Bitcoin search results spam using DuckDuckGo

[odolvlobo]

Someone has figured out a way to spam DuckDuckGo, making it so that searches for topics related to Bitcoin come back with hundreds of sites all linking to u s t r a d e r s j o u r n a l . c o m / b i t c o i n.

Up until now, I had a strong preference for DuckDuckGo over Big Brother (Google), but now it has become useless.

Any suggestions?

[20kevin20]

I've also noticed this and it's very annoying. I can't seem to find any kind of relevant result now with DDG. A simple "how to upgrade bitcoin core wallet" search gives back >30 results on the first page out of which more than 3/4 are ".de" spammy/scammy websites.

My Whonix always suggests peekier, MetaGer, YaCy, Qwant and Ecosia. One particular search engine I've seen lots of people go after lately is SearX (see public instances here, or host your own; this is the onion link for public instances).

[malevolent]

Startpage.com, Qwant and SearX also work OK for me,

DDG was never good enough for me because non-English language search results are/used to be really bad.

edit: followed this link elsewhere and missed that the topic is from 2020, not 2021...

[Artemis3]

DuckDuckGo is my main search page. I just tried searching for "bitcoin", and the first result is bitcoin.org, the second is, .com...

I see none of these ustradersjournal links. The next links are a bunch of major media outlets such as cnn, forbes, cnet, etc.

If you use Windows, i would be far more concerned about what your OS may possibly have acquired...

[mk4]

Are you sure you aren't looking at an ad? Because Bitcoin.org is the top result on my side, without the that link in sight.

But yea, it's just normal to expect subpar performance compared to Google because of the lack of data collection and tracking.

[romero121]

Myself checked with the DDG and I found relevant information associated with bitcoin. Maybe there is something wrong with your browser. Try reinstalling the browser or it could be a regional issue due to the usage of VPN or other bypassing services.

[CryptoWebDirectory]

I don't think this is an issue with DuckDuckGo... Maybe check the following:

1) Make sure your computer doesn't have any adware on it. If you aren't running a virus scanner you can download adaware or another free adware remover.
2) Make sure the result isn't an advertisement. If it's the very first result then it could just be an ad..
3) Make sure you aren't connecting to a proxy or VPN. Doubt that would be the issue but it is something you can check on your browser.
4) Maybe try clearing your browser cookies and cache.

[stompix]

I don't think this is an issue with DuckDuckGo...

Myself checked with the DDG and I found relevant information associated with bitcoin. Maybe there is something wrong with your browser.

Use DDG and try to search for "bitcoin wallet", let me know what the first result is..
Btw Qwant gives the same result.

Poeple don't search for "bitcoin" and simply that, they use more search terms, do some test, if you use DGG and search for things like bitcoin miners 4 out of the first ten results are could mining scams.

[Lucius]

Use DDG and try to search for "bitcoin wallet", let me know what the first result is..

I get the following results :

Code:

https://bitcoinwallet.com 
https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet
https://cryptowallet.com/best-bitcoin-btc-wallets/

If I search only for the keyword “bitcoin”, the results are as follows :

Code:

https://bitcoin.org
https://coinmarketcap.com › currencies › bitcoin
https://www.bitcoin.com

What makes the difference in the order of search results is to select the option to use "all regions" or select an individual country from the list. The results are also the same with or without uBlock Origin on/off.

[stompix]

Use DDG and try to search for "bitcoin wallet", let me know what the first result is..

I get the following results :

Code:

https://bitcoinwallet.com 

Same here, now the first result is a wallet I've never heard of but which has an astounding 32 out of 32 bad reviews on Trustpilot
https://www.trustpilot.com/review/bitcoinwallet.com
Not really the result you would want at the top of the page, right?

As I said when it comes to other things like mining gear, the results are really really bad, but I'm still wondering what odolvlobo encountered at that time...cause only now I realized that while the first 5 replies before me were today the topic is from December last year! F!!!!

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

Duckduckgo is a default search engine for Tor browser and to be honest, I use Tor browser but I don't search with Duckduckgo on Tor browser. If I need search, I will use Google Chrome, no log in, simply search as guest user on my computer. Because I don't want to waste my time by searching two times, first on Duckduckgo and second on Google Chrome. Next I might have to make comparison between two search results.

[Stedsm]

Hi @OP, would you mind clearing cache and data on your browser you're using duckduckgo at? Or maybe try changing your browser? Because I also searched for BTC and like everyone here, I've got no issues with the search results at all as they're showing Bitcoin relevant results only.

[dkbit98]

Up until now, I had a strong preference for DuckDuckGo over Big Brother (Google), but now it has become useless.

Any suggestions?

I am using several alternative search engines in combination with uBlock adblocker (disabled for bitcointalk), and I almost totally stop using G-search.

- Qwant.com - nice french european based search engine without tracking and it respects privacy.
- search.Brave.com - it's search engine of Brave browser but you can use it on any other browser including Firefox, Tor, etc.
- Startpage.com - ok alternative with lot of settings and customization.
- Yandex.com - Russian alternative for G-search, not great for privacy but I found it often produces better search results.
- Presearch.org - crypto based, you can even earn some tokens and make your own ads with that.

I am still using DuckDuckGo sometimes and I think that we need to have some Bitcoin based search engine in future, search the web and earn sats  

[Fortify]

Someone has figured out a way to spam DuckDuckGo, making it so that searches for topics related to Bitcoin come back with hundreds of sites all linking to -

Up until now, I had a strong preference for DuckDuckGo over Big Brother (Google), but now it has become useless.

Any suggestions?

Hmm, how long has this been going on? If it's just a day or two then maybe cut them some slack and a little time to fix it. I remember that even Google was attacked in this sort of way in the past and it must take a lot of effort to fix these things. It's the holiday season, which the spammer probably targeted intentionally knowing that there is less staff around this time of year to make big changes, so that exasperates the situation. We need more competitors of that grade to take on Google and Microsoft who have abandoned all pretense of trying to protect the consumer in return for profits, these smaller outfits need all the patience and help they can get within reason.

[Emitdama]

Someone has figured out a way to spam DuckDuckGo, making it so that searches for topics related to Bitcoin come back with hundreds of sites all linking to u s t r a d e r s j o u r n a l . c o m / b i t c o i n.

Up until now, I had a strong preference for DuckDuckGo over Big Brother (Google), but now it has become useless.

Any suggestions?

In this case don’t you think it is best that you report to the team that developed the platform. I believe that they will have a social media platform or maybe a community platform where users of their website can report any issues that they have noticed on the site. So you should try to check out whether they have any social media platform and then try to report it maybe under the comment section or you can DM them direct.

I have once seen the DuckDuckGo team make a post on quora.com. So, you should just try to reach out to them and report, because it might be that such issue has not come to their attention yet, and for as long as it has not come to their attention, it’s going to remain that way and they wouldn’t sort out the issue.

[buwaytress]

Startpage.com, Qwant and SearX also work OK for me,

DDG was never good enough for me because non-English language search results are/used to be really bad.

edit: followed this link elsewhere and missed that the topic is from 2020, not 2021...

Might have been an almost necro, but actually brought my attention to something hadn't known about. DDG used to be quite good for me when checking out SEO for my website (Bitcoin related) but I ceased using/operating since mid 2020, didn't realise how crap DDG's become. As ETFBitcoin says above though, I think you start detecting issues more easily by seeing how Bing performs.

Thanks for the alternatives, I admit I'm still pretty heavy on Google though. Simply the quickest out of all the options, especially on a low-speed connexion like I got.

[romero121]

Myself checked with the DDG and I found relevant information associated with bitcoin. Maybe there is something wrong with your browser.

Use DDG and try to search for "bitcoin wallet", let me know what the first result is..
Btw Qwant gives the same result.

Poeple don't search for "bitcoin" and simply that, they use more search terms, do some test, if you use DGG and search for things like bitcoin miners 4 out of the first ten results are could mining scams.

Checked for "bitcoin wallet" and got all these as the top search results. Maybe with the different terms used there might be more variations of getting inappropriate search results.

[bL4nkcode]

Checked for "bitcoin wallet" and got all these as the top search results. Maybe with the different terms used there might be more variations of getting inappropriate search results.

[...]

Have the same results using DDG.

And as far as I can tell regarding the search results, history, visited website using the DDG results or its browser/extension really affects the search result's order and vastly the whole SERP. Also, DDG not only use bing algo but also from yahoo and yandex, although yahoo is also fed by bing so it just the same.

I tried DDG before, while it's good for privacy, I don't think it serve as a the best search engine, base on it's results, it still lacking, if they can improve that not just by compiling its search results from those other search engines then I might reconsider using it.