Coincidentally, yesterday I was quickly setting up a new computer for some testing whilst talking to somebody about another so I was half distracted. I did a search for some package to install and got absolute unusable crap. I didn't understand, tried again, tried different search parameters and it just got worse, and then I noticed that, since this was a new computer, the browser was using google.

I switched to DDG, and first page first hit was what I needed.

DDG also has been in a steady decline and apparently has been using Bing as it's back-end now. I'd love to use a self hosted open source browser, or of not that, an open source federated search engine, akin to Lemmy, but I don't see either coming into existence anytime soon.

[–] Vilian@lemmy.ca 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

DDG always used bing backend tho, what's happening is bing backend worsening

[–] Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 6 months ago

bing itself is unusable tho. I get a full page of "sponsored links" before any tentatively relevant search result pop up. DDG at least removes the sponsored bullshit.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

For what it's worth, DDG isn't perfect either. There are plenty of times I have to use Google instead. I don't keep track of how often it anything but it's definitely not perfect.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 months ago

Well, that is what I said. Dog isn't as great as it used to be

[–] Kornblumenratte@feddit.de 3 points 6 months ago

searx is around for a couple of years now.

[–] dan@upvote.au 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

apparently has been using Bing as it's back-end now.

A lot of stuff uses Bing to search, as it's the largest search engine with an official public API that any developer can just sign up and use. Voice assistants like Alexa use Bing too.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 months ago

Is.... Is Microsoft the good guy here? Tell me it ain't so!