It’s impressive how duckduckgo manages to be so much better than bing despite being a frontend for bing

    • @[email protected]OP
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      2 months ago

      Unpopular opinion: dead internet is not only real, but GOOD. Once robots get good enough to autonomously sign up for websites and make convincing posts, this will force us humans to go actually outside, make friends, form deep social relationship, and build lasting, resilient communities. Meanwhile on the internet, websites that are willing to allow AI content for money will eventually die out due to lack of actual users. The only remaining websites will be run by individuals and organizations with non-profit motives, and a strict human-only policy with verification based on word-of-mouth / invite system.

      • @[email protected]
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        202 months ago

        this will force us humans to go actually outside, make friends, form deep social relationship, and build lasting, resilient communities

        There is no chance it goes that way, how is talking to people outside even an option for someone used to just being on the internet? Even if the content gets worse, the basic mechanisms to keep people scrolling still function, while the physical and social infrastructure necessary for in person community building is nonexistent.

      • @[email protected]
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        112 months ago

        I’m extremely wary and nervous about how disruptive LLMs can/will be but one relief is just getting an answer directly for things instead of wading through page after page of SEO optimized BS. Just really nice when you can get a quick answer and get back to the things you want to be doing.

        I suppose the AI overlords will screw that up somehow too but IMO it’s at a brief moment of usefulness.

        • @[email protected]
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          162 months ago

          If the answer is even correct. Friend tried to use it to see what laptops with 4k screens cost and all 3 options were in fact, not 4k at all because the AI is dog shit :)

          • @[email protected]
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            102 months ago

            No that’s very true, I had it look up leather repair shops not too long ago and it listed six completely fictional shops with fully fleshed out trip-advisor style blurbs for each one. It was hilariously convincing and a complete waste of my time. But it does seem like that happens less and less lately.

            • skulblaka
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              92 months ago

              Thing is, you never have any clue whether the AI is telling you something even remotely true unless you go behind it and trawl through six pages of shitty SEO-optimized bullshit anyway. So you can either take its word at face value and potentially be completely wrong, or else just do the research yourself anyway and ignore the AI answer.

              Personally, I choose the second. I find it to be less frustrating if I just assume the AI is wrong.

              • @[email protected]
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                52 months ago

                This is kinda how I’ve come to look at it. You cannot ask questions of fact to a machine that works in probabilities.

      • @[email protected]
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        102 months ago

        Enshittified internet and software made me no longer obsessed with technology, and instead I focused on other hobbies. And it also made my socialize more.

      • @[email protected]
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        62 months ago

        I’m a geek, always around computers, gaming, tinkering, etc.

        Once I moved for work, to Spain, didn’t know the language. My laptop broke, like, when opening it, the plastic was fatigued and the screen just bent.

        I was broke, expensive training… Couldn’t replace it before a few months.

        So I went to the bar of the inn I was starting at. And just, tried to pick up some words.

        Long story short, after a while I knew everyone in town, had many friends, and after work, laptop or not, I would go to the bar. I got fluent in Spanish too.

        Happiest time of my life. I don’t think my mental health has ever been as good as back then.

      • JackbyDev
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        22 months ago

        Boooo, this is just diet accelerationism! Let me have genuine online connections in addition to my IRL ones.

  • @[email protected]
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    1142 months ago

    Okay, totally off topic…what is it with this annoying trend of censoring a company/name with an asterisk when it’s a subject of ire? It just bugs me - and not in a way that focuses my anger to Microsoft.

    • @[email protected]
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      552 months ago

      With stuff like Tesla and Twitter, it can keep away the weird nerds who search those terms in hopes of white-knight-sealioning a conversation into oblivion. I think it just became part of the lexicon.

      • 2001aCentenaryofFederation
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        422 months ago

        The inverse of this is that people who filter out specific words in their feeds will be tricked into seeing it. You get to piss off 2 groups of people by doing it!

        • @[email protected]
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          342 months ago

          Have you ever heard a sea lion? They’re super loud and they all get together and bark.

        • @[email protected]
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          2 months ago

          https://amp.knowyourmeme.com/memes/sea-lioning

          Sea-Lioning is an Internet slang term referring to intrusive attempts at engaging an unwilling debate opponent by feigning civility and incessantly requesting evidence to back up their claims. The term was coined in September 2014 by anti-GamerGate Internet users to mock perceived online discussion tactics employed by GamerGate supporters.

          • @[email protected]
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            I gotta be honest, the sea lion is not the bad guy in this comic. Lady randomly says some racist shit, and a member of the group she’s being racist against calls her out for being racist. And then the fact that the sea lion called the racist out is apparently justification for the initial racist statement.

            • @[email protected]
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              2 months ago

              Racism justifies harassment and home invasion? I don’t think I can necessarily agree with that. Consequences, yes. But harassment? I’ll have to think about it.

              The point Malki was making, I think (and the way I take it) is less about the purpose or content of the discourse and more about the harassment veiled in false civility as a means of silencing discussion.

              There’s also an element of Person C inserting themselves into a private conversation between Person A and Person B, even if that conversation is being held in a public place.

              Pretend he’s not a sea lion, but a conservative, and you’ll get the intended effect.

              • @[email protected]
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                Racism justifies harassment and home invasion?

                Yeah. Not gonna cry over what the victims of racism do to racists.

                and more about the harassment veiled in false civility as a means of silencing discussion.

                How is the sea lion silencing discussion? They weren’t discussing anything, they were having a racist circlejerk. The racist lady said a racist thing and the sea lion invited discussion by asking, “Why did you say that racist thing?” and then they refused to actually explain why they’re racist against sea lions, treating it as self-evident that being racist against sea lions is correct and thus that it is unreasonable to question it.

                Pretend he’s not a sea lion, but a conservative

                He can’t choose not to be a sea lion. This is kind of incoherent. “Pretend he’s not black, but a conservative.” This sea lion could also be conservative, that doesn’t really have anything to do with the fact that he’s being criticized for immutable properties he was born with, not for anything of substance.

                • @[email protected]
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                  62 months ago

                  Again sea lioning is a type of behavior not a type of person or being. As a form of humor they rather than have a person embody the behavior be a literal sea lion because whimsical tension between the metaphorical sea lion also being an actual sea lion is funny.

                • @[email protected]
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                  22 months ago

                  Not gonna cry over what the victims of racism do to racists.

                  Eh…I dunno. I’m not going to tone police anyone, and consequences for bad actions are definitely good, but do two very-wrongs make a kinda-right? I’m not sold.

                  [the rest]

                  Look…if you don’t vibe with the comic, that’s fine. It’s just obviously not about all the stuff that you seem to think it’s about.

              • @[email protected]
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                22 months ago

                Racism justifies harassment and home invasion?

                You realize internet sealions don’t actually invade homes?

                You realise the harassment stops if you don’t respond?

                • @[email protected]
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                  32 months ago

                  I realize that. The person above seemed to think that everything in this clearly allegorical comic is somehow intended to be taken literally.

            • @[email protected]
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              52 months ago

              Sea lion is slang for a type of behavior a person exhibits not an immutable characteristic of the person like the color of their skin. They didn’t have to prove the behavior because the behavior expressed IS the behavior.

            • JackbyDev
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              12 months ago

              It’s mocking the type of people that try to turn anything and everything into some sort of formal debate when it was just a casual conversation then act like they’ve won some sort of argument when you don’t engage.

    • Lvxferre
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      222 months ago

      It conveys “I have such a disdain for that thing that I’m asterisking its name like it was a slur or swear word”.

      I’m not a big fan either, even if you can find some secondary roles for that (as keeping someone from finding it, like ilinamorato exemplified). It distracts the reader from what is being said to the author’s personal opinion about what is being said.

    • ✺roguetrick✺
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      182 months ago

      It’s ironic, except for when we’re talking about the Fr*nch. It’s self aware humor that you’re being ridiculous. The tone it’s supposed to convey in situations like thisis that you’re being hyperbolically obtuse.

      • @[email protected]
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        22 months ago

        Those are generally used for bypassing filters on TikTok and Instagram

        But like, come on man, no matter how much you censor it I know the word and I get the message. Because that’s why you wrote it, you want me to read and understand it

    • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️
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      52 months ago

      People are going to see this, so here’s the answer.

      Logitech’s web UI is crap. See that tiny, unlabled triangle on the list on the left?

      Click it and pick your OS version.

      Then you get the download.

      • Billiam
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        …huh. TIL.

        The last time I had to download the unifying software it was more obvious than that.

  • @[email protected]
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    552 months ago

    Is softonic actually malware or an unreliable repository that may contain malware? I’ve never actually clicked in lol

    • @[email protected]OP
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      712 months ago

      I unknowingly downloaded some software from there when I was a kid, and, from what I remember, it came bundled with some sort of update manager or something. Even if it’s not outright malware, I would wager most people who are looking to download logitech’s utility don’t want some irrelevant third-party garbage on their system. So AT BEST it’s crapware / bloatware

        • flicker
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          152 months ago

          That’s the beauty of the internet. There’s always a competitor. I don’t have to use someone who had a bad reputation at one point but is fine now. I can just use someone else.

    • @[email protected]
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      212 months ago

      My elderly dad fell for something similar trying to call HP support, he googled the number and the top result was some bullshit. They had him set up remote access and compromised all his data. Old man had to reset everything.

      He called me saying what happened, I had him shut down and unplug. I recovered what I could but he lost a lot of data.

      This shit should be illegal. Like, I’m sure it is technically but there shouldnt be unofficial sponsored results above legitimate sources.

      • @[email protected]
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        122 months ago

        In a perfect world, they’d be legally/financially responsible for any ads they serve up like that.

      • @[email protected]
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        122 months ago

        Yeah… I get that you pay for ads, but ads should never masquerade themselves as legitimate content.

  • @[email protected]
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    422 months ago

    Softonic has to have made a deal with the SEO devil.

    Non idea how their disgusting malware is always on top.

  • @[email protected]
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    382 months ago

    Softonic be like every app you want we have it, even the non exist ones. But once you installed our apps you already have made a pact with the devil

    • Possibly linux
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      52 months ago

      Does anyone know exactly what malware they are serving? I’m tempted to run it though virustotal.

  • @[email protected]
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    2 months ago

    Wow reading through these comments makes me a little sad. Most people still don’t know jack about search engines or how they differ under the hood, or eve just how to add them into your browser search bar. Looks like all the effort I put into that that simple search engine guide was in vain.

    • @[email protected]
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      72 months ago

      Well that was a spectacular read in your link, keep calling attention to it, 'cause it’s gonna be a constant drip-drip-drip of people finding out. I didn’t know, but starting today, I’m gonna experiment with SearXNG as my primary search engine, see how that goes!

    • @[email protected]
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      22 months ago

      Thanks

      Yacy seems to be what I want but I am worried about the content that would get indexed

    • sillyplasm
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      12 months ago

      Thanks for making such an interesting guide! I’ll read through this and hopefully learn more about search engines and what would work the best for me.

  • arglebargle
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    272 months ago

    Not to defend Bing in anyway, but I typed logitech unifying software and the first result is the download page on logitechs site.

    I am not doubting you, but why is it so different for me? I see non of the ??? section, no ads, just a link at the top like you would expect.

    What are you using or doing different?

    • @[email protected]OP
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      112 months ago

      The screenshot is from Microsoft Edge running in Windows 10 (virtual machine) with no/little browsing history and no account connected. I’m hypothesizing here, but maybe these are the reasons:

      • You don’t see the ??? section because you’re not on Edge. Bing AI only works on edge (it checks your user agent)
      • You don’t see the ad because you have an adblocker
      • arglebargle
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        22 months ago

        Just tried it in Edge, with no ad block.

        The first link was what I was searching for. None of that extra stuff showed up. The ad (for something unrelated) was in a column in the right.

        There is no account associated, little browsing history. This machine was completely wiped 2 weeks ago.

        I think the difference is, I am not in the US.

      • dantheclamman
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        142 months ago

        Yes, and DDG has really been degrading over the last few months in quality of results imo.

        • JackbyDev
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          12 months ago

          I’ll be honest, DDG has never blown me away and I’ve been using it for roughly 5 years. It’s not awful or anything, but maybe once every month or two I need to resort to Google because it can’t find something. I’m absolutely willing to sacrifice some quality for privacy in the general case, though.

          • dantheclamman
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            22 months ago

            Yes, it has never been the best in terms of relevance or depth of index. But lately when I do searches for something like “cherry shrimp aquarium water quality requirements” I’ve been overwhelmed by AI-written SEO blogs. Where google still pulls up results from forums, reddit, other relevant actual humans talking.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      132 months ago

      Thanks for the tip! I use startpage already, it’s pretty good. From what I understand, it uses Google’s search index under the hood.

      There’s also Brave search which (claims to be) privacy friendly and (claims to) have their own independent search index, so you could give that a try as well. I wouldn’t say it’s better that startpage or google tho

      • @[email protected]
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        112 months ago

        and (claims to) have their own independent search index

        AFAIK their index is very small, so they use Bing to supplement it. Most search engines and voice assistants that aren’t Google use Bing in some way, since it’s the largest search index that has an official public API that anyone can use.

      • @[email protected]
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        52 months ago

        I’ve been using Brave search for a while as a daily driver. It’s usually pretty decent, but I fall back to google when looking for commercial stuff like local stores and products.

    • WIZARD POPE💫
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      12 months ago

      Damn I’d love to use it but it does not have my country as an option to select region so pretty much useless to me sadly. Stuck to DDG abd google/bing it seems.

  • Presi300
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    232 months ago

    Mainstream search engines (google and bing) are completely useless. Alternatives ftw.

  • @[email protected]
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    222 months ago

    Stract.com open search engine a guy built in his basement. It is not perfect but feels like Google used to in the late 90s, when you had real results