Electronics

[Marp]

I have happily used Duck Duck Go as my search engine for quite a while but since they have teamed with Yahoo the results are the same as all the major engines.

I am no longer happy with Duck so am looking for recommendations beyond google, bing, yahoo and now duck. 

[ChynnaBlue]

I think you'll get better recommendations if you tell us what you're looking for in the search engine, why you liked Duck before, and what you don't like about the others. Otherwise I'm just going to say Google.

[Marp]

@ChynnaBlue, since Duck aligned with Yahoo the returns are almost identical line by line to what I get from Google, Yahoo or Bing which we know are weighted.  Before the alignment I would usually get returns that I found to be more relevant to my inquiry at the top of the returns with more popular returns lower down. 

It is difficult to clearly explain.  One example would be if I wanted information about something specific related to current news (and not the news story itself) the return would deal with the specific search term whereas now I get news stories about the incident not the specificity sought without drilling down the same as I have to do with the other engines.  I also find it is not as responsive to boolean searches as it was before.

[ChynnaBlue]

---

@Marp wrote:

@ChynnaBlue, since Duck aligned with Yahoo the returns are almost identical line by line to what I get from Google, Yahoo or Bing which we know are weighted.  Before the alignment I would usually get returns that I found to be more relevant to my inquiry at the top of the returns with more popular returns lower down. 

It is difficult to clearly explain.  One example would be if I wanted information about something specific related to current news (and not the news story itself) the return would deal with the specific search term whereas now I get news stories about the incident not the specificity sought without drilling down the same as I have to do with the other engines.  I also find it is not as responsive to boolean searches as it was before.

---

Thanks, @Marp, now I know what you mean. That's a bummer. I've found the same with search engines and boolean search responsiveness. They're all moving to search for dummies, which is great for the majority of the people online and very fast, but can make things more difficult when people know how to construct a search and don't get the expected results. Some days I definitely feel like I'm further away from the information I'm looking for instead of closer because of the changes.

I don't know of a better option, but if I hear of any, I will let you know.

[sandraskates]

I use Startpage, billed as "the world's most private search engine."

I'm pretty happy with it; it does blurb that it is "enhanced by Google." But you have the option to click on a result and visit a site via proxy if you want.

[Marp]

@sandraskates, thank you for the suggestion.  I will try it out over a couple of days and see how searches go.

[sandraskates]

You're welcome @Marp.

I used to like the Alta Vista search engine; it was the best.

[Marp]

@sandraskates, I went to the site and looked it over, set my preferences and generated a URL but did not try a search yet.  I very much like the advanced search option.

Of course now that I have a goal, testing the site, I won't have anything specific or esoteric to research lol.  I will, however, give it a fair chance.

It has been ages since I even thought about Alta Vista.  I liked it too until Yahoo gobbled it up.

[dooBdoo]

          @Marp, I'm glad to see this discussion!  I'm unhappy with the changes to DuckDuckGo, also, and I was just thinking of looking at all the options.   Thanks for the suggestion, @sandraskates.   I see a few options listed when I do a search for those which are "private search engines," but I don't have any additional info about them.

          (O/T...  I've been missing all the activity with TinyKittens, need to get up to speed with your thread!)