alt-text
Two horizontally stitched screenshots comparing a search for “Reavers GIF” on DuckDuckGo and Google in Safari iOS (private tabs). DDG presented zero Firefly/Serenity relevant results while Google found them exclusively.
Hopefully a privacy-focused yet fast instance for US West Coast cheapskates who probably should pony up for Kagi, buttttttttttt
I think this could use some elaboration on what you mean by half dead.
OP wanted gifs with reavers from firefly, but got a bunch of “reverse” gifs instead, so to OP DDG is half dead and worth nothing.
I mean, it’s not unreasonable for the search engine to assume OP just didn’t know how to spell “reverse” or mistyped it…statistically that’s probably way more likely.
Annoying, yes…but being specific in search queries is always a good idea, most people just tend to be super vague in their search queries.
You’re right :) Dumb little joke about the show I shoehorned in.
For context, DuckDuckGo is my default search engine. I do at least a dozen searches every day. Approximately 90% of the time, I use a bang (!g) to punch out to Google and receive results I perceive to be of higher quality 99% of the time. I am absolutely elated when I hit the back button because DDG had a better result in the top 3.
Ddg is my main search, it is complete garbage, but I’m someone who used altavista for almost a decade.
You don’t rely on the engine and just get good at crafting your queries (firefly reaver gif).
what do you mean? I got tons of reavers, and not just Firefly but also Serenity and Warhammer
It decided not to do a hidden autocorrect to reverse this time:
(Same everything (new private tab), just zoomed out.)
Hmm!
I just did it on DDG, Firefox Mobile, moderate safe search level.
I got tons of Soul Reaver gifs, so it’s just you. Google probably got relevant results, because it likely has a sprawling profile of your interests. No idea why your DDG is so fucked up.
And it’s different now! Reminded of how DDG rearranges search results when opening a result link, then hitting back, but much more extreme.
sprawling profile
Using a fresh [cookie-isolated] private tab for every search and going through iCloud Private Relay… I still have no doubt they still manage it. Sigh. Those “am I unique?” browser fingerprinting tests still show I’m unique, perhaps due to having an extension or two installed on Safari? Creepy.
OK, I feel better now. On searxng.site, I disabled all engines except for Google and I’m getting results similar to in my OP.
Pretty sure DDG just uses bing results. Try in bing OP see what you get.
Try safe search off instead of the default moderate.