this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2024
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Reavers wouldn't touch DuckDuckGo, it's half dead. Which SearXNG instance do you use? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by brbposting@sh.itjust.works to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
33 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

alt-text

Two horizontally stitched screenshots comparing a search for “Reavers GIF” on DuckDuckGo and Google in Safari iOS (private tabs). DDG presented zero Firefly/Serenity relevant results while Google found them exclusively.

Hopefully a privacy-focused yet fast instance for US West Coast cheapskates who probably should pony up for Kagi, buttttttttttt

SearXNG Instances list on SearX.space

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[–] mox@lemmy.sdf.org 35 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I think this could use some elaboration on what you mean by half dead.

[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 30 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

OP wanted gifs with reavers from firefly, but got a bunch of "reverse" gifs instead, so to OP DDG is half dead and worth nothing.

[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 12 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Not the first time I’ve seen DDG whiff an easy query

[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 10 months ago

I mean, it's not unreasonable for the search engine to assume OP just didn't know how to spell "reverse" or mistyped it...statistically that's probably way more likely.

Annoying, yes...but being specific in search queries is always a good idea, most people just tend to be super vague in their search queries.

[–] Deckweiss@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Elaboration: shit aint workin

[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Works for me.

[–] Deckweiss@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Did you find the reavers gif?

[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I found multiple gifs, including ones from Firefly and Soul Reaver as the top results. Further down the page, there's "reverse" gifs, too.

Anyway, this is just lazy searching. Adding the word "Firefly" brings up all the relevant Firefly results you could want.

[–] brbposting@sh.itjust.works -1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Oh so you want me to spend an extra fraction of a second to avoid an absolute privacy nightmare that could follow me around for the rest of my life?! (including potential price discrimination stealing e.g. a better retirement from me)

😉 thanks for testing!

[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 2 points 10 months ago

I dunno why yours was weird. Maybe Apple is doing something odd behind the scenes.

[–] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You’re right :) Dumb little joke about the show I shoehorned in.

For context, DuckDuckGo is my default search engine. I do at least a dozen searches every day. Approximately 90% of the time, I use a bang (!g) to punch out to Google and receive results I perceive to be of higher quality 99% of the time. I am absolutely elated when I hit the back button because DDG had a better result in the top 3.

[–] InverseParallax@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Ddg is my main search, it is complete garbage, but I'm someone who used altavista for almost a decade.

You don't rely on the engine and just get good at crafting your queries (firefly reaver gif).

[–] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 2 points 10 months ago

Getting good at queries, I'm down for that, thanks 🙂

[–] DmMacniel@feddit.org 20 points 10 months ago (1 children)

what do you mean? I got tons of reavers, and not just Firefly but also Serenity and Warhammer

[–] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It decided not to do a hidden autocorrect to reverse this time:

(Same everything (new private tab), just zoomed out.)

Hmm!

[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 12 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I just did it on DDG, Firefox Mobile, moderate safe search level.

I got tons of Soul Reaver gifs, so it's just you. Google probably got relevant results, because it likely has a sprawling profile of your interests. No idea why your DDG is so fucked up.

[–] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

And it’s different now! Reminded of how DDG rearranges search results when opening a result link, then hitting back, but much more extreme.

sprawling profile

Using a fresh [cookie-isolated] private tab for every search and going through iCloud Private Relay… I still have no doubt they still manage it. Sigh. Those “am I unique?” browser fingerprinting tests still show I’m unique, perhaps due to having an extension or two installed on Safari? Creepy.

OK, I feel better now. On searxng.site, I disabled all engines except for Google and I’m getting results similar to in my OP.

[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 2 points 10 months ago

I think Google uses certain fingerprints, like location data, IPs you tend to connect from, etc. In my experience, they're good at figuring out who and where you are.

[–] GlenRambo@jlai.lu 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Pretty sure DDG just uses bing results. Try in bing OP see what you get.

[–] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 6 points 10 months ago

Oh Bing

Search is hard

Good call though, I’ve done comparisons and it’s very Bingy though not 1:1 - search operators behave differently IIRC (quotation marks)

[–] delirious_owl@discuss.online 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

And what's SearX? Isn't it also bing?

[–] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

48 engines available on a SearXNG instance I just checked:

Amazing project!

[–] delirious_owl@discuss.online 3 points 10 months ago

why is it that when I search for images, it's heavily anime?

[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 4 points 10 months ago

Try safe search off instead of the default moderate.

[–] communism@lemmy.ml 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Does putting "Reavers" in quotes help?

[–] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Good question, something I wondered about after I posted.

Nope - OK, you know what helps?

Searching via the DDG site and then tapping images. Apparently I typed “reavers gif !ddgi” to save the tap and it does a hidden spelling correction to “reverse”?!

One mystery solved!

Edit: annotation in a dark font due to iOS 18 Markup bug, sorry it’s hard to see there in the upper right

[–] electricprism@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

https://baresearch.org/

https://searx.garudalinux.org/

https://search.garudalinux.org/

is

be

instances will get rate limited so you will have to hop around

[–] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago

Great recommendations, and you got a Whoogle in there as well!

Looking into some of those instance maintainers.

Thank you!

[–] root@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Yeah, just me. Not available externally without VPN access.

[–] root@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

None, I self host Whoogle.

[–] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago

Nice. Are you the only one on your instance? I seem to recall reading there's a privacy consideration there. Like, maybe the ideal is knowing the maintainer and having some number of people all using it.