What is your favorite internet search engine and why?

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KBD47
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Re: What is your favorite internet search engine and why?

Post by KBD47 »

I'm giving DDG another shot. I keep Startpage bookmarked just in case I need it.
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BG405
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Re: What is your favorite internet search engine and why?

Post by BG405 »

KBD47 wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 4:36 pm I'm giving DDG another shot.
Worth a go. It's really improved over the past couple of years or so - since my changeover from Dogpile anyway.
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Re: What is your favorite internet search engine and why?

Post by Portreve »

Have you folks ever tried Google's exclusive premium Find Anything service? I hear it works really well, but I know a number of you like to avoid Google
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Re: What is your favorite internet search engine and why?

Post by DAMIEN1307 »

ive noticed a lot of you like google search engine...well i de-googled myself a long time ago knowing there former moto "dont be evil" was a crock of crap...they've gone from dont be evil to "how evil can we be and still get away with it"...as for me, its startpage all the way with DDG as a backup...the article below just released may give the googlers further food for thought...Google should be condemned to the abyss along with facebook...DAMIEN

https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/30/1780 ... ry-privacy
Last edited by DAMIEN1307 on Thu Aug 30, 2018 11:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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powerwagon75
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Re: What is your favorite internet search engine and why?

Post by powerwagon75 »

I started using DDG about a year ago, and even with all the research/searching I do, don't miss Google at all (or all the side ads endlessly reminding me of all the crap I've searched for previously.)

(I also like that you can change viewing settings away from the glaring white screen)
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Re: What is your favorite internet search engine and why?

Post by carum carvi »

Valsodar wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 11:51 am I use Google because it gives me more detailed results. Google displays infinite number of pages with images, while DickDuckGo only shows 1 or 2 and that's it.
Yes I noticed that too, when I compared DuckDuckGo to Startpage. It applies to videos as well Valsodar. Startpage offers much more. Although I never felt that I had to see much more. But for certain cases I will keep Startpage as second choice for more or better results.

Interesting to read that others have mentioned that 2 search engines have been bought by microsoft: ecosia and dogpile.

That leaves only DuckDuckGo as the only indepedent search engine. Not really independent because it is a owned by a small private company. But compared to the others it looks like it doesnt have to please shareholders for the sake of profit. Yandex is a multinational and so are all the other big search engines.

Although I was very pleased with the search results of StartPage the search results in DDG dont differ that much. I am staying with DuckDuckGo as standard setting in my firefox browser, because it has one specific advantage:

I can select a piece of text and with one mouse click it searches for the content on DuckDuckGo. With Startpage that feature doesnt work.



I have been searching what other search engines are out there. There arent many and almost all of them have already been mentioned or the ones that were not mentioned are based upon the big ones: google, bing and yahoo. But I did find two truly independent search engines: Gigablast https://www.gigablast.com and Yacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YaCy

Gigablast unfortunately delivers terrible results. It is at best only suited for searches of english webpages. European searches gave no results sometimes. Hopefully it will improve in the future. I support all alternatives that are truly independent.

The YaCy search engine could be interesting for Linux folks because it is totally free of control by a company and it is opensource. It is a peer to peer network.

Below is a quote from Yacid:

"Just as we've seen Identi.ca emerge with a free software alternative to Twitter, Diaspora with a free counterpart to Facebook, and GNU Free Call as a Skype alternative, so YaCy hopes to provide a free, peer-to-peer alternative to the many centrally controlled search engines we have today.Installation reportedly takes only three minutes; if you want to download it for yourself, you can get it on the YaCy site."
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Re: What is your favorite internet search engine and why?

Post by Valsodar »

carum carvi wrote: Fri Aug 31, 2018 2:00 am I can select a piece of text and with one mouse click it searches for the content on DuckDuckGo. With Startpage that feature doesnt work.
You have a problem in your device - it works for me. I just had to add StartPage to my search engines and then choose StartPage as a default SE in Firefox settings. The line I have placed the cursor on reads: "Search with StartPage for "What is your favorite internet search engine and why?"". My FF is 61.0.1 x64.

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Re: What is your favorite internet search engine and why?

Post by kc1di »

I use DuckDuckgo (ddg) it's fast and i feel more secure than some others. Just like the results it gives also.
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BG405
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Re: What is your favorite internet search engine and why?

Post by BG405 »

carum carvi wrote: Fri Aug 31, 2018 2:00 am Interesting to read that others have mentioned that 2 search engines have been bought by microsoft: ecosia and dogpile.
Ugh. They seem to be determined to squash any and all competition. Fingers crossed that DDG's developers / owners do not sell out otherwise it seems we will be left without any choice of a viable independent search engine.
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Re: What is your favorite internet search engine and why?

Post by Moem »

powerwagon75 wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 11:25 pm I started using DDG about a year ago, and even with all the research/searching I do, don't miss Google at all (or all the side ads endlessly reminding me of all the crap I've searched for previously.)

(I also like that you can change viewing settings away from the glaring white screen)
I like Startpage's 'Night' theme.
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Re: What is your favorite internet search engine and why?

Post by DAMIEN1307 »

hi moem...thats the same theme i use also with startpage...soothing to the eyes, especially late at night since old people like me dont sleep so well...lol...DAMIEN
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Re: What is your favorite internet search engine and why?

Post by KBD47 »

DAMIEN1307 wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 11:12 pm ive noticed a lot of you like google search engine...well i de-googled myself a long time ago knowing there former moto "dont be evil" was a crock of crap...they've gone from dont be evil to "how evil can we be and still get away with it"...as for me, its startpage all the way with DDG as a backup...the article below just released may give the googlers further food for thought...Google should be condemned to the abyss along with facebook...DAMIEN

https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/30/1780 ... ry-privacy
I absolutely agree. Google has become evil. Their CEO thinks he is too important to even answer the U.S. Senators questions next week. Sadly, Google has its claws so deeply into our lives it is hard to completely be free of them. But worth the effort to try.
Edit: BTW the wife and I do use Mastercard :(
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BG405
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Re: What is your favorite internet search engine and why?

Post by BG405 »

Moem wrote: Fri Aug 31, 2018 10:03 am I like Startpage's 'Night' theme.
That does look nice. I use the dark theme in DuckDuckGo by default; much easier on the eyes even during the day. Pity the browser default background can't be set to black instead of blinding us when the page is starting to load .. or can it, without messing web pages up? I'll investigate .. :)
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Re: What is your favorite internet search engine and why?

Post by Portreve »

BG405 wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 4:45 pm
KBD47 wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 4:36 pm I'm giving DDG another shot.
Worth a go. It's really improved over the past couple of years or so - since my changeover from Dogpile anyway.
carum carvi wrote: Fri Aug 31, 2018 2:00 amInteresting to read that others have mentioned that 2 search engines have been bought by microsoft: ecosia and dogpile.
Dogpile, eh?

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Re: What is your favorite internet search engine and why?

Post by BG405 »

Portreve wrote: Fri Aug 31, 2018 4:51 pmSome funny stuff
:lol:
Sounds about right! :mrgreen:
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Re: What is your favorite internet search engine and why?

Post by absque fenestris »

Basic settings in all browsers: DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials
and otherwise

https://www.etools.ch/
https://lite.qwant.com/
https://www.qwant.com/
https://www.unbubble.eu/
https://metager.de/en
https://searx.org/
https://fireball.com/

and yes - sometimes also Google...
carum carvi

Re: What is your favorite internet search engine and why?

Post by carum carvi »


That is a nice addition of search links! Those 3 search engines are as good as the big ones! I have tested them all just now and I am really pleased with etools, which gave the same good results as Startpage, which is considered by most on this forum to be the best search engine, because it is based on Google. Etools did even give better results than Google. That's impressive, although my test wasnt done extensively.

But I started this thread when I noticed that my own search engine did not produce a correct search result. When I type in the EXACT website adress in a search engine I want the correct search result to be listed at the top. But only Google or on Google based search engines like Startpage/Ixquick gave the correct listing. But Etools did give the correct search result as well! Great! Thanks for listing those links absque fenestris.

There are more country based search engines out there in the world. Some of them unfortunately are mostly directed at use in the homecountry. Those homebased search engines give bad search results for people in other places of the world. But those that I just have listed can be used by anybody. Makes me wonder on which well known search engine they are based: Google, Bing, Yahoo or Yandex? Or a combination of them, like DuckDuckGo uses Bing, Yahoo and Yandex.
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absque fenestris
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Re: What is your favorite internet search engine and why?

Post by absque fenestris »

Hello carum carvi

always nice to see a reaction to the own crap...
Yes, within Europe etools.ch is very useful with its filtering by countries.

Google is still unbeatable in image search.
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Re: What is your favorite internet search engine and why?

Post by kenetics »

I use two browsers. Chromium for general browsing, social media, etc. I use Google search for that because I find it gives the best results, especially when it comes to searching using time frames. I also find it better for finding images of a specified size (compared to DuckDuckGo).

I use Firefox for secure things like banking, commerce and bill paying. I don't save passwords and I use more secure add-ons like No Script. I use DuckDuckGo for the little bit of searching I might do with that browser as I believe it is more secure. I might give Startpage a go, as so many here have recommended it.
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Re: What is your favorite internet search engine and why?

Post by sportsman »

Google for less complicated use. :)
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