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Date: 05 Nov 2022
Every now and then I get to install or re-install a computer with a
brand new libre operating system, allowing for a few days of futzing
around and trying new things.
If it's a general purpose machine, I also need to install a big web
browser. Whenever I install a a big-web browser I change the default
search engine, and then, after a few days, reluctantly revert it back to
google.
For all its ills Google did create a good search engine, even if its
results have become worse over the last decade for people like
me--likely because me and those like me are not economically important
enough, but it's still the only option for many queries I need to make.
The big alternative is DuckDuckGo(DDG), perenial darling of the
alternative software crowd. But DDG just doesn't work for me, although
it might be good enough for other people. If 9 out of 10
queries--usually the simpler ones--need to have a followup with !g, it
starts getting in the way.
Another one I usually try if I don't forget is qwant.com . It's a bit
busy and noisy until you figure out lite.qwant.com exists, which is far
more pleasant.
I've been using qwant for several weeks now. It's teetering on the brink
of about 5-6 queries out of 10 being resolved in a satisfactory
manner. That's good. That's a lot better than the last time I tried, and
it's just about managable to use that as a default search engine for the
big web.
Another thing is that Qwant is French. Normally an underdog is only an
underdog until they become the big dog; then all bets and promises are
off no matter how benevolent they behaved in the past.
There's no reason to assume Qwant would behave differently if they ever
became a default search engine -- except they're French, which means
they're part of the EU and have to comply with Eu regulations.
So when Qwant advertises itself with "The search engine that doesn't
know anything about you, and that changes everything!", it's not just a
good idea; it's the law!
(France is generally doing really good things when it comes to actually
improving computing in general. MIT used to be the big name for software
wizardry. Today that's INRIA.)