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

        • JackbyDev@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          2 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@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            2 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.

  • repungnant_canary@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    2 months ago

    SearXNG is also amazing. The only reason I don’t use it more is because it doesn’t have an integration into the URL bar in Firefox.

  • Katana314@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    116
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 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.

    • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      57
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 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@fedia.io
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        43
        ·
        2 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!

          • BlackDragon@slrpnk.net
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            9
            arrow-down
            5
            ·
            edit-2
            2 months ago

            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.

            • JackbyDev@programming.dev
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              2 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.

            • michaelmrose@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              5
              ·
              2 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.

            • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              5
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              edit-2
              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.

              • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                2 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?

                • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  ·
                  2 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.

              • BlackDragon@slrpnk.net
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                3
                arrow-down
                6
                ·
                edit-2
                2 months ago

                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.

                • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  arrow-down
                  2
                  ·
                  2 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.

                • michaelmrose@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  6
                  ·
                  2 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.

        • eldoom@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          35
          ·
          2 months ago

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

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          24
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          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.

    • ✺roguetrick✺@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 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.

      • yogurtwrong@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        2 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

    • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      23
      ·
      2 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.

  • michaelmrose@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    31
    ·
    2 months ago

    Your search query is garbage incidentally. Unifying is a “feature” not the name of any particular software. You should have searched for the model of your hardware

  • chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    15
    arrow-down
    13
    ·
    2 months ago

    I mean… you went to Bing to search for a program. That’s something that a new or inexperienced user would do, and Bing tried to help. It gave a direct link to the software (a link which I just tested to be working and safe on a virtual machine), it instructed how to do it using the official website, and then as a third option, it gave a link to the website.

    I know that a lot of people will automatically assume a site like Softonic is loaded with malware (and I don’t have the time to refute all of those claims) but the download they provided of the software was just a mirror of the official download and came with no added malware, spyware, or adware. Use at your own risk, but OP is pretty clearly fearmongering in an attempt to get people to give them internet points.

    • conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      2 months ago

      This is absurd.

      Typing “Logitech unifying software download” in the address bar is massively less effort than navigating their shitshow of a site. It’s not a sign of inexperience in any way.

      Allowing an ad with any third party download is an insane policy, and it is not a legitimate practice at all to use an unreliable third party with a well deserved bad reputation to download software in place of the manufacturer.

  • affiliate@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    2 months ago

    what’s even the point of a download link if you don’t have a guide that tells you how to click the link

  • Presi300@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    23
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 months ago

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

  • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    2 months ago

    It’s gone really downhill ever since co-pilot

    It’s hard to call it better than Google now

  • eldoom@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    2 months ago

    The only thing bing is good for is watching porn and I will stand by that opinion.

    • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      2 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@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        …huh. TIL.

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

  • heavy@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    2 months ago

    Can someone ELI5 how searx works and if it’s worth the hassle of hosting? I’m privacy conscious but not paranoid.

    • renzev@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      2 months ago

      Can someone ELI5 how searx works

      It sends your search query to a bunch of different existing search engines, and shows you all of the results in one combined page

      if it’s worth the hassle of hosting

      Personally idk, maybe someone else can provide their opinion about this

    • barnaclebutt@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      2 months ago

      It scraps other search engines either locally or remotely from someone else’s server. I used it for a while, then switched back to duckduckgo. Duckduckgo is what I recommend if you are lazy.

    • fishbone@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      2 months ago

      Searx (as others have said) is an aggregate of multiple search engines all bundled into one, with very finetuned customization (ie: you can toggle every search option you want or not within each category).

      You also don’t need to host your own, though I’m not sure what the significance of being self hosted in this case is.

      As far as usefulness over other search sites, it’s generally better with some caveats. Search engines as a whole are in a pretty awful state, so combining them is better, but still not that good. It does offer some very niche search engines that can be extremely useful when pooled together though, which is nice.

      Searx also has some captcha issues that I haven’t quite figured out. My understanding is that essentially, search engines don’t like when you use their engine without being on their site, and it’ll stop working via searx (until you go to the site in question and do the captcha maybe?).

      There’s also a few different domains for searx with varying degrees of availability as far as what engines they reliably connect to.

      All in all, searx is great by comparison to mainstream trash, but it can be a headache to setup, and a headache to maintain. There’s a masterlist of searx hosts somewhere, I’ll try and see about finding it if someone else doesn’t link it.