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Ask Slashdot: Are There Any Search Engines Left That Don't Try To Think For Me?

Posted by timothy on from the that's-what-the-quotes-are-for dept.

An anonymous reader writes: As a programmer especially, I'm becoming increasingly unhappy with Google searches. They try very hard to present me with what they think I'm searching for instead of what I'm actually searching for. This issue mostly shows up when searching error messages, obscure type and function names and stuff like that. What I think though, is that I only notice the issue when searching for stuff I know a lot about, namely programming, but my queries get distorted when I'm searching for just about anything, I just don't know enough about the subject to notice. Are there any alternative search engines left that don't think they know better than me what I'm looking for and just search for my phrase, like in the 2000s? Searching for exact strings is an option with Google, but what search engines are the most hands-off to start with?

5 of 424 comments (clear)

  1. Did you mean... by sideslash · · Score: 5, Funny

    Did you mean: "Are there any search engines left that try to think for me?" Try one of the following:

    https://google.com
    https://bing.com
    https://duckduckgo.com
    https://dogpile.com

  2. They keep hiding pirated material from me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    That's what I WANT Google! Free stuff! Stop it!

  3. Re: Amen brother! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Like people in the United States even know what a liberal is!

  4. Re:Amen brother! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    stop surfing all the porn while logged in.

  5. Re: Amen brother! by Defenestrar · · Score: 3, Funny

    I have a dream of when my children, and my children's children, can read/listen/watch recordings of extremely important public cultural events over the internet and not be committing copyright infringement.

    Sorry - knee jerk response to the dream phrase made it as far as the keyboard.