Not because DDG got better, but just because google got worse.

google is still better for site-specific searches, and google scholar still has minimal AI slop

  • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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    32 minutes ago

    ive been using it consistently for the past few years. it works well for me, but sometimes ill go to other engines just to see what they come up with, or when results are lacking. sometimes they are better, sometimes they are worse.

    meaning ddg is probably good enough nowadays, at least for me.

    • irelephant [he/him]🍭@lemm.ee
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      23 minutes ago

      You probably already know this, but you can use search “bangs” to search other websites from ddg.

      For example, to search google, you would put !g or !google at the start of your search.

  • Psythik@lemm.ee
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    6 minutes ago

    Definitely not; DDG has always been bad. However, as others have pointed out, Google is getting worse and every day. That said, it’s still better than DDG, which isn’t saying much.

    There are no good search engines anymore. I got tired of having to add site:reddit.com to all or my searches to get actual answers, so now I’ve resorted to using AI and pretending that it isn’t just making up half the shit it spews. Perplexity is a half decent replacement for a search engine; it’s more accurate than most and it cites its sources:

    https://lemmy.world/post/26764870

    • MrMeatballGuy@feddit.dk
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      2 hours ago

      Never saw that abbreviation before, but my assumption is it’s “does anyone else” since I can’t think of anything else that’d make sense in this context

    • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      DAE is a fairly common acronym on online forums, often used in titles such as these. You could have used Google (or DuckDuckGo) to learn its meaning 😊

      It’s simply “does anyone else.”

      • AvailableFill74@lemmy.ml
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        2 hours ago

        If you wish to be understood, choose your words more carefully. If you wish to be treated with kindness, drop the defensiveness, learn to process feedback objectively, and take communication seriously. No one is being unkind or unreasonable here, except you.

          • AvailableFill74@lemmy.ml
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            2 hours ago

            “No one knows what the heck dae means you lazy bum. We invented words for a reason, try using them. If you’re illiterate then maybe try a YouTube video essay. “

            If someone said that, sure… but no one did. Perhaps the Original Poster needs to take communication more seriously and less personally.

            • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ@lemmy.world
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              2 hours ago

              I think you’re making a significant deal out of something that is quite minor, personally. It’s okay, though. It’s minor, so we can agree to disagree. Cheers!

                • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ@lemmy.world
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                  3 minutes ago

                  You’re so focused on the act of communication that you’re blind to the fact that you aren’t very good at it. Chill out, man. This isn’t parliment.

  • limoncia@lemm.ee
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    4 hours ago

    I found Qwant to be a bit better, but yeah. Google got so much worse over last few years

  • Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    4 hours ago

    I really agree Google just took themself out of the market. I wouldn’t be surprised if they dropped their “search” product completely, the way they’ve dropped a lot of other good products along the way.

  • DioEgizio@lemm.ee
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    4 hours ago

    yeah honestly I’ve been using ddg for a very long time and while a few years ago I had to frequently !g because search sucked now google got so enshittified many times ddg feels better

  • Luc@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    Eyeing the replies, does not one other person here get results constantly flooded with content farms? They’ve gotten significantly worse

    But then, I don’t use Google so maybe this is still better than Google Search?

    It started maybe three years ago, around the same time as LLMs became usable for this, but I’m pretty sure >50% are human-written still. Probably the LLM generates the structure (saves any time they’d have to spend coming up with plausible-sounding texts) and someone from a low-income country is contracted to make it look more legit

    Of course, queries for topics that have a Wikipedia page get Wikipedia first, recipes get tons of big-name recipe sites, products get stores. But when there’s no obvious market around a topic, 3~4 out of 5 results are content farms pretending to have useful information to show unwary visitors ads

    (As an alternative, I still have to try Kagi properly. It seemed on par with DDG when I did a few searches last year, but then their payment processor refused me trying to load my account, support was unhelpful, and I’ve gotten sidetracked since)

    • inconspicuouscolon@lemy.lol
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      2 hours ago

      I also get those content farms constantly. I don’t want to use google but lately I’ve been using it over duckduckgo more often.

    • Niquarl@lemmy.ml
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      3 hours ago

      The other annoying thing is the air summaries. I’ve disable AI features but that’s still on. I hate it so much

  • 74 183.84@lemm.ee
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    4 hours ago

    Wow, it has been some time since I used duck duck go. On my phone I have bing for searches as it is convenient with chatGPT integration (which tbh I only use when coding, for which I have copilot now baked into VScode). On my laptop and work station I use Arc. Its sexy af and really makes a man wonder about himself. I will have to revisit DDG. I do remember enjoying it though only for enhanced privacy. Feature wise it just seemed exactly what chrome was offering

  • ByGourou@sh.itjust.works
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    10 hours ago

    I really tried, I set duckduckgo as the default for my second browser (I use it a lot) to slowly get used to it, but every time results are so bad I get mad and switch to Google especially for images