Alternative search engines to Google?

[Lsbcal]

What is a list of things people do not like about Google search other then a general feeling of unease?

[JoeWras]

So I reactivated this thread and I'll chime in a bit.

I don't really care about the tracking that much. What I care about is the quality of the search results. That's what got me going this morning. I actually sometimes like tracking. Yeah, I know, sounds crazy. But sometimes using my tracked history is helpful. However, what I don't like is low quality search results. I never thought I'd say that about Google, but their results are going down the toilet.

The search results were very poor and obviously directed to affiliated sites. Duckduckgo seemed to give a more neutral result. Like I said, it reminded me of the Google of 10+ years ago.

BTW, they are pretty open about some things. For instance, if you start shopping, they will prefer Amazon and Ebay.

DDG uses a variety of web search APIs. They are trying to build their own. Least I read they have pretty much divorced themselves from Google and mostly use the Bing API. Maybe some day they'll be on their own.

[Lsbcal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeWras So I reactivated this thread and I'll chime in a bit. I don't really care about the tracking that much. What I care about is the quality of the search results. ....

Could you give us some examples of low quality search results? Generally I find what I'm looking for but frankly never thought to look at search quality. Just trying to learn here, not criticizing.

[JoeWras]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lsbcal Could you give us some examples of low quality search results? Generally I find what I'm looking for but frankly never thought to look at search quality. Just trying to learn here, not criticizing.

A few things. Some of this may be configurable.

1) Google now fills a lot of space with "FAQ type questions" (People also ask) instead of just giving me results. I think this is really irritating me and probably can be turned off if I find the nerd knob.

2) Google shoots for what appear to be paid affiliations first. When it comes to sports searches, you'll get theathletic (subscription required) and draftkings. In my world, these are low quality for a search. The Athletic is a fine publication, very good as a matter of fact. But I don't want it top of my search. Sorry. I don't do quasi gambling, so draftkings is out.

[Lsbcal]

Thanks Joe. I guess many of us have unique search expectations.

[misanman]

Quote:

What is a list of things people do not like about Google search other then a general feeling of unease?

Two things:

1. Being hit with ads related to a recent search, especially when the purpose of the search has nothing to do with the prospect of buying anything.
2. Entering a search that is very specific and then having the desired result pushed down on the list of results in favor of some other reference that is high on the search engine's priority list but low on mine. I've learned that I need to read the result item to ensure it is valid.

I have an android phone (which I like) but a while back we were playing a family game in which I spoke the words "red popsicle" as part of the game play. Strangely, about 30 minutes later I started seeing ads on my phone that included the words "red popsicle".

[ERD50]

Another thing to do that might be interesting (I haven't really spent much time on this), is to do the search in a private window. Compare results with being signed in .

-ERD50

[JoeWras]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ERD50 Another thing to do that might be interesting (I haven't really spent much time on this), is to do the search in a private window. Compare results with being signed in . -ERD50

I do this. There are slight differences. As I mentioned before, the Google tracking doesn't bother me that much, right now. It is usually helpful.

What bothers me is misanman's #2 point. Google has a priority list that they push to you. To me it looks mostly based on cash-back in their pocket. To others, the political aspect is seen. Both suck.

[USGrant1962]

In a private/incognito window try searching for "early retirement" with each site. Duckduck lists ssa.gov, an AARP article, and then good old early-retirement.org third. Seems about right with "early retirement" actually in this URL.

In Google this site is many pages down. I'm not sure where - I gave up scrolling. They have ssa.gov and AARP, followed by lots of random big media articles and financial advisor sites, AKA advertisers. Searching "early retirement forum" does find this site first in Google.

Interestingly, I have the ddg extension installed and when I search I don't get any ads. If I go to the ddg site I get the same results, but with a couple of ads up front.

[Lsbcal]

Businesses optimize for Google so finding a bias in Google search is more probable i would guess.

[euro]

Considering Neeva. Supposed to be much more private a d secure (although there is a small fee).
If interested listen to a recent interview with the CEO on the Sway podcast with Kara Swisher. Pretty interesting. If I do sign up, I’ll report back at some point

[Sunset]

I generally use Bing. Because they pay me to search and it works well enough.

A few times I couldn't find what I wanted to I used one of the other engines for that search to see if I had better luck.

I generally earn ~$75 / yr from Bing, so we are not talking much money.

[JoeWras]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunset I generally use Bing. Because they pay me to search and it works well enough. A few times I couldn't find what I wanted to I used one of the other engines for that search to see if I had better luck. I generally earn ~$75 / yr from Bing, so we are not talking much money.

I didn't know about this program because Google probably stuffed the Microsoft Rewards program so far down on any search I've done that I missed it. And I'm not joking.

[Lsbcal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunset I generally use Bing. Because they pay me to search and it works well enough. A few times I couldn't find what I wanted to I used one of the other engines for that search to see if I had better luck. I generally earn ~$75 / yr from Bing, so we are not talking much money.

Well that is tempting. I will check out Bing with some search comparisons.

I see there is a Firefox extension for Bing.

[JoeWras]

So I'm activating this thread once again. I reactivated it earlier this year because I was frustrated by sudden low quality Google searches.

Lo and behold, it turns out right about that time a lot of people were complaining. This writer from The Atlantic has a piece about it. It isn't all one-sided bitching about Google, the author also digs a deeper and gives the other side of why search has changed.

It is worth a quick read:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ar...ternet/661325/

Quote:

A few weeks ago my house had a septic-tank emergency, which is as awful as it sounds. As unspeakable things began to burble up from my shower drain, I did what any smartphone-dependent person would: I frantically Googled something along the lines of poop coming from shower drain bad what to do. I was met with a slew of cookie-cutter websites, most of which appeared hastily generated and were choked with enough repetitive buzzwords as to be barely readable. Virtually everything I found was unhelpful, so we did the old-fashioned thing and called a professional. The emergency came and went, but I kept thinking about those middling search results—how they typified a zombified internet wasteland.

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Interesting that the article cites searching for a professional service. When we needed our carpets cleaned I searched for "[our suburb] carpet cleaning" and came up with a business with that exact name....but it turned out to have a fake address (I know our suburb very well, they used the address of a business I had actually been to before), and the phone number went to a very generalized call center. There were multiple reviews that said one guy showed up in a car with a rented carpet cleaner like you can get in many grocery stores, and I assume they have hundreds of other fake names, so the scale of this scam is hard to measure. (For reference, our named suburb has a population of about 30K.)

While I don't mean to distract from the changes in search engines, I wonder how much of the change we're seeing is due to this kind of businesses aggregation finding more effective ways to game search engines, for example by creating fake "local" businesses that only a local could know are not legit.

[JoeWras]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Cosmic Avenger While I don't mean to distract from the changes in search engines, I wonder how much of the change we're seeing is due to this kind of businesses aggregation finding more effective ways to game search engines, for example by creating fake "local" businesses that only a local could know are not legit.

Oh yes, we probably have all seen this!

Search for "roofing" from your Springfield address, and magically you get a website at the top of the list that says: "We do roofing in Springfield"

Then you dig further and notice the business is based in Champaign, not Springfield. Digging further, you notice the website language looks suspiciously like the roofer in San Jose, California, 1500 miles away. Hmmm...

The article addresses it a bit in the interview with the soul crushed writer who worked for an SEO company creating manufactured blog posts.

[Lsbcal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeWras Oh yes, we probably have all seen this! Search for "roofing" from your Springfield address, and magically you get a website at the top of the list that says: "We do roofing in Springfield" Then you dig further and notice the business is based in Champaign, not Springfield. Digging further, you notice the website language looks suspiciously like the roofer in San Jose, California, 1500 miles away. Hmmm... The article addresses it a bit in the interview with the soul crushed writer who worked for an SEO company creating manufactured blog posts.

Generally if I have no references from friends I will go to Yelp. Then do comparison shopping.

[Markola]

I like the Brave browser. It seems as good as Google to me and it filters out the annoying ads in articles. It’s also privacy oriented. I think you have to get it n app form.

Duck, Duck, Go is no longer private, unfortunately.