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Two horizontally stitched screenshots comparing a search for “Reavers GIF” on DuckDuckGo and Google in Safari iOS (private tabs). DDG presented zero Firefly/Serenity relevant results while Google found them exclusively.
Hopefully a privacy-focused yet fast instance for US West Coast cheapskates who probably should pony up for Kagi, buttttttttttt
I just did it on DDG, Firefox Mobile, moderate safe search level.
I got tons of Soul Reaver gifs, so it’s just you. Google probably got relevant results, because it likely has a sprawling profile of your interests. No idea why your DDG is so fucked up.
And it’s different now! Reminded of how DDG rearranges search results when opening a result link, then hitting back, but much more extreme.
Using a fresh [cookie-isolated] private tab for every search and going through iCloud Private Relay… I still have no doubt they still manage it. Sigh. Those “am I unique?” browser fingerprinting tests still show I’m unique, perhaps due to having an extension or two installed on Safari? Creepy.
OK, I feel better now. On searxng.site, I disabled all engines except for Google and I’m getting results similar to in my OP.
I think Google uses certain fingerprints, like location data, IPs you tend to connect from, etc. In my experience, they’re good at figuring out who and where you are.