2 wk. ago • 41%

Reavers wouldn't touch DuckDuckGo, it's half dead. Which SearXNG instance do you use?

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

33 comments

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

35
- 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.
  
  30
  
  Not the first time I’ve seen DDG whiff an easy query
  
  12
- Elaboration: shit aint workin
  
  10
  
  Works for me.
  
  6
- 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.
  
  2
  
  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).
  
  4
what do you mean? I got tons of reavers, and not just Firefly but also Serenity and Warhammer

20
- It decided not to do a hidden autocorrect to reverse this time:
  
  (Same everything (new private tab), just zoomed out.)
  
  Hmm!
  
  5
  
  It's learning!
  
  3
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.

12
- 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.
  
  2
  
  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.
  
  2
Pretty sure DDG just uses bing results. Try in bing OP see what you get.

7
- 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)
  
  6
- And what's SearX? Isn't it also bing?
  
  1
  
  48 engines available on a SearXNG instance I just checked:
  
  Amazing project!
  
  2
Try safe search off instead of the default moderate.

4
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

4
- Great recommendations, and you got a Whoogle in there as well!
  
  Looking into some of those instance maintainers.
  
  Thank you!
  
  1
Does putting "Reavers" in quotes help?

4
- 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
  
  3
Yeah, just me. Not available externally without VPN access.

2
None, I self host Whoogle.

2
- 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.
  
  1

You've viewed 33 comments.