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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

SearXNG Instances list on SearX.space

  • Telorand@reddthat.com
    0·
    3 months ago

    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.

    • brbposting@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      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.

      • Telorand@reddthat.com
        0·
        3 months ago

        I think Google uses certain fingerprints, like location data, IPs you tend to connect from, etc. In my experience, they’re good at figuring out who and where you are.

    • brbposting@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      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.

      • InverseParallax@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        3 months ago

        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).

    • ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      0·
      3 months ago

      OP wanted gifs with reavers from serenity, but got a bunch of “reverse” gifs instead, so to OP DDG is half dead and worth nothing.

        • ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          0·
          3 months ago

          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.

          • Telorand@reddthat.com
            0·
            3 months ago

            I found multiple gifs, including ones from Firefly and Soul Reaver as the top results. Further down the page, there’s “reverse” gifs, too.

            Anyway, this is just lazy searching. Adding the word “Firefly” brings up all the relevant Firefly results you could want.

            • brbposting@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
              0·
              3 months ago

              Oh so you want me to spend an extra fraction of a second to avoid an absolute privacy nightmare that could follow me around for the rest of my life?! (including potential price discrimination stealing e.g. a better retirement from me)

              😉 thanks for testing!

  • macniel@feddit.org
    0·
    3 months ago

    what do you mean? I got tons of reavers, and not just Firefly but also Serenity and Warhammer

    • brbposting@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      Good question, something I wondered about after I posted.

      Nope - OK, you know what helps?

      Searching via the DDG site and then tapping images. Apparently I typed “reavers gif !ddgi” to save the tap and it does a hidden spelling correction to “reverse”?!

      One mystery solved!

      Edit: annotation in a dark font due to iOS 18 Markup bug, sorry it’s hard to see there in the upper right