Gregory's Server@chrisisgr8 Is DuckDuckGo still fine? Also, what did Windows and Discord do?
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12 comments
 @basil i have no idea, i've seen people talk about smaller/open source searchy type stuff but haven't given the time yet to trying to look into any of it @basil @chrisisgr8 i really like Startpage but it gets both its index and results straight from Google. but they always get my search wayyy more right than DDG, Searx, and most other alternative search engines I've been trying to use Metager.org and search.marginalia.nu more. I don't think either is a replacement for peak Google, but they're each pretty good in their own right. 💯 When my Win10 computer basically forced me into Win11, I knew that MS was headed back into big evil territory (assuming they ever really left). Discord I've basically always found unusable but I was starting to feel like it held too much sway lately to be safe for long. @chrisisgr8 @basil DDG isn't really choosing to remove stuff, as I understand it. They rely on Bing for the actual search engine, and Bing has chosen to remove features, so DDG loses them too. So it's the same sort of "third-party app at the mercy of the main platform" thing as Twitter/Reddit have gone through.  @basil @chrisisgr8 I use DDG in Firefox and haven't seen a problem yet. I did read something on Mastodon that they started using an AI for the app but can't confirm that since I don't use it. |
@basil DDG hasn't been fine for me for years, though I'd say it's still the least worst of the crop. I can't use it for anything but a first page search because you haven't been able to exclude results with the minus sign for literal years, so filtering out modern seo garbage is basically impossible.
Windows is an ad-filled wreck, it's a UX mess, and its quality as an actual operating system (overall stability and resource use) has been diving hard imo. Windows 11 is worse, and they're going to stop supporting my PC in 2025 for no reason, so I don't want to be glued to it anymore.
Discord is going through its enshittification phase, dumping their old username scheme for no reason (which nobody asked for or wants), and appears to be going fast down the path of "tech company trying to create dollar value over a usable product", and given the current climate of everyone else going to shit it just kind of seems bad (plus the glassdoor reviews really point to this)
@basil DDG hasn't been fine for me for years, though I'd say it's still the least worst of the crop. I can't use it for anything but a first page search because you haven't been able to exclude results with the minus sign for literal years, so filtering out modern seo garbage is basically impossible.