Search engine shopping pages USELESS now…

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I have no idea what I’m doing wrong. I use Firefox mostly and Edge in a pinch.

My default search engine is duckduckgo and sometimes Google.

When I’m shopping for something, say a specific video card, I get a bucket load of links to ebay, amazon, a couple for newegg, one for micro center, and then an occasional hit on something obscure but that’s it. Are you telling me that the in the ENTIRE COUNTRY, the only sites that have the card I’m looking for are amazon and ebay?

Same thing for a specific brand toothbrush (latest search). The first 30 hits or so are for a single dental hygiene products site and then back to ebay and amazon.

Is there a trick to finding additional outlets that I’m missing?

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A lot of that garbage at the top of a search results is AI based.  I’ve been able (using Firefox) to use switches that sometimes work.  For example:

computer help website -AI

computer help website +edu

gives only search information that is from an .edu domain

Also make sure your settings in Firefox match your privacy expectations.

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The trick is to use a paid search engine like Kagi.

I highly recommend to read this blog post: https://blog.kagi.com/age-pagerank-over

To quote from it:

> “The idea that we get our information as citizens through algorithms determined by the world’s largest advertising company is my definition of dystopia.”

3 users thanked author for this post.

Charlie, Elly, NaNoNyMouse

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You can turn off the AI results for DDG & Google as follows:

On any DuckDuckGo search results page

Select Three-line menu > Settings > AI Feature

Turn Chat OFF

Set Asist to Never

Click Save and Exit

Note: this works by storing a cookie in your browser so, if you clear your cookies, they’ll reset to ON and Sometimes.

On any Google search results page

Select the Web option.



Not only does this disable the AI results, it also removes the Featured Snippets that normally appear at the top of the search results and “seems” to remove most ads/sponsored posts.

7 users thanked author for this post.

ctRanger, Charlie, SueW, Elly, satrow, WSbobby-p, NaNoNyMouse

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RMART wrote:

I have no idea what I’m doing wrong.

You aren’t doing anything wrong. The Google search we once loved has been enshittified. The specific process by which Google enshittified its search details the steps Google went through to extract more value to Google through decreasing value to search users… and decreasing value to their advertisers, too.

A combination of the regulatory environment for competition, privacy, labor, consumer protection and IP law is why Google is making money off of you, while giving ever worsening search results.

When our experience is poor, we used to think, what did I do wrong? But so much tech is undergoing enshittification… the first place I look at now, is what recent decision was made to enshittify my computer, cloud services, browser, apps, printer, etc.? It isn’t us, and @RMART, it isn’t you.

Non-techy Win 10 Pro and Linux Mint experimenter

4 users thanked author for this post.

Charlie, coastline, SueW, satrow

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