As you said there are people who don't want to switch from Chrome and Google, but at this point if you're talking about a ten step fix-it plan, is really does make more sense to just use Firefox and DDG. Or searx, I'm pretty sure that's still fewer steps.
this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2024
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DDG
"Hey wanna use our AI chat?!"
"Hey, like these autogenerated result-blobs instead of your actual results?"
"Hey, we thought you hate finding the place you were looking for, so we use Apple Maps to ensure you're getting fucking nowhere, ever!"
I wish DDG was usable. All it is, is a good showcase that Google isn't as bad as they could be.
Pfttt… at least with DDG you can turn any of that stuff off with a button in a UI rather than having to make a new bookmark or fuck around with your browsers search engine.
You can even turn the ads off if you want.
Also, Apple Maps is totally fine, it’s not overloaded with ads like Google Maps is and it basically always finds the place I search for.
Also, Apple Maps is totally fine, it’s not overloaded with ads like Google Maps is and it basically always finds the place I search for.
Okay this is the one thing I'd readily disagree on.
Beyond its absolutely inability to find non-US results (there's a steak house next to me, I can enter that exact name including capitalization + the name of the city I live in, and it'll instead find a different-named steak house in a US city names like my non-US one instead), not being able to click places on the map to select them is just laughable.
Nevermind how it's navigation is ridiculous, at least over here. It just travels shortest path, no respect for traffic lights or anything.
It's a very good showcase of how superior Google Maps actually is, as a maps application. And how much openstreetmap has left everything else in the dust, too.
Agreed, and additionally in Australka at least it's also slow as absolute fuck. Click on the map preview? Takes at least 30s to load the base map.
I guess YMMV, I just tried a few places around me (UK) and it found them all. You can also defiantly tap on a place to select it.
Did you try it recently or a while ago? I know it was pretty woeful when it came out but it’s improved a whole lot over the years.
DDG AI chat is actually pretty decent, offers multiple options for free with no noticable limit; maps is dogshit agreed, still have to fall back to google, use uBlock and can remove the featured results on DDG.
Yeah I was more comparing how they push things on you, too. They're of course much nicer, in particular because you can just turn things off, which is how it ought to work. I don't mind things being default-on, most users would otherwise never realize stuff even exists. But it really needs to be able to be disabled, like how DDG allows it. (But sadly not for their godawful Apple Maps)
Yeah you're not wrong, I used DDG without uBlock the other day and it's basically become Google that "doesn't track you". Which I think is the main thing going for them. I wish they'd use OSM or something that's actually not slow as fuck.
I’ve never noticed anything of what you describe. Perhaps they get filtered by uBlock. And isn’t the default Bing Maps for DDG?
Sadly not. I wish. Or maybe it's per-country? Here in Germany it's all Apple. Apple Maps, Apple Weather, etc. And they're all equally terrible and seem to be extremely US-centric in their results.
Kagi is better than all of them besides your own SearXNG setup. I’ve always thought DDG was bad, but man Kagi is like going back to the good ole days of Google in the 2000s.
I wish Kagi wasn’t as expensive as it is.
If it was $5 a month for unlimited searches I would be all over it but 300 searches is too few and $10 is too much money.
I think the price won't come down until they get more subscribers. I agree that 300 isn't enough for any sort of software dev, but it's fine if you're careful about your searches. I went the first trial month keeping it under 300. When I started paying for 1000 then it was easy to keep it under that. Then they switched it to unlimited which is nice, but I still hardly ever go over 1k. If there was a 1k option I would definitely go with that since you only pay fractions of a cent per search after that so I would save money.
is really does make more sense to just use Firefox and DDG
I take the point - but it doesn't make sense if you still prefer Chrome/Google to those overall and just want to change one aspect of it. This is just a way to improve the experience for people who are mostly happy with what they use and not interested in changing from it. It's great that we as users have that choice, that's how it should be.
but youre asking for something thats effectively cosmetic filtering, a feature that google pushing Manifeat V3, for example removed ublock for having as a user feature. while its good to have a choice, you need to understand when you're effectively fighting against yourself by asking for a feature that was intentionally removed, and you could get back, had you werent deadset with siding with the company that killed the feature.
I'm not asking for anything. This isn't a support request. I found something I find useful and wanted to share it. That's all.
First mistake is using Chrome second mistake is using Google.
Maybe I should have put that last line up the top instead...
No, this is Lemmy. It’s Linux, Firefox, DDG and pirate all intellectual property. Period. No exceptions.
Apparently so. Oh well, the info will still hopefully help people who're fine with their choices :-)
This is like those 20 minute videos for a problem that can be fixed in 20 sec
At the end of the day, if you keep using google, you will keep getting manipulated into what google wants you to. It may be fair, as it is free. Its a choice really. I pay a small amount to Kagi and have clean results with optional Ai if i feel like using it.
This is like those 20 minute videos for a problem that can be fixed in 20 sec
Hence my TLDR. It's a 6-point bullet list (and the last one is optional).
I know.
Its an overcomplicated solution for a problem that doesnt really fix anything in the long run.
I never said it fixed anything in the long run. It allows me (and probably others) to do things the way I want to do them. If it doesn't apply to everyone, that's ok.
I'm pretty sure they meant "20 minutes" to mean a lifetime of always fighting google and "20 seconds" to mean switching to a different browser
a lifetime of always fighting google
I think that might just be verging on hyperbole, no?
If you don't like the "extra nonsense", how about you stop using Google products? Namely Chrome and Google?
Feel like I covered that at the bottom.
Well, replace that with Firefox and use this Addon:
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/add-custom-search-engine/
Why would you need an extension for that? You can add other search engines right in the settings of firefox.
Edit: I was wrong, this is a feature Librewolf adds in their builds.
No you cant. Engines either need to support the "OpenSearch" standard, which is useless because it only works for a few and only for default configuration.
Or they need to have an Extension themselves, which is a silly concept.
Instead, this addon uses a URL (as it is supported in Firefox Mobile, Chrome, Brave, Edge, ...) and converts it to an OpenSearch Search engine which you can then add.
Afterwards you can remove the Addon.
Yes, you can. You just enter a url, and put the %s somewhere in the query params which firefox will replace with your query.
I just tested this with my own website, which definitely does not support any OpenSearch standard, and it works exactly like you'd imagine (except the page doesn't exist of course).
Edit: nevermind, turns out this is a librewolf thing. Sorry about that
Librewolf supports custom OpenSearch engines? Cool?
Didnt know that. Firefox should absolutely support this again, needing an Addon is embarrassing
Firefox supports custom search on iOS mobile.
Okay
Use DDG
You can also use startpage which just proxies your search queries and doesn’t return the AI answers.
Why don't you like the AI answer box (other than it being wrong sometimes)?
Partly it's aesthetic - it takes up so much room!
Partly it's preferential - I'm not keen on machine generated answers being prioritised over actual sources.
Mainly though it's because when I do a search, I usually know what website I expect/want to get to, and just want that available to click immediately.
I actually like the ai answer box
That's fair enough - as long as users have options then all good as far as I'm concerned :-)