"Alternative" search engine DuckDuckGo is manipulating their autocomplete algorithm. While disappointing, this is not surprising.

Individually, humans can express a wide range of behaviors, but as part of a system they become much more deterministic. Group behavior is almost entirely dictated by the rules that govern the system.

In this case, the funding and administrative model of DuckDuckGo is identical to Google's - provide a centralized search service, use that service to get eyeballs, sell those eyeballs to advertisers - and so they're heading down the same dark path of info manipulation. The problem isn't that evil people happen to be running Google, it's that the rules by which Google operates attract and encourage evil behavior.

Take the example of this monkey fairness experiment. The rules of the game are unfair - both monkeys do the same task, one is rewarded more than the other. This causes the monkey being rewarded less to justifiably lose it's shit. If you replace the scientist with a different scientist following exactly the same rules, the monkey will suffer just as much. The rules of the system are what cause suffering, not the brand they fly under.

If you want different results, you need different rules. A different revenue model. A different administrative structure. An alternative to the centralized client-server model. Something.


Comments
2017-09-06 16:52:36
I've noticed this on innocuous searches as well. Additionally, returned results are ideologically colored.
%2017-09-06 17:37:44
Badspot, you're getting shared in more mainstream places now :)
Deedend 2017-09-06 23:06:16
Any existing alternative?
Pecon2017-09-07 00:09:16
> If you want different results, you need different rules. A different revenue model. A different administrative structure. An alternative to the centralized client-server model. Something.

Namecoin was a really interesting concept in this area, I think. It never really took off, but the idea behind it was to replace the mostly centralized DNS system with a decentralized solution. It worked off of Bitcoin's underlying structure and kinda just tacked on the ability to 'spend' tokens in order to register a hostname in the blockchain. In theory it would make all domain names completely inalienable and equally priced.
Gothboy772017-09-07 04:27:07
They now have a DuckDuckGo extension for chrome. Makes perfect sense

"The search engine that doesn't track you"

"With a new extension for the web browser that does" #everythingGoogle
2017-09-12 21:06:42
If you think thats bad try google image searching "white women"
alem2017-10-05 10:24:31
Interesting, I did not know about this.
Why2018-01-10 23:57:20
Why am I here. Why do I visit your site and view your ads and give you money.

This post is ironic, for just as you complain about the values of the system that treats privacy as something traded and bought, you have no care for gender equality or other social movement. This doesn't make your argument weaker, it just makes you a less likable person.
Badspot2018-01-11 01:08:40
Just by making that comment here on this page, you're tacitly admitting that "gender equality" is code for anti-male discrimination. Being simultaneously anti-discrimination and pro-privacy is not a contradictory position. If making a strong argument for this position makes you not like me as a person, that really says more about you than it does about me.
Why2018-01-11 05:23:58
Perhaps I am, though not what I mean to do in principle. They are not contradictory positions, correct, didn't mean to make them sound like they were. I think my dislike is in using a bait-y but definitively true gif that, while it makes your point, is something your user base feeds off of and reinforces other negative viewpoints they have.

But, I am too quick in judging you as less likable as a person for a less likable post. From what I know of you I wouldn't be able to come to any meaningful conclusion on your likability (at least in an absolute sense) because I just don't know you enough.

I imagine if there's as many people out there that know you so little and judge so definitely that it must suck to be you sometimes :/
INH2018-04-09 00:37:12
Why is a fucking autistic faggot
asdasd2018-11-29 15:18:04
You don't understand the point of DDG. They aren't a charity. They need to support themselves and the business. The point is that they don't track you and use your personal information to sell the ads to YOU specifically. It's like an advertising company that puts up billboards vs one that has salesmen watch everything you do and then going to you and trying to sell you stuff.

P.S. Your gif is no longer accurate.
asdasd2018-11-29 15:24:28
P.P.S.

<img src=doesnotexist onerror="alert('great xss protection')">
asdasd2018-11-29 15:28:36
Btw ur auto ban doesn't workasd
a2020-02-18 13:09:08
>Just by making that comment here on this page, you're tacitly admitting that "gender equality" is code for anti-male discrimination

What? No he's not.

Also what the fuck, you can't just say they're "manipulating autocomplete results" with no evidence.
Badspot2020-02-18 13:45:06
>Also what the fuck, you can't just say they're "manipulating autocomplete results" with no evidence.

There is literally a video of it at the top of the page that I recorded myself.

>What? No he's not.

Yes he is. He came to this page right here and commented that I have "no care for gender equality". What the fuck does manipulating auto-complete results to show male insults but hide female insults have to do with "gender equality"? His comment only makes sense if you understand "equality" to mean "active discrimination".
Sargon of Akkad2020-03-04 14:42:52
Hey guys, I'm redpilled.
GMAN2020-03-30 00:22:20
No, you have been blue pilled, and much like other people who have been you believe you are woke but are not - the trick of the the blue pill is making you think you took the red pill and everything is cool becauz lets face it bro ur chosen right? except real red pilled niggas dont brag about it and say they are red pilled - they don't have to brag about it because they know it's true so wether ur red pilling or blue pilling i recommend u stop that and start green toking instead
ABRAGGEROFBL2020-03-30 00:23:28
this man speaks truth
some-onewho.agrees2020-03-30 00:24:10
well said guys i couldnt have said it better myself because I didnt!
disagreeing.is-funtoo2020-03-30 00:24:46
some of the lamest shit I've ever heard
GMAN2020-03-30 00:24:59
ya heard me
Gothboy2020-05-10 22:10:46
They now have a DuckDuckGo extension for chrome. Makes perfect sense

"The search engine that doesn't track you"

"With a new extension for the web browser that does" #everythingGoogle

It still stands
SadPepe2020-09-22 23:36:17
normies ruin everything
2021-12-08 07:37:52
AdBlock filter to block DDG's autocomplete:

duckduckgo.com/ac/*
Shit2022-03-10 13:04:30
Now they have started censoring search results as well.
Siknakaliux2024-07-24 20:47:06
I mean, your searches aren't even same/similar anymore. Take 2 people with the same search query, I'm pretty sure they'll get quite some different results.


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