Duckduckgo

noai.duckduckgo.com claim that they have removed all the AI in their app for people who don't want this invasive rubbish when they are using a search engine. However, as soon as you begin to type anything into the search tab it begins to give you suggestions which means that it does indeed have AI. The so-called support team says that you have to go into the settings to turn "Auto-suggest" off each and every time you open the noai.duckduckgo app so it's NOT noai at all is it? Plus, it doesn't stop the AI suggestions coming up anyway. Their own survey shows that 90% of the people who use their app DO NOT WANT AI, see: https://au.pcmag.com/ai/115616/duckduckgo-asked-its-users-how-they-feel-about-ai-search-90-hate-it The easiest, simplest and most effective way to remedy this problem would be for them to REMOVE all AI from their so-called noai.duckduckgo app in the first place. So just do it!

When I shop online, I’ve noticed I find way better deals using DuckDuckGo. It doesn’t bury what I’m actually looking for under layers of ads or push the most expensive stuff just because it’s promoted. I stopped trusting Google and YouTube for product searches when I realised their algorithms were hiding cheaper options. A lot of the time, I just want to compare affordable products with the high-end ones to see what’s actually worth it.

One example, last year I was looking for a mouse with a horizontal scroll or thumbwheel, mainly for spreadsheets. All that kept showing up in Google was the Logitech MX Master 3S. I trusted it's carousel that extracted from Amazon, Ebay, etc. It looked like that mouse was the only choice, so I bought it for around $150. I honestly thought that was the only mouse that had that feature.

But a few weeks later, after I'd already made the purchase, I started seeing other mice like the Phylina M10 and the Rapoo MT760, both with similar features and only around $40. I’m almost certain those didn’t show up in my original search results. I felt like I’d been tricked by some kind of algorithm that prioritised whatever ad campaign had the biggest budget.

With Duck Duck Go, it's just straightforward with the results, I actually see proper options, not just whatever some company's paid to have boosted. It’s made a big difference, especially when I’m trying to be smart with my money. No more feeling like I got upsold by a search engine. I'm still dirty with Google doing that last year but I'm not holding my breath they'll do the right thing any time soon.

It used to be very good. Now – When I search for anything, I expect the first keyword to be given priority, then the second, third, etcetera. I DO NOT expect the search engine to pick up a low rank search term and flood me with unwanted information which is completely irrelevant to the primary keyword. Also, there used to be a feature to exclude certain keywords, by using the famed "-" (minus) symbol, or to give preference to keywords by using the "+" (plus). But DDG doesn't respect these any more.

Frankly, I don't care how my privacy is respected if the search engine cannot, or will not respect the ordering of my keywords. In this regard maybe Google is a better option despite the lack of privacy.

I cannot recommend Duck Duck Go as a useful service. Privacy without performance is not a useful metric.

Absolutely does your head in – Just one drop down menu after another. Very slow and pointlessly pedantic. "Shoot me now " must be the most common reaction. Go elsewhere if you know what is good for you. Won't display most commonly used websites is a major annoyance.