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DuckDuckGo starting to give more "personal" search results (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 months ago by Cataphract@lemmy.ml to c/technology@lemmy.ml

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Been slowly running into more results from DDG that seem to have some "personal parameter" or difference in search results. I had a search saved from some months ago, went to check it for some references and got new hits involving local organizations that had nothing to do with the search. Opening up a private browser I see that the searches aren't 100% matching up either.

I see this as only getting worse, I want to be able to enter a search and it searches for my query. Not based on my personality or whatever info is being collected. Does anyone know a search engine that's reliable and focuses on giving the same results and doesn't try this "personalized" crap?

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[–] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

DDG uses a bunch of different sources, it's not just rebranded bing.

also DDG does not send any personal info to its partners, so Microsoft's privacy policy is not relevant.

OP's concern is that DDG itself is keeping your personal info and using that to weigh your search results. But that also directly contradicts DDG's privacy policy, so it's either a major breach of trust or I think more likely OP is reading into varying search results too much.

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

The page you link to talks about the search results that come at the top of the page, eg a Wikipedia or Trip Advisor result. The actual search itself comes from Bing, and it's more than likely that the top page banner also is processed via Bing.

Edit: However, the Wikipedia page does provide more detail, which proves you right and my assumption wrong:

DuckDuckGo's results are a compilation of "over 400" sources according to itself, including Bing, Yahoo! Search BOSS, Wolfram Alpha, Yandex, and its own web crawler (the DuckDuckBot); but none from Google. It also uses data from crowdsourced sites such as Wikipedia, to populate knowledge panel boxes to the right of the search results.

[–] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I appreciate both your and @acosmichippo@lemmy.world’s responses. I certainly was not aware of the expanded set of results that DDG use. Nor was I aware that they anonymized the queries they send to their search partners.