Set up https://noai.duckduckgo.com/ as my default search engine
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@cwebber I didn't know they had this.
I did the same as soon as I heard it was an option. 👍
For those who may have only a partial picture, it is my understanding that:
1) Main #DuckDuckGo is Bing (Microsoft) under the covers, with the #surveillance bits removed. This is a good start IMO.
2) For some reason, DDG feels compelled to promote its version of "#AI Assistance". You can politely refuse, but as soon as you delete cookies the promotions return. They also have support for "good ads" (which I also politely refuse, and then they return unbidden). Both features should be "opt-in" and not on by default! 🙄
3) The "noai." prefix yields the same DDG with all the AI cruft removed (https://noai.duckduckgo.com). 🙂
Anyone have better information than the above?
@cwebber
I tried it for ages, but find Qwant better.
DuckDuckGo seems to use MS Bing.
@cwebber - its okay, but based in US - and despite its efforts at privacy - its still at the mercy of the demands of the current government agencies seeking info on use and users.
Better yet to find a search engine based elsewhere - say, the EU, which has much stronger privacy and security laws (even when applied upon governments) than US.
For my part, I either use Startpage or Ecosia.
@cwebber I was on duckduckgo but changed to qwant because american boicot. Qwant still have great privacy politics as far as I know.
Also ditch all chromium browsers haha
@cwebber FWIW Startpage is no AI by default & they say (!) they will keep it that way.
@cwebber if theres a massive movement away from google that could be the bubble pop
@cwebber @TimChaffee I switched to Kagi. Worth every freaking penny.
@cwebber
I did a while ago, it's so much better this way!
(For people who don't know, the full string to set is "https://noai.duckduckgo.com/?q=%s")
@silvermoon82 @cwebber This string does not work for me when there is a / in the searched string....
@silvermoon82 @cwebber I suspect the / is not encoded by firefox inside the %s. But I rarely look for somethig with a /
How to switch away from Google as your default search engine right now!
Right click in the search box you want to add in Firefox, pick "Add search engine". So do that for the search box on https://noai.duckduckgo.com/
You can then select this search box as your default search inside of settings.
You're welcome! You can add all sorts of "search engines" this way!
@cwebber @R1Rail @silvermoon82 I wish firefox would sync search settings. I sync all my device have different default search engine. Also, Fx let you define extra "search engine" and I have some for the python doc, imdb, two final fantasy 14 wiki. But most of these are only on some of my devices as they aren't sync :(
by looking at both strings and trimming the one from the right clicks I settled for
"https://noai.duckduckgo.com/?ia=web&q=%s" which allows me to look for "A/B testing".
@R1Rail @silvermoon82 This is great if you search a particular wiki pretty often, etc
@cwebber @R1Rail @silvermoon82
I've heard lots of people use Wikipedia as their primary search engine for example. I've thought about trying it out, but it probably wouldn't work for the way I search. Interesting workflow though imo 
@R1Rail @silvermoon82 Right click in the search box you want to add in Firefox, pick "Add search engine". So do that for the search box on https://noai.duckduckgo.com/
You can then select this search box as your default search inside of settings.
You're welcome! You can add all sorts of "search engines" this way!
@cwebber
Dump all Google Stock
@cwebber I’ve been using Kagi for a while and (for me) it has better results.
Plus they’re incentivized to see me as customer, not as a blob of data to sell.
Of course they have their own problems too (like bad Safari integration).
@cwebber I finally made the switch recently too. I wanted to like DuckDuckGo for years but I found the quality of their results too much of a downgrade from Google (for the kinds of searches that I do). Now I've come around to DDG, not because their results have improved, but because Google's have deteriorated
@cwebber Honestly it's pretty good. I very rarely pop in !g to double check the Google results (which are slowly degrading anyway)
@cwebber Honestly, it's been about as good as Google for a while now. Not really because it's gotten any better though
