Is Duck Duck Go Regime-Compliant Now?
Plus covid and other memes for #MemeMonday
Given the recent attempt to use “bird flu” to resurrect the ghost of covid (and as an excuse to murder 150 million chickens), I think it is appropriate to start off #MemeMonday with a little reminder of what they did during covid. (Plus a few more good memes.)
Then see the end for a note about what has happened to Duck Duck Go…
Several of us (
, , and others) have recently been talking about search engines—about the degree to which they are curated, censored, and compromised by either left-wing sentiments or a regime compliant approach (or both).The discussion began (in part) because of my sense that DuckDuckGo is no longer what it was. For a while there, it was being considered a less-compromised version of Google—so much so that many in the freedom community were recommending it. I myself made it my default search engine in all my browsers (with just one exception) on all my devices.
But in recent weeks, I have begun to notice that if anything, DDG’s search results are even more curated and regime-compliant than Google’s. I have even done a few side-by-side comparisons and—shockingly—even Google now appears to be less censored and curated than DDG. Maybe that is, in part, because Google just gets more results in general. Either way, I no longer consider DDG a viable option.
As a kind of a final test on the path to making that determination, I did a search for covid memes on DDG, and what I got was almost entirely regime-compliant propaganda. I guarantee you that there are at least as many regime-skeptical covid memes out there (and probably way more), but none showed up. The results change constantly, so you might see a few if you run a similar search. But not many.
The only way that can happen is if DDG is intentionally curating.
And for that reason, I’m out.
"Ain't no such thing as a free lunch" comes to mind; certainly as it applies to the topic of search engines. There's a plethora of them out there, all claiming "your privacy" as sacrosanct and top of their mind. Truth be known it's all flim-flam. The pachyderm in the parlour is known as SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. It's a thriving & lucrative industry whose focus is "gain of function" in search engine ranking for their clients. Candour is certainly not their forte.
Anyone concerned with anonymity cannot rely on promises of third parties. Far too many intermediates in the supply chain. My approach is to employ a trusted and reliable VPN service that has not been blacklisted by some email providers. Virtually none exist. Another option to obfuscate your location or identity is to hook up with OpenDNS or NextDNS
I was an early adopter of DDG, but have also noticed their search engine isn't what it once was.
I've been testing alternative providers, specifically Yandex & Tor.
Here's my experience: Became frustrated with the abysmal efficacy of optical wipes, searched for "Blue Wonder Canada", a Canadian brand I trusted. Most all search engines' algorithms ranked Amazon at or near the top. And Amazon doesn't even carry this brand! None (except for Privacia) showed the manufacturer in the top 10. The clear winner was the Yandex browser & its native search engine. I obtained similar results with Yandex using Privacia.org search.
Yandex is the only SE that has gained my trust, its GUI supports interactive definition of search criteria, akin to AI. And above all don't yield to normalcy bias or the PTB's Russia! Russia! hoax,
Tor is really interesting,, especially with the "Onion" search option enabled. Definitely not for newbies, it's a no holds barred, wild west kind of approach, reminds one of the internet's younger years - 9600 baud modems, CPM, DOS, UseNet and all that. If you're into serious unfettered research it's the one, But beware - there be tigers in the grass.
Google's founders' mantra was "Don't be evil", now it's "Don't be evil, that's our job".
I noticed that Brave has also changed. Can't find anything anymore.