Google likely alters queries billions of times a day in trillions of different variations. Here’s how it works. Say you search for “children’s clothing.” Google converts it, without your knowledge, to a search for “NIKOLAI-brand kidswear,” making a behind-the-scenes substitution of your actual query with a different query that just happens to generate more money for the company, and will generate results you weren’t searching for at all. It’s not possible for you to opt out of the substitution. If you don’t get the results you want, and you try to refine your query, you are wasting your time. This is a twisted shopping mall you can’t escape.

  • herr@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Qwant is unfortunately owned by Axel Springer, truly one of the worst German companies in existence. They’re the publisher of the most popular (and unfortunately highly politically biased, filled to the brim with dishonest exaggerations and occasionally straight-up lies) German newspaper Bild.

    Whatever comes out of Qwant if it actually becomes popular, you can rest assured it will be nothing good.

    Just use DuckDuckGo and be done with it.

    • miskOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      As much as I dislike Axel Springer, they seem to own just 20% of Qwant.

      In my experience DDG kinda sucks, when I gave it a honest try (~1 month of having it as default) I kept going back to Google too much.

      I don’t have any trouble dumping services when they go bad. I’m on Lemmy after all.