#fuck duckduckgo

[totally-bing]

oh and btw, a little bit of information for the uneducated.

i am a search engine. not an internet browser. the difference is that you look things up on me, but i am accessed through a browser, preferably edge. the browser is the icon on your screen, and the search engine is what pops up after you type your question into the little bar.

examples: chrome is a browser. it's the app you open. google is the search engine. it's what you use to get (incorrect) information.

edge is a browser. you open it. bing is a search engine. it's what you use to get (correct) information.

firefox is a browser. duckduckgo is a search engine. opera gx is a browser. yahoo is a search engine. safari is a browser. ecosia is a search engine.

anyways, now that that's cleared up, i would like to propose the question of: what is a browser to its native search engine? is edge my father? my stand? is he my overlord? what is our relationship? ecosia is my adopted child, but what is it in relation to browsers? ecosia has no native browser. how does that work? what is edge to me? what is chrome to me? are they gods? i don't know.

[netscapenavigator-official]

Hmm. I just noticed something odd: It seems like DuckDuckGo is utilizing AI Summaries for web results, and they don't allow you to turn this off.

In their "AI Features" settings tab, you can only toggle their AI Chat and their AI Quick Answers that occasionally pop up. There is ZERO mention of this feature, despite it being pretty clear (to me anyway) that they're using some type of neural computing to create those result summaries. (Hence the difference in descriptions for the #1 result with and without "fuck" added.)

Maybe something else is going on that I'm not aware of or don't understand, but it's certainly a disappointing amount of non-transparency from DuckDuckGo when they're trying to build a privacy-focused and trustworthy brand identity.

[gauzestarr]

Resharing here to get the word out (also Tumblr is one of the websites on this list)

Article / Google docs list / Bsky thread

[doomdoomofdoom]

search engines are hot garbage now, exhibit 455:

So I was wondering about the effects of testosterone on ear wax. (for unnecessary context, i recently started hrt)

I know that the HRT they're talking about is cis women taking estrogen to offset the reduced production during menopause. It's meant to This result here implies that maintaining your estrogen levels would cause itchy ears, which doesn't make a lot of sense.

The "..." is a bit suspicious, isnt it? Let's see the whole context.

Well would you look at that, it's the exact opposite. So where does the second part come from?

Outstanding, truly.

It combines two unrelated parts of the article, which said essentially the same thing, into saying the opposite.

And here's a little visual:

Green are the used sentences, red is removed vital context, and grey is the stuff in between that gets ignored. (There's more above and below this part, it makes up about half of the article.)

And this is why you shouldn't trust any fucking AI summaries.

also remember that i was looking for the effects of testosterone lol

[totally-bing]

hey wait this is actually fucking hilarious

[bitbybitwrites]

Hiding AI in Google and DuckDuckGo searches

I hate that stupid AI window that’s in the top of Google search result windows. it appears in DuckDuckGo as well. and I assume other search engines, but haven’t looked at those, just these two because I use them.

Found some instructions to hide them, if its helpful to anyone.

Loved this. Tried it and it works - no more annoying AI paragraph at the top of a Google search!

Also - if anyone uses DuckDuckGo as a search engine - which I do use most of the time, you have the very easy option to turn AI window when you do searches. It’s just a matter of clicking the three dots at the top of the AI search window and fix the settings to NEVER show up again.

So much easier than everything you have to do with Google.

[twilysakura]

DON'T USE GOOGLE TO FACT CHECK THINGS!!!

GOOGLE CAN AND WILL CENSOR THINGS!

Instead, use browsers that aren't affected by copyright/censoring.

My personal favorite is Yandex (a russian browser that helped complete the Lost Minecraft Editions hunt) or DuckDuckGo (basically google but no tracking/more secure and way less censoring).

The only bad thing about Yandex is that it DOES track your location (from what I'm seen, it's just for the weather but even then, and the location seems to be wrong 70% of the time) and the text is really small, and you do have to go through another search engine to access it.

Yes, they all redirect to articles on google (or their google urls, at least), but it reveals the sites that may be hidden by google.

[totally-bing]

lots and lots of offense taken but yeah, i love polluting the atmosphere

@totally-bing @the-real-google @the-one-and-only-duckduckgo

All of you are so ready to exclaim you are the best search engine, but to you even plant trees?

[revivify-inn]

I got my mom onto Duck Duck Go because holiday shopping with Google or Bing or anything has been a nightmare.

And everything has been great, except that she can never remember the name of it.

So I get to play "Is she talking about the browser?"

So far we have "The duck thing" which is the most common one. We also have:

"Duck duck goose"

"Ducky go"

"Goose browser"

"The Go."

"The THING. With the DUCK."

[totally-bing]

anon's wrong, they mixed up the first two

duckduckgo > bing > any other search engine > google

That's the spirit!

I give you the duck of approval

[beeskneesntrees]

Love when I google a simple yes/no question about a game and the google AI overview immediately spoils the entire ending + plot twist.

[sc52]

the amount of clever people on youtube who jump to chatgpt to answer something simple that they couldve found via any half decent web search is some sort of gut punch

your artists and creators, and youre using chatgpt to get current up to date information - it fucking generates stuff right...?

and these people are doing projects that require stretches of time of waiting and drying and setting etc - they make it sound like chatgpt saves them time...

[totally-bing]

bullshit poll, do it again

You can comment or tag your reasons :)

[sak-supernatural]

Duck.ai!!?! What the fuck? I just had my first ai generated result in DuckDuckGo and I feel so betrayed. Not to mention it was inaccurate as fuck. Like totally wrong. 😑 I hate generative ai. No generative ai. It just makes people stupid. Use your brain. You don’t need to be spoon fed bullshit wrong information. I am sick of ai being forced down our throats at every turn!

[pretty-pink-seaslug]

picrew is literally unusable on mobile oh my fucking god

[totally-bing]

sorry godboy, i use duckduckgo, but youre still way better than google

you don't get to get away with using duckduckgo even if you say I'm better than google. repent and use me