Just great. Now Duck Duck Go is putting ads on the top of search pages. Any other search engine out there that doesn't do this? They are identified as ads and my ad blockers block them, but still.
Just wanna tell you guys that I'm not a ordinary Internet user: I don't like to use Google search engine and even the Chrome app. So I prefer to use Brave and their searching engine, if not, I use DuckDuckGo.
But, I found out so many limitations on those engines that forces me to go to Google, which disgusts me.
I don't know if Google is still the "most powerful" engine than Brave or Duck, but I would like to know if there any other alternative. #Fediverse#DuckDuckGo#Google
If you're still using Google (try DuckDuckGo instead?) for some reason and want REAL search results, make sure to use that More dropdown and the Web option/feature this article mentions at the end, the one I joked about yesterday. Here's a little longer piece about all Google's changes, etc.
"A global outage is affecting a variety of Microsoft services, including its Bing search engine and Copilot AI tool.
Users turned to social media on Thursday to complain about the outage, which is also impacting third parties, including the search engine DuckDuckGo, which relies on Microsoft’s infrastructure."
I don't know why it doesn't, I've submitted URLs and sitemaps. According to Bing's own Webmaster Tools, there are no specific problems, it's allowed by robots.txt, testing individual pages reports no issues, etc. And yet every URL is "Excluded" with no additional information provided. Bing support helpfully suggested I review the webmaster guidelines to increase my chances.
Searching for an exact page title will return other sites which link to it, but not the original post. :blobconfounded:
Did someone else also notice that #DuckDuckGo is much worse than before in finding good results, esp. in queries related to software development? I find that most of the time I have to add !g bang to fallback to #Google search.
Trying #Startpage after #DuckDuckGo search results quality went down some time ago and I switched back to #Google. I wonder if I should have given DDG another chance instead.
Claims to be a local VPN through which all app traffic is routed, and the data doesn't leave the phone.
Upon activating it, I see it claiming to have intercepted lots of attempts at tracking from various apps, listing blocked items such as postal code, local IP address, network carrier, and the like, plus much worse ones like name, email, advertising ID and others.
(The good part is it's only 4 apps doing all of the tracking and I can – and did – delete them.)
I kind of wish #Brave and #duckduckgo found a way to prioretize Fediverse platforms over #Twitter and #Reddit or at least aknowledge them as one despite the different domains but I don't think ether of the projects will do such modifications to their search engines and in most cases that's a very good thing!
#Security#Nerds and #Experts of #Mastodon, I have a #Question for you.
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I am attempting to de-#Google my digital life (as much as is possible at the moment). I got myself an #Android#MobilePhone that does not have Google services installed on it, and I am using #FDroid, #AuroraStore, #APKPure, etc. to get the apps, and using the #AppBrain#AdDetector and #DuckDuckGo's #App#Tracking#Protection (#Beta built into their mobile browser).
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I am doing my best to use #minimal apps, and only getting ones that are not security focused when necessary. I am not logging into Google, or any other #BigSocial/ #BigData services except when necessary.
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My question is, are there any #SMS / #Texting apps that allow you to login on the #Web and #sync messages to your phone (even if only on the same network), and a #keyboard that has #VoiceToText that does not use Google or #Microsoft? I am currently using #SwiftKey, but only until I figure out the #T9 app I am using with the KB (HYBRID phone running Android 11).
DuckDuckAssitant is back!