[kwlug-disc] Ducky vs Google and Bing

[Doug Moen]

I use Duck Duck Go, but the default search results are often not great.
When that happens, I append !s which turns it into a Startpage search, which often has better results (they are google results, but you have more privacy).

I use a variety of ! modifiers in DDG searches, which keep me on the platform. Also, DDG sometimes has better results than Google, so I can't just rely on Startpage. Hence my two engine strategy.

Although Google results can be better than DDG results, the result I want is just as often buried under a load of spam. By coincidence, the spam happens to provide much better monetization to google (via ads and analytics) than the indie web page I am looking for. It is as if Google ranks monetization higher than relevance in their search criteria. 

If that hypothesis about Google were true, then a search engine that doesn't make its money by monetizing the search results could produce much better results, just by ranking results purely by relevance. Let's test that hypothesis.

I am currently testing kagi.com, which does not earn any money from advertising, and has a good looking privacy policy: https://kagi.com/privacy

The search results are generally good, on par with the best of DDG or google so far, and occasionally much better than DDG or Google.

Kagi duplicates DDG's best features (like ! operators), and offers some intriguing features that no one else does. There are lots of ways to filter and prioritize results. You can block sites you don't like, or boost/lower the ranking of sites. This works because you have to log in to Kagi in order to use it, so you have state. In order to have full access with unlimited searches, you need to pay a monthly fee. Because that's how the site is funded (no advertising). Paying money is required if you want to be the customer, rather than be the product. I haven't subscribed for the pay service yet.

Here's a test case. There's a new restaurant in Waterloo called Flame Indian Cuisine, and they have their own web site. If I search for
    flame indian cuisine waterloo
then DDG gets it in 1, Kagi in 2, Qwant in 2, Startpage and Google get it in 9.
By coincidence, their web page contains no google advertising or analytics. So Google is definitely not always the best, but they are a good backup if DDG fails. I haven't tested Qwant much -- I got inconsistent results last year or whenever I tried it. But hey, all the ad-based engines are inconsistent.

Oh, and if you want people to find your web site, you better pay protection money to Google.

Doug.

On Tue, Jan 3, 2023, at 2:57 PM, jekerr at sdf.org wrote:
> Hello everyone
> Lately I have not been too happy with duck duck go. Is it just me, or are
> we getting lots of off topic hits that we do not want? Ducky can't find my
> work homepage at all but Google  and Bing puts it at the top of my search
> for "Wellington Law Associaton".
> Nice that allegedly Ducky does not track me, but I did not know (until 10
> minutes ago) that they get their results from Bing.
>
> What is your go to search engine?
>
> Cheers,
> John
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