I mean the article is specifically about Google search. Which might have gone downhill since whenever it first came out with the introduction of ads (sorry, ‘Sponsored Results’) but I’m not seeing significantly better competition for delivering search results. Everyone is still just aping the brand leader.
DuckDuckGo is obviously better for privacy for example but it doesn’t seem to have any ambition except to deliver the same results as Google but without the ads and tracking which is ok but not a big enough draw except for people already concerned about privacy. Bing gets essentially the same results but if anything seems more spammy than Google with pop ups about making it or edge your default search engine or browser. It feels like other search engines just take Google search as something to copy and put their spin on it though.
I’d say search is one of the things Google is still getting right enough to earn its place as the leader. Some things it does well, some things it has badly declined on (someone above mentioned Google assistant hardly understanding anything anymore, when it used to be the best in this area too), but generally you can replace most Google things with programmes doing things their own way. Search engines just feel a bit like reskins to me
DuckDuckGo is obviously better for privacy for example but it doesn’t seem to have any ambition except to deliver the same results as Google but without the ads
I don’t think duckduckgo has ANY control over improving the search results. Except maybe switching to a different engine.
Pretty much. The reason Google’s search results were so good was because of the information they had on you and on other users who made similar searches. I’m not advocating for DDG to start tracking users, though. But it’ll be hard for them to have a “Google-like” search experience (single search bar with no other parameters) without that kind of data.
I completely disagree. Their results have started decreasing in value and accuracy the more they tie them into their profile of you. Google was most useful when it showed you what you searched for. Many of the problems with their results now stem from it showing you what it thinks you want, rather than showing you what you asked for. The rest of the problem is it showing you what is profitable, rather than what you asked for.
I think it’s because their profile of “you” has gotten more narrow as it has gotten better at figuring you out. It has started making assumptions about what you want instead of recommending things others want.
Agreed. And in a way, it is also a contributing factor to how polarizing internet-based discussion has become. Rather than show you the most cited websites for answering a political question, it’s going to use its profile of “you” to show you something you’re more likely to engage with.
I don’t want it to make assumptions, I want it to show me what I told it to show me and not show me what I specifically told it not to. They’ve been ignoring the negative operator quite a lot lately.
Google immediately jumped ahead in search when it started by having a simple webpage and using PageRank. This was a while before there were even Gmail accounts and all the tracking we’re given now.
At this point I’d settle for a search company that doesn’t care to track you, uses general (not specific) predictive search, implements Boolean search, and isn’t diminished in quality by SEO.
That last criterion is the hardest one. It might not even be feasible.
I just started trialling kagi the other day and I’m enjoying it so far but one thing I miss is how reliably Google can tell me opening hours when I search for a local cafe. The web results have been better so far, though.
I just use Google maps for that. It will ALWAYS show the hours if they’re listed, instead of sometimes like on Google results pages. On my phone I use the maps app and on my desktop I go to maps.google.com.
yes, google maps is still king fothat I guess. After a bit more searching on Kagi, though, I’m really liking it, is there a way to see how many searches you have left?
Doesn’t seem to play nicely with Firefox Android unfortunately. Which is ironic because Chrome on Android is one of the areas of Google I decided to experiment degoogling from just a week ago or so
I use it on Firefox Android and it works fine. Go to settings/search/defaultsearch engines, then tap “add a search engine”. You can even use a token to enable Kagi in private browsing. Then you just select Kagi instead of one of the other options.
I mean the article is specifically about Google search. Which might have gone downhill since whenever it first came out with the introduction of ads (sorry, ‘Sponsored Results’) but I’m not seeing significantly better competition for delivering search results. Everyone is still just aping the brand leader.
DuckDuckGo is obviously better for privacy for example but it doesn’t seem to have any ambition except to deliver the same results as Google but without the ads and tracking which is ok but not a big enough draw except for people already concerned about privacy. Bing gets essentially the same results but if anything seems more spammy than Google with pop ups about making it or edge your default search engine or browser. It feels like other search engines just take Google search as something to copy and put their spin on it though.
I’d say search is one of the things Google is still getting right enough to earn its place as the leader. Some things it does well, some things it has badly declined on (someone above mentioned Google assistant hardly understanding anything anymore, when it used to be the best in this area too), but generally you can replace most Google things with programmes doing things their own way. Search engines just feel a bit like reskins to me
I don’t think duckduckgo has ANY control over improving the search results. Except maybe switching to a different engine.
Pretty much. The reason Google’s search results were so good was because of the information they had on you and on other users who made similar searches. I’m not advocating for DDG to start tracking users, though. But it’ll be hard for them to have a “Google-like” search experience (single search bar with no other parameters) without that kind of data.
I completely disagree. Their results have started decreasing in value and accuracy the more they tie them into their profile of you. Google was most useful when it showed you what you searched for. Many of the problems with their results now stem from it showing you what it thinks you want, rather than showing you what you asked for. The rest of the problem is it showing you what is profitable, rather than what you asked for.
I think it’s because their profile of “you” has gotten more narrow as it has gotten better at figuring you out. It has started making assumptions about what you want instead of recommending things others want.
Agreed. And in a way, it is also a contributing factor to how polarizing internet-based discussion has become. Rather than show you the most cited websites for answering a political question, it’s going to use its profile of “you” to show you something you’re more likely to engage with.
Yeah, it’s a massive issue with Google. It just doesn’t serve the content you need anymore, and rather shows what it thinks you’ll want.
Google is great at finding products. DuckDuckGo isn’t perfect either, but it’s better at neutral information than Google.
I don’t want it to make assumptions, I want it to show me what I told it to show me and not show me what I specifically told it not to. They’ve been ignoring the negative operator quite a lot lately.
That’s what I’m saying. I think it’s assumptions has made it much worse.
Google immediately jumped ahead in search when it started by having a simple webpage and using PageRank. This was a while before there were even Gmail accounts and all the tracking we’re given now.
At this point I’d settle for a search company that doesn’t care to track you, uses general (not specific) predictive search, implements Boolean search, and isn’t diminished in quality by SEO.
That last criterion is the hardest one. It might not even be feasible.
Kagi is better than all the others combined. Yes you have to pay for it. If you spend any time on the Internet day-to-day then it’s worth it.
I just started trialling kagi the other day and I’m enjoying it so far but one thing I miss is how reliably Google can tell me opening hours when I search for a local cafe. The web results have been better so far, though.
I just use Google maps for that. It will ALWAYS show the hours if they’re listed, instead of sometimes like on Google results pages. On my phone I use the maps app and on my desktop I go to maps.google.com.
yes, google maps is still king fothat I guess. After a bit more searching on Kagi, though, I’m really liking it, is there a way to see how many searches you have left?
Yup! Go to account/settings/billing and it’ll tell you. I thought I would use more than 1000 every month, but so far I’m averaging about 700.
Thanks!
Doesn’t seem to play nicely with Firefox Android unfortunately. Which is ironic because Chrome on Android is one of the areas of Google I decided to experiment degoogling from just a week ago or so
I use it on Firefox Android and it works fine. Go to
settings/search/default search engines, then tap “add a search engine”. You can even use a token to enable Kagi in private browsing. Then you just select Kagi instead of one of the other options.Ah I was just going to their website and it was refusing to load the page. But then when I tried it on Chrome it was fine.
I’ll have a play around later, cheers
Honestly Bing has outperformed Google for me lately to the point where I might set as default on some browsers.
I switched full time to bing last month and have so far not missed google at all.
I’d rather not just go to another mega corp, but the rest that I tried out just didn’t get the results I was looking for.
Kagi is pretty great. But I haven’t used Google Search in a few years, so I can’t properly judge.
Brave search uses a different index, so I like searching it first since it will give me significantly different results
Ddg is driving me crazy with correcting what i type to give more generalized results. Searx is my new favorite. It’s not just a google reskin.