In the last couple of months I have noticed an increasing trend of supplying me search results that are completely unrelated to the current query and tie back to my location or previous searches. I can say this with a high degree of certainty this is without a doubt beyond the 100th instance this has happened.

My browser is configured against tracking and fingerprinting (in fact all my devices are) which would make it fairly difficult to retain any data unless they are profiling me.

  • sar1n@infosec.pub
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    11 months ago

    I’ve also noticed that if you do a search, click a result, then hit back to go back to the results they manipulate the results in some weird way so they’re not the exact same results you got the first time. Infuriating

    • akilou@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      Yes! I thought I was losing my mind. I was like “I swear this was the third result but now it’s the 5th? Eh, maybe it was the 5th.”

    • mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      I’d bet that’s more bug than feature. Like they’re trying to avoid SEO providing any consistent ordering to be gamed.

      Still a pain in the ass either way. Vindication for being a complete tab whore.

  • mtchristo@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    It has been doing this shit for a while. Returning results based on just one key word out of many keywords from my query.

    Lately they have been even ignoring the restrictive +“keyword” syntax and returning whatever shit just so they won’t admit their (or Microsoft’s indexer) is shit

  • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    I get the same shit at work where I can’t use a VPN: like 7-8 relevant results then basically just ads for local businesses after that.

  • skozzii@lemmy.ca
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    11 months ago

    On DDG I can type in an exact company or product name and not get a proper result, it’s crazy. Google seems to find the stuff no problem, it’s really quite frustrating when the search engine isn’t even capable of basic queries.

    • Gallardo994@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      Thanks for mentioning Kagi! I’ve been looking for some Google/DDG replacement but every single one I’ve tried had some sort of dealbreaking drawback for me. Google collects all my data and heavily filters my results, DDG provides dogshit results most of the time I don’t even bother using it, Startpage is awfully slow, and I didn’t even get to understand what Searx is as looking for it led me to some random ugly pages.

      Subbed for 1 year 10 bucks plan. Works super-fast on mobile too. Hell yeah!

  • ejmin@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    Same here. Every time I ditch Google and go to ddg, I just laugh how irrelevant all the results are and I continue feeding Google with personal data and telemetry and whatnot.

    It is true that even Google’s results feel much worse than before but it’s still significantly better than ddg.

  • TheHolyChecksum@infosec.pub
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    11 months ago

    Yes, I have the same issue with DDG for something like a year now. I can’t use it anymore for basic searches, I feel like the bing api they are using is getting worse and worse.

  • devbo@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    great. i finally get off google and now duckduckgo is bad. i hate the internet.

  • TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    As someone who is a data hoarder/curator and dives into the deep ends of web abyss, I use Searx, Startpage and Yandex. I do not mind Startpage only because I no longer use search engines that much anymore. If something truly needs to be searched, Yandex is the absolute, untouchable king for web, image and reverse image searching, and is better than Google for privacy (very low bar but > Google/Bing).

    Searx usually does deliver for the common use cases, and Startpage gives Google results minus SEO and sponsored trash.

    If I were to rank them for results based on years of experience, Yandex is easily a 10 (ignoring its unbeatable image search), Searx with “default/all” language results a 7, Startpage a 5 (censors Russian/Chinese sources since it is based on Google), Qwant probably 3.5-4 (unavailable in many regions), Google 3, DDG and Bing 2. I am not sure how Metager, Mojeek and Kagi fare, but they probably perform somewhere between Searx with “default/all” language results and DDG.

    Why Yandex is so above Searx metasearch is because its indexing is a lot faster than once a day, besides giving the experience of what Google was around 2009/10 and with no SEO crap. You will find the most obscure personal blog and website there, and DMCA bullshit does not work in Russia, which would work on any of these other search engines or metasearch instance owners.

  • ShortN0te@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    I have still the same good results in ddg, no matter what device or browser. I have noticed that they have some location bias when ddg (and any other search engine i have tried) has non good results globaly but good resulta locally.

    Still better then anything i have tested. Just because there are minor anomalies i will stick with them.