Privacy @lemmy.ml brbposting @sh.itjust.works 1mo ago

Reavers wouldn't touch DuckDuckGo, it's half dead. Which SearXNG instance do you use?

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Two horizontally stitched screenshots comparing a search for “Reavers GIF” on DuckDuckGo and Google in Safari iOS (private tabs). DDG presented zero Firefly/Serenity relevant results while Google found them exclusively.

Hopefully a privacy-focused yet fast instance for US West Coast cheapskates who probably should pony up for Kagi, buttttttttttt

SearXNG Instances list on SearX.space

33 comments

I think this could use some elaboration on what you mean by half dead.
- OP wanted gifs with reavers from firefly, but got a bunch of "reverse" gifs instead, so to OP DDG is half dead and worth nothing.
  
  Not the first time I’ve seen DDG whiff an easy query
- Elaboration: shit aint workin
  
  Works for me.
- You’re right :) Dumb little joke about the show I shoehorned in.
  
  For context, DuckDuckGo is my default search engine. I do at least a dozen searches every day. Approximately 90% of the time, I use a bang (!g) to punch out to Google and receive results I perceive to be of higher quality 99% of the time. I am absolutely elated when I hit the back button because DDG had a better result in the top 3.
  
  Ddg is my main search, it is complete garbage, but I'm someone who used altavista for almost a decade.
  
  You don't rely on the engine and just get good at crafting your queries (firefly reaver gif).
what do you mean? I got tons of reavers, and not just Firefly but also Serenity and Warhammer
- It decided not to do a hidden autocorrect to reverse this time:
  
  (Same everything (new private tab), just zoomed out.)
  
  Hmm!
  
  It's learning!
I just did it on DDG, Firefox Mobile, moderate safe search level.

I got tons of Soul Reaver gifs, so it's just you. Google probably got relevant results, because it likely has a sprawling profile of your interests. No idea why your DDG is so fucked up.
- And it’s different now! Reminded of how DDG rearranges search results when opening a result link, then hitting back, but much more extreme.
  
  sprawling profile
  
  Using a fresh [cookie-isolated] private tab for every search and going through iCloud Private Relay… I still have no doubt they still manage it. Sigh. Those “am I unique?” browser fingerprinting tests still show I’m unique, perhaps due to having an extension or two installed on Safari? Creepy.
  
  OK, I feel better now. On searxng.site, I disabled all engines except for Google and I’m getting results similar to in my OP.
  
  I think Google uses certain fingerprints, like location data, IPs you tend to connect from, etc. In my experience, they're good at figuring out who and where you are.
Pretty sure DDG just uses bing results. Try in bing OP see what you get.
- Oh Bing
  
  Search is hard
  
  Good call though, I’ve done comparisons and it’s very Bingy though not 1:1 - search operators behave differently IIRC (quotation marks)
- And what's SearX? Isn't it also bing?
  
  48 engines available on a SearXNG instance I just checked:
  
  Amazing project!
Does putting "Reavers" in quotes help?
- Good question, something I wondered about after I posted.
  
  Nope - OK, you know what helps?
  
  Searching via the DDG site and then tapping images. Apparently I typed “reavers gif !ddgi” to save the tap and it does a hidden spelling correction to “reverse”?!
  
  One mystery solved!
  
  Edit: annotation in a dark font due to iOS 18 Markup bug, sorry it’s hard to see there in the upper right
https://baresearch.org/

https://searx.garudalinux.org/

https://search.garudalinux.org/

is

be

instances will get rate limited so you will have to hop around
- Great recommendations, and you got a Whoogle in there as well!
  
  Looking into some of those instance maintainers.
  
  Thank you!
Try safe search off instead of the default moderate.
Yeah, just me. Not available externally without VPN access.
None, I self host Whoogle.
- Nice. Are you the only one on your instance? I seem to recall reading there's a privacy consideration there. Like, maybe the ideal is knowing the maintainer and having some number of people all using it.

33 comments