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

Doug Moen doug at moens.org
Fri Apr 22 17:24:30 EDT 2022 

Quant has its own web index, so is a true alternative to bing and google. Use !qw in DDG. It is supported by the French government. Russian media disinformation is deranked. Searches for youtube-dl do not yield the home page, as with most search engines, other than DDG and google. Microsoft ads. I got good results for a search that DDG and google failed. Would use again.

Ecosia uses Bing, and gets revenue from Bing advertising. Youtube-dl.org does not appear in first page of results for a youtube-dl search, like DDG before they fixed this. But the Wikipedia page came first, which compensates. I got an obtrusive cookie banner when I tried to use it.

Yacy sounds very cool and indie but my search results for 'signed distance field' were useless random nonsense.

Thanks for mentioning Qwant.

Doug.

On Fri, Apr 22, 2022, at 3:11 PM, CrankyOldBugger wrote:
> So while I think my original post of needing a new search engine isn't as urgent or critical as I first thought, I was catching up on my reading last night when I noticed that the August 2021 edition of Linux Magazine USA had an article (called "Alternative Engines" ) about basically the same stuff that we were talking about.  They listed the following search engines, with a discussion of how each one respects privacy:
> 
>  1. DuckDuckGo: https://duckduckgo.com/
>  2. Qwant: https://www.qwant.com/
>  3. Ecosia: https://www.ecosia.org/
>  4. Ecosia financial reports: https://blog.ecosia.org/ecosia-financial-reports-tree-planting-receipts/
>  5. YaCy: https://yacy.net
>  6. YaCy demo page: https://yacy.net/demonstration_tutorial_screenshot/
>  7. Searx: https://searx.space/
>  8. Searx search engines: https://searx.github.io/searx/admin/engines.html
>  9. Searx installation document: https://searx.github.io/searx/admin/installation.html
>  10. Download Searx: https://github.com/searx/searx.git
>  11. YaCy on GitHub: https://github.com/yacy/yacy_search_server
> 
> You can find the article at https://www.linux-magazine.com/Issues/2021/249/Search-Engines/(language)/eng-US  (I won't post the whole article here for copywrite reasons; we don't want Paul getting sent to a non-FOSS prison....)
> 
> And I have to confess that everytime my poor eyes see "Searx" my brain interprets that as "Sears" and that I need a catalogue...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Apr 19, 2022 at 9:58 PM Chamunks via kwlug-disc <kwlug-disc at kwlug.org> wrote:
>> When DDG fails to bring up something I’ve been using Yandex because the Russians couldn’t care less about American opinions about how to run a search engine. I’m pretty tired of algorithms burying inconvenient truths and inconvenient popular opinions. I don’t need my search engine forming opinions for me. 
>> 
>> Composed on my smart phone please pardon my brevity. 
>> 
>> > On Apr 19, 2022, at 8:25 PM, Andrew Sullivan Cant - acant at alumni.uwaterloo.ca <reply+hsrvubfburobnwyyqwhddstezcnbyg at simplelogin.co <mailto:reply%2Bhsrvubfburobnwyyqwhddstezcnbyg at simplelogin.co>> wrote:
>> > 
>> > 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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