I hate having everything paraphrased … no way to cite that and there’s another layer to work through to find the original source (which is what I actually want ffs)
I'm spamming Microsoft's 'was this answer helpful' with how much I hate copilot. But mainly I'm trying to find the time to move all my files off their cloud and ritually burn my install of Office. A big pain because I use Word at some depth and haven't found a replacement yet 😵💫💀 But it's intolerable
"Hey, what if we built our entire value proposition and brand on privacy protections for tech-savvy users, then poured gasoline all over that brand and set it on fire? PROFITS GALORE!"
Try Brave. It's open-source and built on Chrome, but with all the Google malware and snooping taken out. And it will get you around a lot of paywalls by turning off Scripts in the settings on an individual site.
Trying to, but it's easy to set it up to be vanilla if you play with the Settings. The best thing about Brave is that it blocks all trackers and other nasties by default. I think Firefox are pushing other junk too now.
You also have to assume they're using it behind the scenes
Also just puts a bad feeling on it. It's the search engine you use for privacy and to have an old-fashioned "just the search" experience, this kind of wrecks both of those things? Who thought this was a good idea?
Where is it in settings? I see:
Default Browser
Private Search
Web Tracking Protection
Cookies Pop-Up Protection
App Tracking Protection
Email Protection (Beta)
Just so we're clear: the problem here is not my personal experience, the problem is a trusted tool that gathers links to human knowledge is slapping on a layer that takes that knowledge and mixes it with plausible lies, and (this is important) offers it as a default, opt out, and prominent feature
Startpage. Probably the better of most options that are available right now for privacy.
I haven't used Ecosia or Qwant but have seen them mentioned at times. Apparently Ecosia supposedly plants trees as a means of environmental friendliness but don't know much beyond that.
You're welcome.
Their main site is very user friendly. They have a simple method of adding the engine if it isn't a default available one. Settings are simple to understand. So on.
Yes this solves everything because my favourite thing is to be bombarded with popups announcing how the software is climbing on the AI/LLM bandwagon every time I run something and "never ever show this shit again" is not an available tickbox [frowns intensely at Microsoft Copilot & Windows]
i'm also at a loss as to what's so wrong with search results as they have been for all of time...google often throws out thousands of pages of results and yet we think we need an "AI overview"? what's wrong with a few clicks!! absolute madness, and as you say, easy for misinformation to get promoted
It's honestly terrifying how many people already see ChatGPT as an unquestionable source of information on subjects where a wrong answer could cause death or injury.
It's like "what if stackoverflow but without any moderation or rating?"
it's baffling that anyone thinks it would be a good one. The primary thing chatbots are good at is giving incorrect but convincing information. It's the polar opposite of what a search engine should be doing.
Is this bullshit in the search engine, or is it only specific to the browser? Because I am using Chrome with DuckDuckGo as my default search engine and I can't find where to turn this shit off.
Comments
Also just puts a bad feeling on it. It's the search engine you use for privacy and to have an old-fashioned "just the search" experience, this kind of wrecks both of those things? Who thought this was a good idea?
Perhaps if everyone tells it to fuck right off …
the problem is they opted users in, by default
sorry you can't see the obvious fucking problem with that
Default Browser
Private Search
Web Tracking Protection
Cookies Pop-Up Protection
App Tracking Protection
Email Protection (Beta)
I see nothing about AI
https://duckduckgo.com/updates
Does the Duck Assistant now appear on any web search?
Its just following trends or
The current standard to be competitive.
AI is going to be the future weather we want it or not.
Also unlike DDG they are actually running their own web crawler as opposed to pulled results from Bing.
https://restoreprivacy.com/private-search-engine/
I haven't used Ecosia or Qwant but have seen them mentioned at times. Apparently Ecosia supposedly plants trees as a means of environmental friendliness but don't know much beyond that.
Their main site is very user friendly. They have a simple method of adding the engine if it isn't a default available one. Settings are simple to understand. So on.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/03/29/1048439/chatbots-replace-search-engine-terrible-idea/
It's like "what if stackoverflow but without any moderation or rating?"
https://indi.ca/the-ouroboros-of-big-data/
We really do need pols, edit feature and bookmarks with folders here.
Why not use the bookmark/favorite/ read later feature in your webbrowser? 😉
might be time to dust off searxng