this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2026
625 points (99.8% liked)

Technology

87279 readers
3021 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

without stupid adblockblock https://archive.is/whZuI

also i wouldn't install their extension just for that, you can edit your default search engine to anu address you want in the settings

browser extensions are a huge privacy risk and i wouldn't trust ddg with my data because of their Microsoft deal, not to block their trackers (they reverted that part after the backlash) in the ddg browser and to only show msn under their news tab in regular ddg

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] kurikai@lemmy.world 58 points 2 months ago (2 children)

would be great if it could also not show links to ai generated content websites

[–] Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 37 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Combo it with Ublock Origin and use their AI site blocklist.

[–] CovertOperative@piefed.zip 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I didn't see a list like that in the Ublock Origin settings. Is it an importable list and do you have a link?

[–] Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

It's built in the filters list, under Annoyances>Huge AI Blocklist. There's two different ones (the larger "nuclear variant" might slow down search a bit).

[–] JayGray91@piefed.social 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Sorry, I'm still not seeing it. Firefox says uBO is already updated. image

[–] Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Here's the direct home link, although it's built into the list on my Waterfox and IronWolf installs.

[–] JayGray91@piefed.social 1 points 2 months ago

Thanks.

Waterfox and IronWolf installs

Maybe that's why. I use Zen. Perhaps Waterfox and IronWolf already have uBO installed by default and added that AI block list?

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Mensh123@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

DuckDuckGo actually tries to downrank them. It's just that there's no way ts tell for sure, especially for computers.

[–] Tetsuo@jlai.lu 34 points 2 months ago (3 children)

It really sucks that to escape Google, the second in line that is "more private" is DDG and based in the US. So that means they have to abide to the american privacy invading "patriot" laws etc.

I wish we had a good European alternative that doesn't have to comply to the NSA when they want direct access to logs while giving you a gag order...

And I know searx-ng but last time I tried it wasn't good enough imo.

[–] sobchak@programming.dev 12 points 2 months ago (8 children)

Qwant is French. Not a privacy search engine and looks like it features AI now. Kagi is really good, but US based and expensive. I think most of Europe does intelligence sharing with the US ("14 eyes" or something like that)?

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] BentiGorlich@gehirneimer.de 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

There is ecosia, although they also use the US indexes

[–] oce@jlai.lu 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

French Qwant and German Ecosia are building a EU based index together, but it will probably take time to be competitive compared to Google. https://www.eu-searchperspective.com/

[–] Telodzrum@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

I wish we had a good European alternative that doesn’t have to comply to the NSA when they want direct access to logs while giving you a gag order…

Most of the European continent doesn't even require a judicial finding to turn over information to a Five Eyes agency.

[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 31 points 2 months ago (1 children)

My only gripe is its not default. I use many different devices and to set it on each one is annoying.

[–] badgermurphy@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Agreed, let me opt in, dont force me to opt out, especially on something that costs them money. Like what?

[–] tty84@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 8 points 2 months ago (2 children)

What makes me suspect them having an agenda behind all their self-marketing is the fact that this isn't already the default page...

[–] badgermurphy@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Yeah, what's with the auto-opt-in for features that cost them money? I'd think they'd prefer if nobody used the AI search, because they'd get their ad impressions with only server overhead, rather than that plus AI overhead. Clearly I'm wrong, but I can't figure out why.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus 14 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I switched to MetaGer long ago. No AI bullshit, no trackers, no ads, you pay a pittance per search to cover the costs of your search. I started using it 8 months ago and i still haven't used up the 10€ i charged my account with.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] HrabiaVulpes@europe.pub 13 points 2 months ago (3 children)

DuckDuckGo gains traffic not because it somehow gotten better recently.

Google entered heavy enshittification stage and honestly... it's sad to watch.

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Google entered heavy enshittification stage and honestly… it’s sad to watch.

google has been in heavy enshittification for going on a decade now.

Honestly you could make the argument that its been on the enshittification slide since they tried to expand out from just being a search engine company.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 months ago

I honestly can't find anything on google anymore. I barely use it at all, but sometimes someone will hand me their phone, so I'll give it a shot. I always end up switching to ddg before I find what I'm looking for.

There might be a way to use google search these days but its apparently beyond my desire/skills to learn it.

[–] AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 months ago

There is a good article about how it happened: The Man Who Killed Google Search by Ed Zitron

[–] crestwave@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I find that "no AI" DDG still has way more AI-generated images than default Google, sadly. And there's no before: operator as an alternative to filter them out, either.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] AverageEarthling@feddit.online 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] group_hug@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Having trouble adding this as the default search in Firefox.

Anybody know the search query needed to use this from the address bar?

https://lite.duckduckgo.com/lite/q=%s

Does not seem to work.

[–] Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

It uses a Form Post - I recommend navigating to the DDG Lite site, right click on your search bar (you might have to add it if you removed it by using "Costumize Toolbar"), and select to add it. Edit: just realized ithis also works in the address bar, no fiddling around needed. Edit2: But it does not work consistently - the search bar variant always works.

kCrIF7n3sMJTdDG.png

[–] nsh@lemmy.nz 12 points 2 months ago

There are also lite and html versions:

Neither has AI enabled.

[–] _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 months ago

Qwant and Kagi are also pretty solid search engines if people are looking for more alternatives.

[–] helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Why have an extension for this?

On Firefox (desktop and mobile) you can easily add it as your default search engine. It can be done in Vivaldi too (not sure if its a chrome default or Vivaldi addition).

They could just have a 1 paragraph guide telling you how to do it.

[–] not_IO@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

yeah that's what I'm saying

[–] helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

...yes, I definitely read your entire post and repeated exactly what you said for fun.

[–] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 4 points 2 months ago (4 children)
[–] echodot@feddit.uk 6 points 2 months ago (4 children)
load more comments (4 replies)
[–] Mensh123@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

https://duckduckgo.com/settings#aifeatures

Have fun!

Note: These settings are stored in your cookies and if you clear those, the settings will reset. That's why we have https://noai.duckduckgo.com/.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] elucubra@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Searxng, a metasearch engine, and better, self hosted in a container. Easy, searches a stupid amount of engines, 100% private.

[–] sobchak@programming.dev 2 points 2 months ago

I'm sure the search engines log the IP, and with enough searches could be correlated back to you fairly easily even if you host it on a VPS? Unless it does some kind of mitigation I'm unaware of.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Ludicrous0251@piefed.zip 3 points 2 months ago

Not seeing any adblockblock, do you have all of the annoyances filters enabled in uBO?

load more comments
view more: next ›