What's going on with DuckDuckGo lately?

[Tharthan]

I use DuckDuckGo as my only search engine, and am glad to do so, but I've been a bit puzzled by some of the fiddling around that they have been doing as of late.

And what's the deal with the bizarre non-option "(✓) Always Private" (circle turns into a shield if one moves one's cursor over it) in their search results?

Has anyone else been scratching their head recently?

[Pentium4User]

Has anyone else been scratching their head recently?

Not recently, but 2 years ago when they started censoring certain results they don't want in their search results when they talked about "no censorship" years ago.
That is simply untrustworthy and I don't trust them anymore.

[Moonchild]

I use DuckDuckGo as my only search engine, and am glad to do so, but I've been a bit puzzled by some of the fiddling around that they have been doing as of late.

Can't say I noticed anything out of order/different lately. It's my default search engine as well.

And what's the deal with the bizarre non-option "(✓) Always Private"

It's their attempt at letting people know front and center that their searches are always privacy-respecting for the users performing searches. I think it's superfluous and i switched it off in the options as such.

2 years ago when they started censoring certain results

Still can't believe you're still harping on that and refusing to absorb the explanation I've given multiple times that came -directly- from DDG management.

[suzyne]

And what's the deal with the bizarre non-option "(✓) Always Private"

It's their attempt at letting people know front and center that their searches are always privacy-respecting for the users performing searches. I think it's superfluous and i switched it off in the options as such.

Yes, my understanding is that it is no more than a little self-promotion to remind the user how great they are.

DuckDuckGo is my default search, but it pains me that their results are inferior to Google, and so I can't 100% trust DDG.

Then again, since Pale Moon is my default browser, I am okay with not relying on a single technology to successfully meet all my internet needs.

[Moonchild]

DuckDuckGo is my default search, but it pains me that their results are inferior to Google, and so I can't 100% trust DDG.

Tip for quick access to Google results when you need them, use !g in front of your search query in DDG and it will automatically forward your query to Google search. No need to type "google.com" in the address bar first

[andyprough]

DuckDuckGo is my default search, but it pains me that their results are inferior to Google, and so I can't 100% trust DDG.

Google has been caught in recent years selling top search result space to known malware producers for them to promote falsely named malware links.[1] Unfortunately, Google is no longer trustworthy for search. It's a shame, as I remember when Google search was new many years ago and really revolutionized the ability to find information online.

[1] for example, https://www.afr.com/technology/when-you ... 728-p5ds4d , and many other similar references

[jobbautista9]

Funnily enough I find DDG much better in results than Google these days, especially when searching images.

I hope DDG supports reverse image search one day so I can fully replace Google on that front (unfortunately TinEye is not good enough in general but sometimes it's useful)

[suzyne]

Tip for quick access to Google results when you need them, use !g in front of your search query in DDG and it will automatically forward your query to Google search.

Wow, I tried it and it works. That feels very generous of DDG to provide.

Unfortunately, Google is no longer trustworthy for search.

That's the thing, I wouldn't call Google trustworthy either and it can show dreadful or useless results too, but in some cases it is more effective.

While murmuring about DDG, and I guess it's part of a deal that keeps them afloat, but it's annoying when clicking on news related links you don't always go to the site you expect, but instead the content is embedded in a MSN Start page thing.

To be honest, the main reason I persist with DDG is because I make sure that t=palemoon is part of the search URL because I believe that benefits Pale Moon?

[Moonchild]

I make sure that t=palemoon is part of the search URL because I believe that benefits Pale Moon?

Yes it does. Every search by Pale Moon users with that URL tag adds up to a monthly aggregate for which we get some money (used to be a lot more, like, 4x what we get now, but apparently revenue stream optimization always favours the one doing the calculations).

[Kerebron]

I tried it and it works. That feels very generous of DDG to provide.

There are more of those, so called, bangs.
https://duckduckgo.com/bangs?q=

[Blacklab]

I use DuckDuckGo as my only search engine, and am glad to do so, but I've been a bit puzzled by some of the fiddling around that they have been doing as of late.

And what's the deal with the bizarre non-option "(✓) Always Private" (circle turns into a shield if one moves one's cursor over it) in their search results?

Has anyone else been scratching their head recently?

Agree, yes, a lot of head scratching here last week... was I seeing things? DDG's main homepage layout, shading, scaling, colouring, wording, all definitely changed subtly during last week... a minor but complete UI update in progress... but unannounced anywhere AFAICS? Maybe a rolling series of UI updates underway... apparently DDG's homepage icon & logo image was replaced with a svg file a few weeks ago too.

For those of us who always preferred the very original DDG UI colour scheme with the green search buttons on the homepage's search bar and on search results pages that option to 'revert to the old UI' appears to have been removed from the Settings... now its a blue search button only on the homepage without making a local CSS userstyle fix. Very Henry Ford.

For those happily using DDG's newer UI complete with blue search buttons the only major clue to DDG's UI update was probably the added "(✓) Always Private" in bright green top left on DDG's search results page. Annoyingly, this (non-functioning and seemingly pointless?) distraction won't go away long term even if you redo your DDG Settings URL string to include the removal code stated in 'Search Settings/All Settings' (kpsb=-1)... after several tries at removal via URL string method gave up, defeated... resorted to nuking the offending article with uBlock Origin's excellent Element Picker tool instead... that does work permanently!

[Basilisk-Dev]

Off-topic:
I've been really unhappy with DuckDuckGo's results recently so switched over to Kagi. It's a paid search engine but I strongly recommend it if anyone is looking at DuckDuckGo alternatives that don't suck and respect privacy.

https://kagi.com/

[darkarts]

DuckDuckGo is my default search, but it pains me that their results are inferior to Google, and so I can't 100% trust DDG.

I use DDG (well, the lite version) as well and it's OK for the most part. However, when I need the long tail I use startpage.com which claims to give Google's results but without the tracking. YMMV, of course.

eg: https://www.startpage.com/do/metasearch.pl?query=%22pale%20moon%22

[daemonspudguy]

2 years ago when they started censoring certain results

Still can't believe you're still harping on that and refusing to absorb the explanation I've given multiple times that came -directly- from DDG management.

DuckDuckGo also has basically always filtered results, as well. eHow is specifically ranked down in DDG's algorithm because DDG considers them (correctly) a spamming content mill with few redeeming qualities.

[Moonchild]

Okay once again then:

First, ranking down is not censoring or filtering. Ranking results based on quality and relevance is something every search engine (necessarily) does.
Second, DDG relies primarily on the search results they get from their upstream providers. They DO NOT do any filtering of what they get, but if the results aren't present in their feed because upstream has filtered the results, then they can't present them out of thin air either. This was doubly-confirmed to me by the upper echelon at DDG.

[frostknight]

Off-topic:
I've been really unhappy with DuckDuckGo's results recently so switched over to Kagi. It's a paid search engine but I strongly recommend it if anyone is looking at DuckDuckGo alternatives that don't suck and respect privacy.

https://kagi.com/

I don't have much against duckduckgo, I hear they do static ads for money. This is not bad as long as there aren't actual trackers which would make the ads non-static.

This being said, it does have a proprietary core so I use a searx instance usually. Nothing currently against duckduckgo, I just prefer using more minimal, libre options.

I don't see a reason to ever pay for a search engine. Email? Maybe... cloud storage? possibly.

But search engine? Nah...

[frostknight]

Second, DDG relies primarily on the search results they get from their upstream providers. They DO NOT do any filtering of what they get, but if the results aren't present in their feed because upstream has filtered the results, then they can't present them out of thin air either.

I was wondering if this wasn't the case. Wouldn't surprise me.

It makes sense that search engines like duckduckgo would use upstream providers so if its filtered, its before duckduckgo even gets the info.

[Eduardolucas1]

Mainstream search engines constantly hide results which are not very friendly to local or host country regimes, or at least send them to the page 10. To me its impossible now to use them for anything critical which involves neutrality. I have no idea why, but any political or economic talk which skims away from majority views is not appreciated by search algorithms, something i cannot understand and which makes me use mojeek for these purposes.

[frostknight]

Mainstream search engines constantly hide results which are not very friendly to local or host country regimes, or at least send them to the page 10. To me its impossible now to use them for anything critical which involves neutrality. I have no idea why, but any political or economic talk which skims away from majority views is not appreciated by search algorithms, something i cannot understand and which makes me use mojeek for these purposes.

That to me, is unjust. It's a good example why corporatism is so vile.

As I may have mentioned elsewhere, neutrality is needed desperately.

I will have to check mojeek to see if its any good.

[moonbat]

It's a good example why corporatism is so vile.

Off-topic:
Thank you for identifying corporatism as the problem and not capitalism itself as is the fashion these days