[kwlug-disc] Now in the market for a new search engine...

[Andrew Sullivan Cant]

Agreed on the DDG bang commands! I have been using them since I switched 
to DDG, and it would be difficult to move to another search engine 
without that feature.

One of the reasons that searx seems interesting though, is that it feels 
a little weird to run ALL my non-DDG search queries through DDG.

But most of those queries start in DDG, so I think it is just a feeling. :)


Andrew



On 2022-04-16 19:50, Mikalai Birukou via kwlug-disc wrote:
> 
>> Here's my pitch for DuckDuckGo.
>> * For some domains, search results are much better than Google. 
>> Specifically, the Video and Recipe searches.
>> * bang operators: https://duckduckgo.com/bang
>>
>> To do a google search from Duck Duck Go, add !g
>> Or add !gi for a google image search.
>>
>> To do a bing search from DuckDuck Go, add !b
>> Or !bi for a bing imagdicke search.
> 
> I love this bang crack to the point of wondering wft, when I happen to 
> be on machine not yet configured with DuckDuckGo.
> 
> !w, !yt, even !tw are all convenient. And I am just a nano person, not 
> even a vim user, who must have this deep internal productive 
> relationship with shortcuts.
> 
>> !w does a wikipedia search, so 'youtube download !w' shows 
>> 'youtube-dl' as the first hit, and 'comparison of youtube downloaders' 
>> as the second hit.
>>
>> !r is a reddit search.
>>
>> I personally use !gsch a lot, which does a google scholar search 
>> (great for finding research papers).
>> I also use !wikt a lot, which looks up a word in wiktionary (best 
>> comprehensive dictionary since the OED).
>>
>> So it's like a multi-source search engine, but you have to explicitly 
>> specify an alternate source.
>> It does require some expert knowledge: which sources to use for which 
>> searches. Use https://duckduckgo.com/bang to find new sources.
>>
>> On Sat, Apr 16, 2022, at 5:28 PM, Chris Frey wrote:
>>> I've been trying Bing lately, giving up on privacy for a bit for now
>>> in search of the best search results, and so far I've been impressed.
>>> A few quirks, but I did not expect Microsoft to yield better results
>>> than Google, yet here we are.
>>>
>>> But this Searx idea, with weighted engine options, sounds great...
>>> maybe I can have my cake and eat it too!  Thanks Andrew. :-)
>>>
>>> - Chris
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sat, Apr 16, 2022 at 11:32:04AM -0400, Andrew Sullivan Cant wrote:
>>>> This reminded me of the Searx search engine, which sounds 
>>>> interesting but I
>>>> have not gotten around to looking at.
>>>>
>>>> * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searx
>>>> * https://searx.space/
>>>>
>>>> It appears to be a meta-search engine, which you can run locally or use
>>>> existing mirrors.
>>>> This means it does not disconnect you from the existing search 
>>>> engines, but
>>>> might be a useful step removed from them. And provides you with at 
>>>> least an
>>>> interface which you have more control over.
>>>>
>>>> Its AGPLv3, which is nice.
>>>>
>>>> Has anyone ever user or looked at this?
>>>>
>>>> Oh, sorry I forgot the right terminology for that...
>>>>
>>>> "Dear Lazyweb, ..."   :)
>>>>
>>>> Andrew
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> https://blog.codinghorror.com/lazyweb-calling/
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 2022-04-15 22:26, CrankyOldBugger wrote:
>>>>> Just found out that DuckDuckGo is now a lapdog for the copyright
>>>>> industry 
>>>>> (https://yro.slashdot.org/story/22/04/15/2057253/duckduckgo-removes-pirate-sites-and-youtube-dl-from-its-search-results 
>>>>> <https://yro.slashdot.org/story/22/04/15/2057253/duckduckgo-removes-pirate-sites-and-youtube-dl-from-its-search-results>) 
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I mean, really, youtube-dl????
>>>>>
>>>>> So I am now in need of a new really-is-private-and-FOSS search engine.
>>>>> Obviously, Google is out of the question.
>>>>>
>>>>> What are the cool kids using these days to protect their rights?
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks!
> 
> 
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