I was using DuckDuckGo for some time, but heard that there are better alternatives. I’m confused, because DDG is used by default in TOR browser, and other privacy respecting browsers (ex. Librewolf). Can you guys recommend any other search engine, and tell me why u recommend it?

Or, is DDG enough?

  • CrypticCoffee@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I use DDG. I read here that start page had been taken over by an advertising company, and Brave always felt dodgy from day 1, weird crypto stuff and I think the owners previous company may have sold users data.

    I think DDG is the best we have right now.

    • UnfortunateShort@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      and Brave always felt dodgy

      You mean like DDG, which had multiple privacy whoopsies like allowing Microsoft to track you? Or (in contrast to Brave) is not even OSS?

      I think the owners previous company may have sold users data.

      You mean like the founder and CEO of DDG who build, ran and sold a social network?

      Not saying “don’t use DDG” or “Brave is the coolest!!!11”, but be aware that you can use your arguements against Brave against DDG as well.

      And if you’re looking for a better alternative, I would say Ecosia is probably among the cleanest players out there. They only benefit Microsoft, because their service is built on Bing (as is DDG in part btw.).

      • Voxel@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        Brave is OPENSOURCE 🤦‍♂️ And Ecosia does care more about the enviroment then your privacy. I prefer DDG or StartPage, or if you really wanna get sure, use somthing like SearXNG or LibreX.

      • CrypticCoffee@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Point taken on the founder running a social network. I incorrectly remembered it as the Brave owner. I stand corrected.

        I think the complexity with DDG is they had a deal with MS because of Bing and I think some of the terms meant they had certain restrictions. They renegotiated that and it is no longer an issue.

        You were comfortable with the whole BAT crypto nonsense? You’re comfortable with Google dictating standards in their browser by using Chrome?

        Trust is definitely hard in the search market :).

        • UnfortunateShort@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I’m 100% comfortable with BAT, because the (at least so declared) goal is ethical ad-blocking. And if you don’t like it, you still don’t have to use it. You can disable it completely and I appreciate them leaving you the choice.

          I won’t buy into it with actual money, but I do use it to donate to sites. Although I rarely use Brave tbh. I only have it in case some stupid website doesn’t run properly on Firefox.

          It’s tempting tho. Brave is a way better and more versatile browser than Firefox is out of the box. I won’t recommend Firefox to normies seeking better privacy for this simple reason. If I tell them to just install a bunch of addons, configure everything right and get used to a new UI, most will question whether they really want to switch right away.

          Chromium is FOSS and Brave has already made strong claims about not merging anything Google pushes (e.g. in the recent extensions controversy). I have very little concerns regarding that.