That's it, I am reaching my limit with the 'genAI' stuff.
I moved from #Google to #DuckDuckGo years ago to avoid the privacy issues and avoid supporting a giant company that's destroying the planet - now DuckDuckGo keeps force-feeding me 'AI-assisted answers' that I DO NOT WANT.
I've been using #Firefox for at least 15 years, for the same reasons, now I update #Firefox and "what's new with Firefox" you wonder? Well Firefox has a "new sidebar" that lets you "keep your AI assistant handy" - an "AI assistant" that I DO NOT WANT.
Stop force-feeding us useless, invasive, energy-hungry 'AI' that nobody is asking for!
Any suggestions for a No-AI equivalent to Duckduckgo? As for browser, I'm going to move on to #Vivaldi.
#Browsers #NoAI
Stanislav Ochotnický
in reply to El Duvelle • • •Sensitive content
DuckDuckGo Settings
DuckDuckGoEl Duvelle
in reply to Stanislav Ochotnický • • •Sensitive content
@drizzy yes I know. But why is it on by default? And I would have to do this basically every day, since I close my browser and my computer when I'm finished using them.
I also don't want to support a company that uses AI with all the privacy and environmental issues that it involves.
Merlin Gillard 🚋😷
in reply to El Duvelle • • •Sensitive content
But I'm missing the !bang shortcuts of DDG, so I'm keeping it as an alternate search engine in the Firefox url bar (also looking to move away from Firefox though, but that's more complicated. I've disabled the AI stuff manually)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Startpag…
internet search engine
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)dexternemrod
in reply to El Duvelle • • •@drizzy
Have the same issue, deleting all data when firefox closes makes this setting annoying (could the DDG-Addon make this persistent?)
For search I moved to #metager because @MetaGer also supports initiative like an open search index.
woollypigs
in reply to El Duvelle • • •Sensitive content
Ecosia - the search engine that plants trees
www.ecosia.orgEl Duvelle
in reply to woollypigs • • •Sensitive content
@woollypigs I was thinking of #Ecosia too but.. this is the first page I get when I search for them
The irony 🤣 - well at least it's clear..
woollypigs
in reply to El Duvelle • • •Sensitive content
All Europeans 🇪🇺
in reply to El Duvelle • • •Sensitive content
@woollypigs
The following article sheds light on the dilemma between Ecosia and AI:
wired.com/story/search-engine-…
Daniel Prieto
in reply to El Duvelle • • •Gnuzilla Icecat might suit your browser needs, or Librewolf (which has ML stuff disabled by default and pre-packed blockers).
As a respectful and useful search engine LibreY, maybe. Although it is still far from ideal, it's promising, decentralized and far from big commercial enterprises while providing relevant results.
I still struggle with malfunctioning sites due to their invasion-centered design. However, I prefer being aware of their policies to avoid them.
Eli Roberson (he/him)
in reply to El Duvelle • • •Sensitive content
Knut 🏳️🌈 🇳🇴🧸
in reply to El Duvelle • • •Sensitive content
ALT43
in reply to El Duvelle • • •Sensitive content
- Qwant
- Leta (Mullvad)
Carl (He/Him)
in reply to El Duvelle • • •Sensitive content
El Duvelle
in reply to Carl (He/Him) • • •Sensitive content
@nitpicking Yes, I am aware you can temporarily turn it off. But that's not convenient to do basically every time I switch on my computer, and also, why is it even on by default?
(Also I know people don't necessarily see all the answers but I answered the same comment here:
neuromatch.social/@elduvelle/1…)
El Duvelle
2025-04-06 12:43:03
Carl (He/Him)
in reply to El Duvelle • • •Sensitive content
I turned it off once. It stayed off.
It's on by default because that's what their customers want. I obviously don't want it either, but we are not the majority.
El Duvelle
in reply to Carl (He/Him) • • •Sensitive content
@nitpicking
The setting is probably kept because you don't erase your cookies when you close the browser.
I really doubt that's what their customers want! Do we have any data on this? Customers who do not care about their privacy or the environment would probably just use google or one of the more widespread browsers..
Carl (He/Him)
in reply to El Duvelle • • •Sensitive content
El Duvelle
in reply to Carl (He/Him) • • •Sensitive content
Biorreactivo
in reply to El Duvelle • • •Sensitive content
Some more:
makeuseof.com/best-firefox-bas…
The 7 Best Firefox-Based Web Browsers
MUOFrancisco Quintero
in reply to El Duvelle • • •yeah it's quite bothering all that. Everything wants to put some kind of genai chatbot.
I think for ddg you can disable it. I disabled a lot of stuff. For FF I'm not sure.
At this point, if one really wants privacy browser it's gotta be LibreWolf or Mullvad or something like that.
El Duvelle
in reply to El Duvelle • • •Sensitive content
Interestingly, the Firefox user base really doesn't seem to want this, as shown by the 986 upvotes for this NO comment to the announcement of their AI services:
connect.mozilla.org/t5/discuss…
Re: Share your feedback on the AI services experiment in Nightly
connect.mozilla.orgbk
in reply to El Duvelle • • •Sensitive content
El Duvelle
in reply to bk • • •Sensitive content
dsp
in reply to El Duvelle • • •Sensitive content
you could try surf (webkit based) from suckless, together with tabbed if you need tabbing functionality. tabbed can put into tabs arbitrary windows so you can use it with other programs as well.
surf.suckless.org/
tools.suckless.org/tabbed/
there seems to also be another minimalist webkit browser called badwolf. haven't tried it though.
hacktivis.me/projects/badwolf
good luck!
BadWolf — lanodan’s cyber-home
hacktivis.meEl Duvelle
Unknown parent • • •@Nexy that was my 2nd best bet but:
neuromatch.social/@elduvelle/1…
El Duvelle
2025-04-06 12:45:14
Dragon-sided D
in reply to El Duvelle • • •I need to yell this from the rooftops:
DO NOT USE #FIREFOX !!
USE #LIBREWOLF
IT IS FIREFOX WITH THE AI & SURVEILLANCE REMOVED. THAT'S IT.
librewolf.net
LibreWolf Browser
librewolf.netEl Duvelle reshared this.
Ken Butler
in reply to El Duvelle • • •Sensitive content
SirWumpus
in reply to El Duvelle • • •Sensitive content
To by-pass Google's search AI on the fly, just swear in the search words, like "shit f**k what is Ai"
Or in Firefox/LibreWolf you could add "Google Classic" search using
https://www.google.com/search?udm=14&num=50&q=%sudm=14 disable all the junk, num=50 number of results per load. See udm14.com/&udm=14 | the disenshittification Konami code
udm14.comEl Duvelle
in reply to SirWumpus • • •Sensitive content
Petra van Cronenburg
in reply to El Duvelle • • •Sensitive content
El Duvelle
in reply to Petra van Cronenburg • • •Sensitive content
Petra van Cronenburg
in reply to El Duvelle • • •Steve
in reply to El Duvelle • • •El Duvelle
in reply to Steve • • •Steve
in reply to El Duvelle • • •El Duvelle
in reply to Steve • • •@steve @kagihq It seems pretty cool indeed!
I definitely like this (quoting @kagihq ):
mastodon.social/@kagihq/114204…
Kagi HQ (@kagihq@mastodon.social)
Mastodonbattlegarden
in reply to El Duvelle • • •Sensitive content
Firefox - ArchWiki
wiki.archlinux.orgviq
in reply to El Duvelle • • •Sensitive content
Search engine, uh, some people mention kagi, but it's also sending mixed signals...
El Duvelle
in reply to viq • • •Sensitive content
viq
in reply to El Duvelle • • •Sensitive content
And they also have LLM in their offering, though you have to pay for it, and don't need to enable it... But it exists.
Daniel Barlow
in reply to El Duvelle • • •El Duvelle
in reply to Daniel Barlow • • •Sensitive content
makeuseof.com/qwant-vs-duckduc…
Qwant vs. DuckDuckGo: Which Search Engine Is More Private?
Maxwell Timothy (MakeUseOf)