Been looking for a search engine that isn’t plauged with SEO garbage every time I look for anything. Been using DDG for quite a long time now, and I’m starting to get dissatisfied with results. It seems like more and more results are just companies trying to make their way to the top of the search results instead of anything organic. It’s even worse when I look for any kind of service or product.
Looking for as close to 100% organic results as possible.
Qwant claims not to know anything about me, yet I’ve noticed its results are very much tailored to my location.
I realize this is just data any site can easily see based on my IP, but still it’s one of my pet peeves. If I want to see information tailored to my general location, then I’ll add the name of the location in the search field. I really hate how search engines try to be so “smart.”
I’ll give you an example of why it bugs me: The first time I ever looked at Tik Tok, I saw nothing but right-wing MAGA content, certainly based on the political climate where I live. I don’t like sites trying to determine my interests based on the fact that I’m in [location].
The only ones that don’t seem to tailor results based on my location are SearX instances and Startpage. I have the same misgivings about Startpage, though I use it fairly regularly, and I haven’t noticed anything questionable, in spite of the fact that I deeply distrust System1. There’s no way they bought into it out of the goodness of their hearts. We may still be in the “bait” stage of a bait-and-switch.
What’s most annoying about the “tailored experience” is that they presume to know what you’re looking for, even though you directly told them what to show you. They don’t give a fuck about relevancy, they’re going to show you whatever is going to make them the most money, which usually means corporate ad crap, and outrage news. Plus if they show you shit results then you’ll search multiple times and they’ll get to show you 4 times the ads.
Yes, and sometimes it’s straight-up dangerous. I’m into longboarding, and I’ve noticed if you use a site like Google or Bing to search for the best longboards, you get swamped by Amazon affiliate sites recommending cheaply made junk that could end in injury or worse. But hey, at least someone profits. Yay capitalism!
U.S.A! U.S.A!