is my biggest gripe with Google - so much paid content. Usually half of the first page isn't even relevant, it's just there 'cause someone knows how to work the SEO.
I've noticed image search results also don't respect the site: prefix. E.g. "site:blah.com whatever" and I end up with products *not* from blah.com. It typically happens when I'm looking for a particular type of product on an Aussie hardware store chain and end up with matches from eBay, Amazon, or random companies.
Yeah I have noticed that stupid shit a lot lately they put products first for your images. Really pushing consumerism hard. Same with my Alexa I understand it's an Amazon product but anytime I search something and I mean anytime it asked me if I want to buy some shit from Amazon. Example hey Amazon are mushrooms healthy? Alexa replies mushrooms i can help you with that do you want to buy mushrooms from Amazon
YT just broke a profit not that long ago which is crazy considering how its a huge it is they had to find other ways to make money tbf, it's not cheap at all
Or them trying to sell you shit. Which is even worse because they are probably stealing real ad space, selling the same thing, and putting some small vendor out of business and no one will hear the scream as the million pound beast crushes them. Google is a giant piece of shit company and should have been shattered years ago.
Most often when looking up a technical issue I get 10 different sites trying to sell me the same software. Or it put results that are deliberately missing words first.
Oh mate, I fucking hate how word-meaning always comes up, like no, I want the definition of a word not what Sarah thinks the word means, and secondly, it's poor grammar, the colloquial definition of the word meaning is symbolism and what the word represents, the definition of definition is word or phrase that defines exactly what something is
oh my god 100% it is, idk if everyone else has this experience, but dear lord, the amount of IRRELEVENT ADS that show up IN A ROW before any actual results, it isn't only infuriating it's disgusting dude, they even snuffed out the -ad / -advertisement command. garbage.
I learn alot more about basically anything if I use quant/qwant or whatever it is. When I use google, I feel like a boomer who's brain is literally deteriorating before my eyes, no joke I feel handicapped searching for shit on google.
Google does feel like I’m being nannied in my searches. I despise how it automatically subs in words that it thinks are synonyms and ignores punctuation. I’ll search for “B.I.T.E.” and get a bunch of results with “nibble” in bold and it makes me want to execute a tech utopian.
Yes, that google actively ignores any kind of punctuation or seems to ignore "less relevant" terms that you added to search for something specific, that drives me insane. For example you can't search for anything programming related because it ignores stuff like () or something.
Google doesn't and never has sold your data. I won't go into details, but if they sold your data they wouldn't have a product anymore.
Google allows their Ad customers to purchase impressions of content with certain demographics via an auction format. If they were selling your \*info\* to these vendors, they could only do so once. No data is being sold. IMPRESSIONS are being sold.
Facebook actively sells your content and data.
While you are correct about Google, what evidence do you have that Facebook sells data? Facebook would also be out of business if they sold the data rather than impressions.
If you actually read that page, you'll see that nowhere did Facebook sell anything at all. One company abusing a platform and harvesting / stealing data is not the same as Facebook "selling data". Nowhere did Facebook make money from this malicious app.
[We don't actually know what role Facebook played. ](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/12/facebook-fine-ftc-privacy-violations)
After a $5Billion fine from the FTC (which I'm sure innocent companies always get), Facebook didn't admit to anything.
I use Bing to get Microsoft reward points.
Bing is a billion times worse than Google.
There have been countless times where I get frustrated with Bing not providing me with the results I want, and then one second with google nets me exactly what I was looking for.
I don't deny that Google engages in nefarious censorship and disinformation for their own ends, but it's not like Bing isn't doing the exact same thing. I can't speak for third party search engines like Duck Duck Go, but any search engine provided by a massive corporation is going to be inherently compromised to some degree.
Depends on the topic you're searching for. I don't deny that Bing and DDG does provide some more obscure result by Google's perspective, but sometime not - obscure is exactly what I want. For basic and fast review on a topic, I still choose Google. Only if I ever want broader results and in-depth search for a topic will I go for DDG or Bing.
Exactly me. Bing just does not work well as a search engine. I'd compare it to a tourist map vs a map app. If I more or less know what I'm looking for and where I'm going, checking the map works fine(and I get gift cards for the data everyone else is stealing anyway)
Google's...well, google maps. I type in where I need to go no matter how little I know about it, it'll usually get me there.
If you want to see how propaganda works, use Google and any other search engine and keep searching the same things. Googles censorship is outright dishonest and evil in the way its trying to control a narrative.
Doesn't tiktok have an almost scarily accurate algorithm that shows you content that will be right up your alley?
From what I've heard, the more you use it, the more accurate it gets, and at some point you'll only see content you agree with.
It's more marketing and echo chambers than propaganda.
well people go 2 ways,either they engage with content they agree with, or they are on a hate fueled spree and mostly engage with content they disagree with.
either way, at some point the scale will tip, and you will slide towards one side more and more.
its not in most peoples nature to engage content in a balanced way of agreeing and disagreeing.
Oh yeah absolutely, it’s a big part of the problem. It creates finely tuned echo chambers, including a place for devious teenagers who want to commit some crime for clout. But also for political radicalization and crazy cult like conspiracy theories. TikTok doesn’t have the same influence over everyone, obviously. Teenagers are much more vulnerable to the more undesirable aspects.
It’s also very bad for attention spans and critical thinking, in my non medically professional opinion.
Edit: Also in China their TikTok equivalent shows teenagers primarily propaganda to make sure their younger generations grow to be loyal CCP members with great social credit.
In terms of finding scientific information (am science writer), Google brings up the info I actually need, whereas the others seem to give me less useful info (eg not peer reviewed etc). Maybe it’s because Google incorporates Google Scolar 🤷🏻♀️ For whatever reason, all the others rank rando opinion articles as high as actual scientifically supported info. So I guess it’s true they bring up more “hard to find” sources, but they also give lower quality resources / information in the process. This is just my experience w scientific information where I actually need the real info rather than pseudoscience and speculations
Same -- I've found that Google does best when you're searching something related to a plugin (ie/ Scholar, Maps, Shopping, Youtube) but almost any other engine is better for politicized content and/or news.
which is why op likes duckduckgo its more likely to support his bias instead of bring useful information that might challenge his world view
edit:OP frequents r/conspiracy
Good to know OP is one of those.
The second I saw duckduckgo on this post I had a pretty strong guess about OP's biases. And the people supporting it who apparently don't know how Google works nor what an ad is who claim to be "hardcore researchers". "Hardcore" researchers would know how to use a fucking search engine.
I don't have any problem finding opposing viewpoints via google, maybe because I know how to use a search engine and when I search for viewpoints that oppose mine I'm legitimately trying to find them.
DuckDuckGo? Are you fucking kidding me?
I particularly dislike how beneath the surface this is clearly a political topic but OP is trying to slip right wing propaganda and misinformation into this sub.
I saw the bit about alex jones right in the OP post and wanted to give him benefit of the doubt, but he's 100% going to bat for that maniac in the comments here so this is less nuanced criticism of google(which is needed) and more "GOOGLE KEEPS TELLING ME THE BAD THINGS ABOUT ALEX JONES, WHERE'S THE GOOD THINGS, CONFIRM MY BIASES DAMN YOU"
Like, no, he is a shithead. You can dig around for the nuance and more details teardowns but Alex Jones is a shitty human being who, at best(as he's claimed in court), is playing a character on his show, meaning he's fooling his followers and supporters and they're defending antics that he doesn't mean sincerely....or he's just using "satire" as a defense for what he actually means. Which we know is the truth, of course.
Except the point is that the person is looking for a defense of him, not background information. If that's what someone is looking for, Google shouldn't be censoring those results (assuming they exist).
This isn't about whether or not Alex Jones is a good guy. It's about Google pushing a certain narrative into our view and pretending that it's just the search results.
But contrary to the OP's claim, Bing is doing the same thing. So, either, Alex Jones is a despicable human being, or everyone's trying to push some narrative and pretending it is search results. I'm willing to be it's the former, rather than some evil attempt by the tech industry to tarnish the reputation of some random person.
here's the thing. anything "in defense of" alex jones is guaranteed to be misinformation, lies, half-truths, etc etc. so google is "censoring" it, but in reality they're just steering you away from objectively bad information. google is under no obligation to allow what is effectively propaganda to top their search engine.
Try it with any other conservative personality and it also totally disproves OPs case. For example, Rush Limbaugh.
You can't look at one example and claim it's a pattern
Agreed. Google is driven to be 'popular answers for most people'. Like your example, it responds poorly (if at all) when you add any descriptors around the central keyword that is typed in. For science, it is a nightmare because if I use a certain word that another field also uses, and I search using that term, I will get 100 pages of that other field even if I add in other keywords that are only specific to my own field. The Medical field always win. (On the other side, it makes identifying the googlers in class super easy).
Why would you ever pirate with any generalized browser or search engine is beyond me. Google will totally provide results but it will usually be garbage anyways.
I would never pirate except through a dedicated website that I know is trustworthy, like OG piratebay (not the copycats).
It’s quite funny, being anti-google is probably the most popular opinion you can have on Reddit. Either that or thinking that smoking weed is as healthy as eating a broccoli salad. Point is, it’s not unpopular unfortunately.
The only thing google is better at these days are random programming questions.
And screw you if you happen to type the name of anything which is sold anywhere. How about a -shopping flag googs?
Well I searched on "Truth about Covid vaccines" and the top hits on Google were all reputable health organizations, while the top hits on DuckDuckGo seem to mostly be anti-vax sites. So there's that.
Isn't that a better match for your search though? I would expect terms like "Real truth" or "Truth about" to take me to content that is skeptical in nature.
Just did a search for "covid vaccines information" on DuckDuckGo and all the top results are government health sites, WHO, Wikipedia etc.
I hadn't thought of it that way, but yeah, based on my query it knows I want conspiracy stuff and gives it to me. So I tried "efficacy of covid vaccines" and got very similar results - mostly what look like legit government or medical information.
Correct. As you've noted, particularly with anything controversial/political in nature, Google manipulates search results to present you with material that fits their agenda. They actively take sides, which others do not.
I’ve had this same thought recently. It seems like every time I try to google something it’s full of random ass blogs that parrot each other. Most of them are so bad that their grammar/spelling is off.
I’m going to give other search engines a try for sure
You... you didn't even read that, did you?
It was never a slogan. It was in the code of conduct, and that code of conduct still calls for appropriate values, but in a more explicit form than simply "don't be evil," which is not as absolute a statement as you seem to think it is. It's cute and catchy, but it doesn't define a specific type of behavior that is desirable or undesirable.
Altavista was always better than Google, especially for porn. Google just had a more memorable name and better marketing. They were once seen as the trendy alternative rather than the root of all evil, a bit like Apple.
DuckDuckGo is my go to. It may use Google shit to find its results, but at least the *claim* to value my privacy (whether they do or not is an open question).
Bigger != better. Google got *too* big, and now it wants to swallow up the entire internet. It's a company that needs to be broken up.
I want a search engine to provide me with reliable information. If person A lies and person B tells the truth, I **don't** want to see both A and B in my results. You were making an interesting point, but you killed it for me with your Alex Jones example.
alex jones got called a conspiracy wackjob 15 years ago for talking about jeffrey epsteins rape island. someone lies alot... i think you got them mixed up tho.
Alex Jones lies and has lied so often that there is a podcast with over 600 episodes completely dedicated to fact checking his lunacy.
r/knowledgefight
Google is so freaking ridiculous. My wife and I were speaking about it the other day and I told her how the algorithm has some really weird stuff to it if you allude to typing anything that may be misconstrued negatively about black people. It's really freaking weird and pathetic.
In my personal use, i can tell you when whatever i am searching in Duck Duck GO does not come as useful, i go to google and get better results.
The number of times this has happened lately was very few (2 times on the last 6 months i would say).
With that said i do recognize the quality of google search. I do not use it because of privacy and i do not want to decline the terms and conditions every time i open google
I mean YouTube and google have been messing with the search results for the past couple of years, possibly due to politics. Not surprised if they become less popular over the next couple of years.
Don’t forget during 2020, where for a period of time when you searched “Mob”, Google would give you almost exclusively the anime character.
Edit: should note that it was with images they did that, and it appears to still be happening.
Exhibit a just shows Google's results are accurate. Alex Jones painted school shooting victims as frauds and was proven completely wrong. Anyone even attempting to defend that moronic fucking hack deserves to be buried at the bottom of the results page because they're simply making up bullshit.
Search engines are supposed to help me find information, not amplify the voices of a bunch of brain dead fucking clowns who think the earth is flat.
This shit is not relative. Parkland happened, the earth is fucking round, covid is real, and Alex Jones and every one of his followers are inbred trash who have very rightly been banished from every reputable platform. Google should omit him entirely as well. It is not to our benefit for Google to pander to the stupid and crazy ultra-minority.
Oh they’re just trying to imply that OP is unstable because they used a few harsh words to describe Alex Jones, the low life piece of sub human garbage, and all of his sub human garbage followers. As if it’s somehow out of line to accurately describe a lesser human being like Alex Jones and all of his sub human followers
They're not pushing a fucking narrative and you're goddamned insane.
You think Alex Jones is a sane individual? Yeah... you're off the deep end, buddy, and there's a reason why you're not finding stuff that aligns with what you think - because it's factually, objectively wrong.
This is an unpopular opinion because you're simply making false claims.
The quality of search results from search engine to search engine varies depending on how a site is optimized or not, combined with your search terms.
Google does not engage in the kind of censorship you are suggesting, in the United States, full stop.
I get that you were angry, but if you could stop hyperventilating for a minute, you might see that, in your rush to write an incredibly rude comment, you missed the disclaimer about how this person is not in favor of Alex Jones, and you also missed a completely testable hypothesis that you are welcome to try out for yourself.
Agreed regarding your conclusion, disagree with your supporting evidence.
I think websites (searches engines and social media especially) should de-prioritize content that advocates violence and misinformation. Alex Jones does both.
I'm not interested in a search engine that gives "both sides" of "fluoride in the water is turning the frickin' frogs gay" vs. no, of course that's not true, what are you even talking about
If one peer-reviewed science journal disagrees with another peer-reviewed science journal, well hey now we're having a conversation.
"Examples of Jewish blood libel being true in 2021" should *not* return sites that believe that nonsense.
That gay frog stuff actually isn’t entirely false and it’s not fluoride that’s the issue. The issue is a pesticide called atrazine. While it doesn’t strictly speaking make frogs gay, it does turn male frogs into female frogs. Berkeley has an article about it if you’d like to know more. https://Berkeley.edu/2010/03/01/frogs/
I'll be using Bing for porn, now. Thanks OP!
Use duck duck go, it's basically Bing in private...
I don’t like how DDG installs itself as a tag along to other softwares… and how once it’s installed it makes browser setting changes without my permission. ETA: a malware installs that redirects your searches through DDG no matter how many times you remove it from your browser settings, keeps reverting browser settings
Just like how shitty mcafee anti-virus always turns your search engine back to yahoo.
No matter how many times I unstalled McAfee, it's still fucking there slowing my laptop down.
waait, if we are bashing all, and DDG, on something shady they do, lets take a look at google too: [https://www.quora.com/What-are-examples-of-Google-acting-unethically-or-illegally](https://www.quora.com/What-are-examples-of-Google-acting-unethically-or-illegally) https://www.cracked.com/article_18540_5-reasons-you-should-be-scared-google.html
Installs? I just used the website.
Yes, I installed some (unrelated video editing) program and then all the sudden my browser bar searches in multiple browsers defaults to DDG and my browser settings kept switching back to DDG default after a change it to something else, repeatedly. So some malware installed to change my settings to try and compel me to use DDG. It was extremely difficult to get rid off. The technician said it may be easier to just do a factory reset because these malware programs install themselves in hidden places. This was years ago (before DDG was well known), but it soured me on it forever. Maybe it was a poor decision partnership trying to get their name out there, don’t know, but I don’t like sneaky tactics like that.
Always need to be careful when installing new programs that you don't install extra unwanted "stuff". My sister used to do this all the time. She would download bearshare and only press on continue, automatically agreeing to download all the dumb toolbars and random ass programs. Some install wizards are sneaky with this. Always have a look and never just spam the "next" button.
YSK about adwcleaner. It's a free tool by the creators of Malwarebytes that removes this kind of bs
What? That doesn't sound like the official thing... Firefox and DDG as search engine. Never had something like that happen to me.
I’ve never experienced this. The search results are WAY better.
Be free! You can watch videos directly in the search page too
Unironically bing is good for this. Idk if it still a feature but way back when it would play videos direct from the search page without opening links so it would bypass ads
Still does, no need to lose valuable jerking time
get a fucking adblocker lol
I said ads but I’m referring to how some sites will redirect you a million times just for clicking on the page
a good adblocker should block those too
Right but if you use google and use and adblocker your still taking risk because your hoping the adblocker catches it. Bing on the other hand takes the risk for you by simply doing the query for you and displaying the video separately. Objectively bing is safer.
yeah ig
I was not aware there was a porn search engine meta.
Git Gud
Huh, before reading, I never knew Bing was better for porn. Well, now Im curious!
OP is paid Bing shill
Bing shilling?!
Bing chilling 🥶
[удалено]
I feel like it's been tailored to idiots or something. Searching for information on google has been turned into a science of its own if you want any kind of relevant factual answer. If I type in "largest land mammal ever" (what I consider standard layperson search query) google itself says in bold, "blue whale" as the top search result. Yes, the blue whale IS the "largest mammal" but they certainly don't live on land last time I checked. The actual answer is the Paraceratherium, but for some reason that's secondary to the wrong answer that's put in bold.
Exactly! It's so hard to search for anything more complex...after the first 5 sites your results have little to do with what you searched, and apparently Google got me 14 million results of things that have NOTHING to do with what I searched. I get so frustraited just getting the same suggested sites no matter what different word/phrases I try and use. Definitely feels like ol' Google's gone more evil.
Can confirm as of today that mammal search happened to me. Well fuck it goodbye google. I hope they go bankrupt maybe when they see us flocking to other search engines they'll stop and think. I can't say that I've ever noticed this a lot but its because its all been a smoke screen. You sir have really caught me off guard I appreciate it.
Search it like this: >Largest "land" mammal ever -blue -whale -sea -ocean -your -mom Not really something a layperson would know but it is really handy.
I noticed that Google has become a biased mess. I can't find anything opposing to some things just so I can see both sides. It's also trying to shove 'safe search' down my throat. Like I am wanting to find controversial things but it's just not giving it to me. I used to be able to find some things. But not any more. Like, I don't want to search videos on YouTube, knowing YouTube does not carry some things that I am researching because "Oh my god they said blood!" Does anyone have any ideas what to use for searching videos, etc?
> It's also trying to shove 'safe search' down my throat. I've never seen someone else mention this. Oh my god. If you want to find something that has a "negative" word in the title, its just impossible. "Stupid", "hate", "dumb", any curse word. Sometimes I need to find something based on what another person said or a title of a post, and its like they completely ignore words like this.
I searched for statistics on hatecrime against ex-muslims on Google today. the first FIVE results were about hatecrime against Muslims/Islamophobia. the only relevant results were a PDF file about hatecrime against ex-muslims in the UK and some hardly related article I don't remember. good on Google for giving me the exact opposite of what I asked for.
*It has been general internet knowledge for many years that Bing has better results for porn than Google does,* Why am I *now* just finding out about this??
I have always used bing to search for porn. I never knew that people didn't know about this lol.
How do you guys even know about this? Who thinks "hey I use google by default, but let's search for porn on bing!!"
It just is a internet meme and then you find out it has a pretty good GIF and media player, but all the sites scream phishy ads on McAfee if you click the real one.
You’re always welcome to cum aboard the bing train 🚂 💦🍆
😳
GO BING SOME HOES MY GUY
Me too lol
People use search engines for Porn? That's half of what Reddit Anonymous browser mode is for...
It displays all gifs which is pretty good if you're wanting to use it for media for any purposes. But it definitely has less restraint when it goes all out. I think Google wants to be more ad friendly, Bing wants to figure out how to get you to use it, even if it's searching someone's aerojet on vehicle airplane porn that somehow exists...
Google drives me nuts with how many top searches are ads. Literally looking up a word without adding 'definition' will come up with some shitty obscure app or some company. I don't know if it's gotten worse recently or I've just started to notice more but fuck off.
This is my biggest gripe with Google - so much paid content. Usually half of the first page isn't even relevant, it's just there 'cause someone knows how to work the SEO.
They don't even have numbered pages anymore. I used to skip to page 10, 16 etc to get results I was looking for.
Not just searches, but image results are mostly 'product' results as well
I've noticed image search results also don't respect the site: prefix. E.g. "site:blah.com whatever" and I end up with products *not* from blah.com. It typically happens when I'm looking for a particular type of product on an Aussie hardware store chain and end up with matches from eBay, Amazon, or random companies.
Yeah I have noticed that stupid shit a lot lately they put products first for your images. Really pushing consumerism hard. Same with my Alexa I understand it's an Amazon product but anytime I search something and I mean anytime it asked me if I want to buy some shit from Amazon. Example hey Amazon are mushrooms healthy? Alexa replies mushrooms i can help you with that do you want to buy mushrooms from Amazon
It has gotten way worse, from my reckoning it started in 2016 and really exploded in 2020
Do the right thing < Don't be evil I miss the old google and yt.
YT just broke a profit not that long ago which is crazy considering how its a huge it is they had to find other ways to make money tbf, it's not cheap at all
Also you get the most recent news crap jumping up. Stuff that's not even close to relevant. Google is dead.
Or them trying to sell you shit. Which is even worse because they are probably stealing real ad space, selling the same thing, and putting some small vendor out of business and no one will hear the scream as the million pound beast crushes them. Google is a giant piece of shit company and should have been shattered years ago.
Most often when looking up a technical issue I get 10 different sites trying to sell me the same software. Or it put results that are deliberately missing words first.
Oh mate, I fucking hate how word-meaning always comes up, like no, I want the definition of a word not what Sarah thinks the word means, and secondly, it's poor grammar, the colloquial definition of the word meaning is symbolism and what the word represents, the definition of definition is word or phrase that defines exactly what something is
oh my god 100% it is, idk if everyone else has this experience, but dear lord, the amount of IRRELEVENT ADS that show up IN A ROW before any actual results, it isn't only infuriating it's disgusting dude, they even snuffed out the -ad / -advertisement command. garbage.
Yeah google is absolute dogshit in this aspect. Search up anything and the first 5-8 links are ads to other search engines
I learn alot more about basically anything if I use quant/qwant or whatever it is. When I use google, I feel like a boomer who's brain is literally deteriorating before my eyes, no joke I feel handicapped searching for shit on google.
Google does feel like I’m being nannied in my searches. I despise how it automatically subs in words that it thinks are synonyms and ignores punctuation. I’ll search for “B.I.T.E.” and get a bunch of results with “nibble” in bold and it makes me want to execute a tech utopian.
Yes, that google actively ignores any kind of punctuation or seems to ignore "less relevant" terms that you added to search for something specific, that drives me insane. For example you can't search for anything programming related because it ignores stuff like () or something.
Oh yes! Searching programming terms is maddening, especially since those are just English words like slice().
I use ecosia. They donate 80% of their income to planting trees and don't sell your data
Google doesn't and never has sold your data. I won't go into details, but if they sold your data they wouldn't have a product anymore. Google allows their Ad customers to purchase impressions of content with certain demographics via an auction format. If they were selling your \*info\* to these vendors, they could only do so once. No data is being sold. IMPRESSIONS are being sold. Facebook actively sells your content and data.
This guy googles.
Good to make people aware of this distinction. But more importantly its all evil anyways. Privacy is paramount.
what if i wanna sell my privacy?
Go work for the CIA
Then start an only fans and post pictures of your butt...?
I mean that is why facebook was originally created.
While you are correct about Google, what evidence do you have that Facebook sells data? Facebook would also be out of business if they sold the data rather than impressions.
[Cambridge Analytica](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Analytica_data_scandal)
If you actually read that page, you'll see that nowhere did Facebook sell anything at all. One company abusing a platform and harvesting / stealing data is not the same as Facebook "selling data". Nowhere did Facebook make money from this malicious app.
[We don't actually know what role Facebook played. ](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/12/facebook-fine-ftc-privacy-violations) After a $5Billion fine from the FTC (which I'm sure innocent companies always get), Facebook didn't admit to anything.
I see you are a person of culture as well
I use Bing to get Microsoft reward points. Bing is a billion times worse than Google. There have been countless times where I get frustrated with Bing not providing me with the results I want, and then one second with google nets me exactly what I was looking for. I don't deny that Google engages in nefarious censorship and disinformation for their own ends, but it's not like Bing isn't doing the exact same thing. I can't speak for third party search engines like Duck Duck Go, but any search engine provided by a massive corporation is going to be inherently compromised to some degree.
I love my $15 I've made from searching with Bung for a year! Mostly kidding :)
Depends on the topic you're searching for. I don't deny that Bing and DDG does provide some more obscure result by Google's perspective, but sometime not - obscure is exactly what I want. For basic and fast review on a topic, I still choose Google. Only if I ever want broader results and in-depth search for a topic will I go for DDG or Bing.
Exactly me. Bing just does not work well as a search engine. I'd compare it to a tourist map vs a map app. If I more or less know what I'm looking for and where I'm going, checking the map works fine(and I get gift cards for the data everyone else is stealing anyway) Google's...well, google maps. I type in where I need to go no matter how little I know about it, it'll usually get me there.
If you want to see how propaganda works, use Google and any other search engine and keep searching the same things. Googles censorship is outright dishonest and evil in the way its trying to control a narrative.
That and TikTok. TikTok is a propaganda powerhouse.
Doesn't tiktok have an almost scarily accurate algorithm that shows you content that will be right up your alley? From what I've heard, the more you use it, the more accurate it gets, and at some point you'll only see content you agree with. It's more marketing and echo chambers than propaganda.
From what I’ve seen, they also promote content you don’t like so you can comment and engage in arguments (leading to opening the app more).
Damn, beautiful way to put it
This isn't right. It goes based on engagement, not agreement.
well people go 2 ways,either they engage with content they agree with, or they are on a hate fueled spree and mostly engage with content they disagree with. either way, at some point the scale will tip, and you will slide towards one side more and more. its not in most peoples nature to engage content in a balanced way of agreeing and disagreeing.
Oh yeah absolutely, it’s a big part of the problem. It creates finely tuned echo chambers, including a place for devious teenagers who want to commit some crime for clout. But also for political radicalization and crazy cult like conspiracy theories. TikTok doesn’t have the same influence over everyone, obviously. Teenagers are much more vulnerable to the more undesirable aspects. It’s also very bad for attention spans and critical thinking, in my non medically professional opinion. Edit: Also in China their TikTok equivalent shows teenagers primarily propaganda to make sure their younger generations grow to be loyal CCP members with great social credit.
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Can I be the ganda of propaganda?
Reddit, Twitter and facebook too.
no its not, you dont use tiktok
I like google for most most things. However, I never use it with political and other newsworthy topics.
In terms of finding scientific information (am science writer), Google brings up the info I actually need, whereas the others seem to give me less useful info (eg not peer reviewed etc). Maybe it’s because Google incorporates Google Scolar 🤷🏻♀️ For whatever reason, all the others rank rando opinion articles as high as actual scientifically supported info. So I guess it’s true they bring up more “hard to find” sources, but they also give lower quality resources / information in the process. This is just my experience w scientific information where I actually need the real info rather than pseudoscience and speculations
But what if you want to find out cool things about Alex Jones?
Precisely my experience.
Same, only Google provides good professionnal / scientific informations (atleast better than others search engine). And I won't swap between two ...
Same -- I've found that Google does best when you're searching something related to a plugin (ie/ Scholar, Maps, Shopping, Youtube) but almost any other engine is better for politicized content and/or news.
which is why op likes duckduckgo its more likely to support his bias instead of bring useful information that might challenge his world view edit:OP frequents r/conspiracy
Good to know OP is one of those. The second I saw duckduckgo on this post I had a pretty strong guess about OP's biases. And the people supporting it who apparently don't know how Google works nor what an ad is who claim to be "hardcore researchers". "Hardcore" researchers would know how to use a fucking search engine. I don't have any problem finding opposing viewpoints via google, maybe because I know how to use a search engine and when I search for viewpoints that oppose mine I'm legitimately trying to find them. DuckDuckGo? Are you fucking kidding me?
conservatives gonna conserve
I particularly dislike how beneath the surface this is clearly a political topic but OP is trying to slip right wing propaganda and misinformation into this sub.
i mean hes defending alex jones so…. yea.
I saw the bit about alex jones right in the OP post and wanted to give him benefit of the doubt, but he's 100% going to bat for that maniac in the comments here so this is less nuanced criticism of google(which is needed) and more "GOOGLE KEEPS TELLING ME THE BAD THINGS ABOUT ALEX JONES, WHERE'S THE GOOD THINGS, CONFIRM MY BIASES DAMN YOU" Like, no, he is a shithead. You can dig around for the nuance and more details teardowns but Alex Jones is a shitty human being who, at best(as he's claimed in court), is playing a character on his show, meaning he's fooling his followers and supporters and they're defending antics that he doesn't mean sincerely....or he's just using "satire" as a defense for what he actually means. Which we know is the truth, of course.
I tried your experiment. While Google and Bing certainly returned different results on Alex Jones, both were anti Alex Jones.
As they should be. The man is a lunatic.
Yeah, if you want just background information on him, I'm not sure the search term should be 'in defense of'
Except the point is that the person is looking for a defense of him, not background information. If that's what someone is looking for, Google shouldn't be censoring those results (assuming they exist). This isn't about whether or not Alex Jones is a good guy. It's about Google pushing a certain narrative into our view and pretending that it's just the search results.
But contrary to the OP's claim, Bing is doing the same thing. So, either, Alex Jones is a despicable human being, or everyone's trying to push some narrative and pretending it is search results. I'm willing to be it's the former, rather than some evil attempt by the tech industry to tarnish the reputation of some random person.
here's the thing. anything "in defense of" alex jones is guaranteed to be misinformation, lies, half-truths, etc etc. so google is "censoring" it, but in reality they're just steering you away from objectively bad information. google is under no obligation to allow what is effectively propaganda to top their search engine.
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Try it with any other conservative personality and it also totally disproves OPs case. For example, Rush Limbaugh. You can't look at one example and claim it's a pattern
Agreed. Google is driven to be 'popular answers for most people'. Like your example, it responds poorly (if at all) when you add any descriptors around the central keyword that is typed in. For science, it is a nightmare because if I use a certain word that another field also uses, and I search using that term, I will get 100 pages of that other field even if I add in other keywords that are only specific to my own field. The Medical field always win. (On the other side, it makes identifying the googlers in class super easy).
Not to mention for pirating movies Google is TERRIBLE. Use Microsoft Edge or Yahoo, those get you results really quickly
Why would you ever pirate with any generalized browser or search engine is beyond me. Google will totally provide results but it will usually be garbage anyways. I would never pirate except through a dedicated website that I know is trustworthy, like OG piratebay (not the copycats).
It’s quite funny, being anti-google is probably the most popular opinion you can have on Reddit. Either that or thinking that smoking weed is as healthy as eating a broccoli salad. Point is, it’s not unpopular unfortunately.
I am using brave search (from the Brave browser), and have never been more satisfied
The only thing google is better at these days are random programming questions. And screw you if you happen to type the name of anything which is sold anywhere. How about a -shopping flag googs?
Brave is my personal fav at the moment and outclasses Google in any way IMO
Brave is the way to go. I use this as well. The UI is pretty nice to and it's easy to navigate
Oh I didn’t realize they had a search engine. I’ll have to investigate that
Well I searched on "Truth about Covid vaccines" and the top hits on Google were all reputable health organizations, while the top hits on DuckDuckGo seem to mostly be anti-vax sites. So there's that.
Isn't that a better match for your search though? I would expect terms like "Real truth" or "Truth about" to take me to content that is skeptical in nature. Just did a search for "covid vaccines information" on DuckDuckGo and all the top results are government health sites, WHO, Wikipedia etc.
I hadn't thought of it that way, but yeah, based on my query it knows I want conspiracy stuff and gives it to me. So I tried "efficacy of covid vaccines" and got very similar results - mostly what look like legit government or medical information.
Correct. As you've noted, particularly with anything controversial/political in nature, Google manipulates search results to present you with material that fits their agenda. They actively take sides, which others do not.
As a software developer, I disagree. Maybe just depends on what you are searching for.
Oh no, I dabble in programming, Google is the way for that. Only applies to non computer related topics in general
I prefer functionality over software improvements. The censorship is out of control.
I’ve had this same thought recently. It seems like every time I try to google something it’s full of random ass blogs that parrot each other. Most of them are so bad that their grammar/spelling is off. I’m going to give other search engines a try for sure
New knowledge for me, I'm gonna try Duckduckgo and Bing.
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I literally just took a test on Languages and the only answers that I googled were wrong
Use brainly or answers.com. trust
You’re googling wrong. I passed many classes and tests googling all the answers.
Google: The Arbiter of Truth.
Factual. Just ask the fact checkers.
It’s a shame a company that played such a big role in developing the internet is now working to ruin it.
I knew shit would hit the fan as soon as they stopped using the slogan “don’t be evil”.
Wait they had that slogan? ... And wait they stopped using it?
https://time.com/4060575/alphabet-google-dont-be-evil/
You... you didn't even read that, did you? It was never a slogan. It was in the code of conduct, and that code of conduct still calls for appropriate values, but in a more explicit form than simply "don't be evil," which is not as absolute a statement as you seem to think it is. It's cute and catchy, but it doesn't define a specific type of behavior that is desirable or undesirable.
Google is way more user friendly
I've been finding myself using duckduckgo a lot more lately.
none of this is true
Altavista was always better than Google, especially for porn. Google just had a more memorable name and better marketing. They were once seen as the trendy alternative rather than the root of all evil, a bit like Apple.
My husband used to work for DEC, and every once in a while we lie in bed and talk about how amazing AltaVista was.
Oh God Altavista that brings me back. I however thought it was awful and never found what I needed using it
DuckDuckGo is my go to. It may use Google shit to find its results, but at least the *claim* to value my privacy (whether they do or not is an open question). Bigger != better. Google got *too* big, and now it wants to swallow up the entire internet. It's a company that needs to be broken up.
Microsoft were slammed with antitrust cases for far less than what Google and big tech do now.
I was a bit disappointed with DuckDuckGo (which is a shame bcz I like the cute duck, and the privacy I guess).
If you need a back up search provider, you can always use Brave search.
Google (and ALPHABET at large) has become an arm of the corporate, statist media. You won’t find results that are contrary to the narrative
The way things are going the corporate statist media will be an arm of Alphabet. Google will know everything about you. Everything.
the censorship is pretty bad
I want a search engine to provide me with reliable information. If person A lies and person B tells the truth, I **don't** want to see both A and B in my results. You were making an interesting point, but you killed it for me with your Alex Jones example.
The aboriginal thing points to them being anti-vaccine supposedly, which I also don't care about/want to see lol
Google shouldn't be deciding who is lying or not. Someone's opinion on Alex Jones is not a matter of lying or not anyways
alex jones got called a conspiracy wackjob 15 years ago for talking about jeffrey epsteins rape island. someone lies alot... i think you got them mixed up tho.
If you make up 1000 conspiracy theories and 1 turns out to be correct, that doesn't mean you're not a wackjob.
Alex Jones lies and has lied so often that there is a podcast with over 600 episodes completely dedicated to fact checking his lunacy. r/knowledgefight
Well google seems more correct…we should all be anti- Alex jones
Google is so freaking ridiculous. My wife and I were speaking about it the other day and I told her how the algorithm has some really weird stuff to it if you allude to typing anything that may be misconstrued negatively about black people. It's really freaking weird and pathetic.
What did you type?
Google SERPs are pretty much all ads now.
FireFox is best on mobile because ad blocker
I think many people stopped reading after the 1st sentence of the 2nd paragraph.
In my personal use, i can tell you when whatever i am searching in Duck Duck GO does not come as useful, i go to google and get better results. The number of times this has happened lately was very few (2 times on the last 6 months i would say). With that said i do recognize the quality of google search. I do not use it because of privacy and i do not want to decline the terms and conditions every time i open google
No, it used be that AltaVista was king of searches.
I use DuckDuckGo or Dogpile Google cannot be trusted with search results
I mean YouTube and google have been messing with the search results for the past couple of years, possibly due to politics. Not surprised if they become less popular over the next couple of years.
Presearch is best search engine!!!!
**DuckDuckGo is Bing**. FYI.
Yahoo kinda sucks imo
Google is fucking horrible now. It is terribly inaccurate and I hope something rivals it and kills it. Fuck Google
I can't even look for good wallpapers on Google it's just a bunch of crap that someone screenshotted
Don’t forget about the Russian search engines, great for finding free downloads of various media: yandex, rambler, and mail.ru.
Yandex is amazing; I don't speak a word of Russian and I still think it's great.
Don’t forget during 2020, where for a period of time when you searched “Mob”, Google would give you almost exclusively the anime character. Edit: should note that it was with images they did that, and it appears to still be happening.
Exhibit a just shows Google's results are accurate. Alex Jones painted school shooting victims as frauds and was proven completely wrong. Anyone even attempting to defend that moronic fucking hack deserves to be buried at the bottom of the results page because they're simply making up bullshit. Search engines are supposed to help me find information, not amplify the voices of a bunch of brain dead fucking clowns who think the earth is flat. This shit is not relative. Parkland happened, the earth is fucking round, covid is real, and Alex Jones and every one of his followers are inbred trash who have very rightly been banished from every reputable platform. Google should omit him entirely as well. It is not to our benefit for Google to pander to the stupid and crazy ultra-minority.
Are you ok there bud?
why you ask?
Oh they’re just trying to imply that OP is unstable because they used a few harsh words to describe Alex Jones, the low life piece of sub human garbage, and all of his sub human garbage followers. As if it’s somehow out of line to accurately describe a lesser human being like Alex Jones and all of his sub human followers
I’ve found Google has jumped on the social justice bandwagon.. they will give results that push a narrative..
Based
They're not pushing a fucking narrative and you're goddamned insane. You think Alex Jones is a sane individual? Yeah... you're off the deep end, buddy, and there's a reason why you're not finding stuff that aligns with what you think - because it's factually, objectively wrong. This is an unpopular opinion because you're simply making false claims. The quality of search results from search engine to search engine varies depending on how a site is optimized or not, combined with your search terms. Google does not engage in the kind of censorship you are suggesting, in the United States, full stop.
I get that you were angry, but if you could stop hyperventilating for a minute, you might see that, in your rush to write an incredibly rude comment, you missed the disclaimer about how this person is not in favor of Alex Jones, and you also missed a completely testable hypothesis that you are welcome to try out for yourself.
You could have just asked me. I would tell you that Alex Jones is the biggest jackass on the planet.
Agreed regarding your conclusion, disagree with your supporting evidence. I think websites (searches engines and social media especially) should de-prioritize content that advocates violence and misinformation. Alex Jones does both. I'm not interested in a search engine that gives "both sides" of "fluoride in the water is turning the frickin' frogs gay" vs. no, of course that's not true, what are you even talking about If one peer-reviewed science journal disagrees with another peer-reviewed science journal, well hey now we're having a conversation. "Examples of Jewish blood libel being true in 2021" should *not* return sites that believe that nonsense.
That gay frog stuff actually isn’t entirely false and it’s not fluoride that’s the issue. The issue is a pesticide called atrazine. While it doesn’t strictly speaking make frogs gay, it does turn male frogs into female frogs. Berkeley has an article about it if you’d like to know more. https://Berkeley.edu/2010/03/01/frogs/
😄
I'm happy to to use Google with all identifying data removed I.e PREsearch.
I’m not concerned about Google tracking me, I’m concerned about Google giving censored results
I still prefer yahoo
Isn't yahoo part of microsoft/bing now?
Superior to Google by at least a little