How to exclude words in DDG etc. searches

golinux · 2023-03-26 21:29:58

I am frustrated . . . -wordtoexclude used to work but hasn't for a long time. It is still possible to exclude a site with -site:sitedomain but no way to exclude more than one site at a time. It is a bit like trying to find a pin stuck in a Jackson Pollack painting.

Please post your tips and/or vent your frustration here . . .

delgado · 2023-03-26 21:54:29

Advanced search is canceled everywhere. It's a shame.

golinux · 2023-03-27 00:20:49

@delgado . . . I gathered that from the research I did before posting here. I was hoping someone at Devuan surely knows a way around this obstacle. Sigh . . .

The machine just wants to piss us off and waste our time. We are like cattle being herded into the abattoir and the chutes are narrowing. We will obey the machine! And it is suffocating . . .

Ron · 2023-03-27 09:17:10

I don't know much about this but maybe what you want works in the search engine Mojeek?

https://www.mojeek.com/

Last edited by Ron (2023-03-27 09:22:33)

boughtonp · 2023-03-27 14:28:00

It still kinda works sometimes, though I've no idea what decides when it does or not:

devuan = top four results: devuan.org, wikipedia.org, distrowatch.com, techradar.com
devuan -wikipedia = no wikipedia.org on first page, but distrowatch (which references wikipedia) is 6th
devuan -distrowatch = distrowatch.com promoted to 1st result instead of being removed
devuan -techradar = no techradar.com on first page

-

One way around it would be to write ones own search engine - a lot of times I'm searching it's for specific documentation, and what I'm trying to exclude is non-technical sites and useless crap from Stack Overflow, Quora, etc - so being able to search a specific set of curated sites would be far more useful results than any web-wide search engine.

Last edited by boughtonp (2023-03-27 14:28:24)

delgado · 2023-03-27 17:36:54

What if you use (buy) an API key for google custom search?
Could be a way to have more search options.
~~Or is it the same search, just the results are submitted differently?~~ EDIT: This is most likely wrong.

Last edited by delgado (2023-03-27 22:40:53)

golinux · 2023-03-27 17:56:38

delgado wrote:

What if you use (buy) an API key for google custom search?

I don't see that anything good could come from letting google profile me in such a personal way.

delgado wrote:

Could be a way to have more search options.

But at what price . . .?

delgado wrote:

Or is it the same search, just the results are submitted differently?

Those algorithms are a black box . . . How do you begin to find an answer to that question?

andyprough · 2023-03-27 21:48:41

Startpage will give you the -excludes results. Might not be the google search proxy you are looking for, but I figured I would mention it in case you had not checked.

delgado · 2023-03-27 22:36:56

You got me completely wrong! I'll try again.

The main point is: Would you pay for having more search options?

API access means you can use (in this case) the google seach engine directly in your own program or web side. This allows more search parameters and costs real money. No idea how much they are asking for, nor how much I would want to pay for that. Yandex, Bing and others are offering the same services. This has nothing to with profiling or using their web side directly.

On youtube, they doubled the amount of ads, along with the offer to have it ad-free for 10 bugs a month. Same technique may apply for the search.

Beeing naked in front of google and hoping they will deliver better results then is not an option for me. Google has become as evil as its compeditors. At least they delverd some useful and working software (the revolutionary search in the early 2000, maps, earth, and more I forgot).

golinux · 2023-03-27 22:59:19

delgado wrote:

You got me completely wrong! I'll try again.
The main point is: Would you pay for having more search options?

No, I would not. We are focusing on 2 different types of "paying" - currency and freedom.. You are focused on monetary cost. My comments are based on the cost to personal freedom by being so closely tied to google.

delgado wrote:

Beeing naked in front of google and hoping they will deliver better results then is not an option for me.

Me either which is exactly where my comments were coming from. So we actually understand each other quite well.

zapper · 2023-04-01 03:32:28

delgado wrote:

On youtube, they doubled the amount of ads, along with the offer to have it ad-free for 10 bugsa month. Same technique may apply for the search.
.

You had one specific part of that right, which I will try to embolden... well to be fair, its a tiny fraction of the truth, but yeah its at least on the right track.

Although, to be fair, they are still tracking you always, no matter what. They are completely full of it, if they think that is enough of a deal for it to be worth it to anyone but the most gullible people on the planet. Although, sometimes I forget about something very insane that happened not much more than 2 months and 2 years ago...

But yeah,

EDIT: Actually double the amount of ads is also true as well.

That being said, block their ads or use a frontend where you have none of those issues.

Those are your best options.

Last edited by zapper (2023-04-01 03:33:49)

delgado · 2023-04-02 12:51:35

@zapper
Just curious: What happend in January 2021? Can't remember anything special by now.

The officially official Devuan Forum!

#1 2023-03-26 21:29:58

How to exclude words in DDG etc. searches

#2 2023-03-26 21:54:29

Re: How to exclude words in DDG etc. searches

#3 2023-03-27 00:20:49

Re: How to exclude words in DDG etc. searches

#4 2023-03-27 09:17:10

Re: How to exclude words in DDG etc. searches

#5 2023-03-27 14:28:00

Re: How to exclude words in DDG etc. searches

#6 2023-03-27 17:36:54

Re: How to exclude words in DDG etc. searches

#7 2023-03-27 17:56:38

Re: How to exclude words in DDG etc. searches

#8 2023-03-27 21:48:41

Re: How to exclude words in DDG etc. searches

#9 2023-03-27 22:36:56

Re: How to exclude words in DDG etc. searches

#10 2023-03-27 22:59:19

Re: How to exclude words in DDG etc. searches

#11 2023-04-01 03:32:28

Re: How to exclude words in DDG etc. searches

#12 2023-04-02 12:51:35

Re: How to exclude words in DDG etc. searches

Board footer