I’ve been using duckduckgo for years now with no issues, but today I opened it and realized there were no longer any search results before scrolling. It was all ads/info cards. So I guess I’m looking for a replacement. Any suggestions?

Related: anyone know if there’s a way in the Adnauseum Firefox extension to hide ads on a specific trusted site? I like their goal of not punishing ads following the do not track standard, but DDG has crossed a threshold and I now want to blacklist them specifically.

  • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.worldEnglish
    37·
    2 months ago

    Not doubting you here, but I just tried searching for two very different terms on DDG on two different devices (Windows laptop and Android phone) and two different browsers (Firefox and Brave), and I didn’t really see any ads or dodgy stuff.

    The mobile Firefox version had a couple of main links at the top (they don’t look like ads), and some news cards under that. But the links were all relevant. The desktop DDG was super clean, again no ads.

    This was without ad blockers enabled too. I also tried it in private mode, and still clean.

    What am I missing? Why is my DDG experience so clean compared to yours?

    • Paradachshund@lemmy.todayOP
      24·
      2 months ago

      This was the worst time I’ve seen. Here’s a screenshot. The search term was benaroya hall if you want to try yourself.

        • Paradachshund@lemmy.todayOP
          8·
          2 months ago

          It really caught me off guard. I had another search later today after I posted this that only had one Ad at the top, so it seems like it depends on the search term. I’m not thrilled this is even possible though 😒

          • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.worldEnglish
            8·
            2 months ago

            Ahh okay. That would explain it. Yeah, it’s disappointing that DDG is selectively selling out. I get that they need to make money. But the content in that screenshot you shared is just ridiculous.

    • whaleross@lemmy.world
      7·
      2 months ago

      I second this. DDG, Searxng and various LLM are my daily drivers depending on the queries. I don’t recognise DDG being bloated with ads like Google. I have adblockers but I put sites like DDG on the whitelist because hey support the good guys.

      Is it topical? Regional? Does OP have malware that is transforming the browser document? Is OP searching for niche content and confusing singular domain results for ads? Has DDG shifted owners and doing some tests?

      I would like to know more.

      • asudox@programming.devM
        11·
        2 months ago

        DDG is not any better than bing. If you are willing to give your data to the “good guys” so they can make money with your data, you ultimately failed at protecting your privacy.