this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2023
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Privacy

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[–] [email protected] 166 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yeah.

The columns are squished together so the titles are basically one word and the data creates a ton of empty space. The colors should be lighter shades. White on yellow is just annoying. The row separators don't extend to the row header, so it is easy to get lost when trying to compare the actual data.

My eyes just get confused and nope out.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Also the actual diagram is bad.

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[–] [email protected] 60 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

Brave Search fully using their own index since April 27, 2023. But they refuse to identify their crawler and rely on googlebot if sites want to be excluded. Also their search API monetization of possible copyrighted content while understandable is a bit doubious due to their public stance on transparency.

StartPage also blocks VPN usage.

DuckDuckGo by their own admission now re-rank "trusted" sites to the top when it comes to what they clasify as"misinformation" so calling their "censorship" mild is huge understatement.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If I wanted to search for unverified info or misinfo, I could, but almost always I am lookkng for factual and sourced information. Please don't force me to do otherwise.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (4 children)

It's more about someone else making the decision on what is "trustworthy" for you

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (7 children)

StartPage also blocks VPN usage.

Only accidental I think. They have the option of reporting that you're behind a VPN proxy when it happens.

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Interesting that you're doing a search engine comparison, and not add google into that comparison. Also, there are no sources at all, so we can't verify any of it, and I know that some of that data is incorrect. Sources would help us (the end user) determine whether our data is incorrect or yours is incorrect due to poor sources. Leaving out the sources, means this chart is actually rather pointless, because it can't be verified (as correct or incorrect).

E: also, ignoring cloudflare with this statement and zero explanation, removes author credibility. Either explain exactly why "cloudflare so who cares lol" or don't include that section at all.

This chart reminds me of this, which was actually quoted in a presentation as an actual quote...

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The chart source is from here: https://digdeeper.club/articles/search.xhtml

Cloudflare makes you activate cookies and JavaScript, which serves to deanonymize you.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I couldn't quite believe the Cloudflare thing, so I loaded up a new Firefox profile, disabled all cookies, and disabled JavaScript and accessed one of my websites that sits behind cloudflare and... It worked just fine.

Do you have more info on that? Is it only in certain cases?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I believe it's only when they have anti-ddos enabled or CF thinks you're a bot, it makes you resolve a captcha (sometimes), and that requires cookies and JS.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It was made by an edgelord for edgelords.

CuckCuckGo belongs in the trash instead.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

shouldn’t that category be “SearXNG” instead of “SearX”? – SearX went into maintenance mode a year ago and then archived their code last week – searx.space isn’t even bothering to list SearX instances anymore

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (10 children)
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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I just love what has become of this thread:

  • Think it's a nice post
  • Look for Google/Kagi, but they're missing
  • People ask for sources, realize OP has chart from VERY dodgy conspiracy website
  • People start accusing Kagi Support of lying to their face, Screenshota of convo attached
  • Other users don't think its a lie, rather a misunderstanding
  • Insults start
  • ?
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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago (1 children)

bad in the sense that its 1 (american) company that controls a hellala lot of the internet

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why is Brave Search considered as heavily censored?

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Because it doesn't show the conspiracy theory enhancing the authors conspiracy anti-covid/anti-moon landing opinion :

meaning you will never find the truth about the moon landing or COVID vaccines there even if the query asks for exactly that. What you will find - though - is a bunch of irrelevant "fact check" or "science loving" sites, or ones shitting on "conspiracy theorists".

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Are the Ecosia results up to date? They used to be great, but awhile ago they changed something and it's been hot garbage since. I still use them because trees, but I usually search with Ecosia, don't see what I want, and then have to use another search engine.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Today I learned WebCrawler still exists.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nifty. Did you make this op?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 67 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

after looking around on that site, i deeply mistrust the original author about probably everything. using the search term "christchurch shooting was faked" and arguing that the search results attack conspiracy theories, which means that there is censoring going on - that does not fit my definition of sanity.

e: ah, and the moon landing was fake and covid shots are evil. dudes, this guy is nuts, dont even take the time of the day from him.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Wtf. Didn't even have to go too far. Here in the brave section

meaning you will never find the truth about the moon landing or COVID vaccines there even if the query asks for exactly that. What you will find - though - is a bunch of irrelevant "fact check" or "science loving" sites, or ones shitting on "conspiracy theorists".

WTF is wrong with this person.

This "article" is about spreading search engine for people doing "their own research" and making the US look stupid on TV or something.

I am for no "censorship", however sometimes it is needed, because as for the example of the vaccines or moonlanding, people may je mislead, then search s* online and get a trash conspiracy article which enhances that stupid opinion. In this case there needs to be a way to spread good information.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

While I don’t agree with his conspiracy theories, search engines should give us the information we are looking for. He asked for information, and some of the search engines effectively told him, “no.” That’s valuable information because it’s not just conspiracy theories they’re removing. For example, some years ago I heard a news report about some American political group called the “Proud Boys.” I wanted to look into them to find out what they’re about, so I Google them. Turns out Google has scrubbed their site from search. Accusations of this kind of political censorship are mounting, too. Another politically contentious site, KiwiFarms, is also delisted. I can only imagine how many other sites have been delisted over the years which we just don’t know about.

I’m an adult. I can make up my own mind. If I ask for information, I expect a search engine to provide it. Kagi passes this test.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

This is my issue too. Yes, there are some things that are absolutely dangerous and some things that are completely nuts. But not all conspiracy theories, for example, are crazy. Some are actual conspiracies. That aside it's a dangerous precedent to set when someone is picking and choosing what to show or not show and removing the ability of others to decide for themselves.

Many governments, organisations, companies, etc. can be above board, but they don't always stay that way. Others are dystopian in their obsession with power and control. Its not always obvious what's what when censorship and curation of results are going on.

And frankly, sometimes the 'facts' turn out to be wrong. Our reality is that we live in a world where profit and greed drives information and trends, where late stage capitalism leads to more exploitation and all of this is helped by bias, fraud, science for sale and yes, censorship.

I cannot trust a company or organiation that censors search results because quite simply it means I can't tell if they're covering over anything else and what that anything else could be.

Much like the parable of the boy who cried wolf. You're either 100% above board and trustworthy or you're not.

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