Dracula is coming. Tonight.

I have switched to using Startpage.com and vastly prefer it. for one thing, instead of displaying an "AI summary" at the top of the search results (unless you turn it off, yes I know), it displays the first paragraph of the Wikipedia article, with link, whenever it finds one that's relevant.

also a waaayyyyy better sense of design than duckduckgo

Search Engines

Infinity Search is an alternative search engine with a special focus on privacy

DuckDuckGo is a popular search engine for those who value their privacy and are put off by the thought of their every query being tracked and logged. Uses bangs, ![site] for in-page search (sells your data to microsoft and draws from fucking bing)

WolframAlpha is a privately owned search engine that allows you to “compute expert-level answers using Wolfram’s breakthrough algorithms, knowledgebase, and AI technology.” A data search engine.

Boardreader is a search engine for forums and message boards. It allows you to search forums and then filter down results by date and language.

Based in France, Qwant is a privacy-based search engine that won’t record your searches or use your personal details for advertising. Uses “&” as a bang search.

Another privacy-based search engine is Search Encrypt, which uses local encryption to ensure that users’ identifiable information cannot be tracked. Metasearch across multiple engines. 

Offering unbiased results from several sources, SearX is a metasearch engine that aims to present a free, decentralized view of the internet. Can be self-hosted. 

Gibiru’s tagline is “Unfiltered private search” and that’s exactly what it offers. Requires AnonymoX Firefox add-on for privacy. 

Disconnect allows you to conduct anonymous searches through a search engine of your choice.

Swisscows provides fully encrypted searches to protect your privacy and security. Built-in violence/porn filter cannot be overridden. 

MetaGer offers “Privacy Protected Search & Find” through its anonymised search. A plugin will allow it to be made a default.

Gigablast is a private search engine that indexes millions of websites and servers real-time information without tracking your data, keeping you hidden from marketers and spammers. Variety of filtration and refinement options for searching. 

Oscobo is a search engine that protects your privacy while you search the web. By not using any third-party tools or scripts, your data is protected from hacking and misuse. Has a Chrome extension to allow use in toolbar. 

https://search.marginalia.nu/ an independent DIY search engine that focuses on non-commercial content, and attempts to show you sites you perhaps weren't aware of in favor of the sort of sites you probably already knew existed. Use old-school searching rather than query-based for the best results. 

https://www.mojeek.com/ 

https://wiby.me/ - It’s goal is to index as many personalized websites as possible, and NOT commercial sites. 

https://4get.ca/ it works a lot like SearX, but honestly better. It doesn’t have its own index, but pulls from many others. I think it’s the best for research, since it allows you to search for answers from different indexes, is easy to configure, add free, and avoids censorship as much as it can.

https://www.searchenginemap.com/ for more on how search engines relate to each other.

https://yep.com/ is a crawler

https://www.etools.ch/ retrieves from Google, Mojeek, Bing, and Yandex, like Searx

https://www.dogpile.com/ 

https://searxng.org/ (next gen Searx)

https://luxxle.com/ - possibly conservative?

https://presearch.com/ - good for academic?

https://kagi.com/smallweb - free/randomised Kagi.

Other Searchers

www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.

www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.

https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.

www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.

http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.

www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.

something I've been thinking about as a hunter of color, shall we say, is that I feel like in being with the lads, there's a strong possibility we would have to teach some of them about the racism we experience. Caleb grew up with us so I don't think we would have to explain it to him, and I feel like Zayne would have a good understanding of it as well, but Xavier and Sylus are from Philos, and even though Rafayel has spent a lot of time on land he's still from Lemuria (which obviously has a different culture and history); I imagine he was so caught up in his own business that I doubt he had reason to pay attention to something like that. and that's not to say that they're all ignorant or wouldn't have some idea of what it's like to be on the receiving end of prejudice--I'm sure Sylus would understand it from his upbringing as a dragon and Rafayel would understand it as a Lemurian--but like. Xavier and Rafayel wouldn't understand that you work so hard as a Hunter because you feel like you have to prove yourself worthy and earn your keep to stay on the UNICORNS team. Sylus brings you to some function in the N109 Zone and doesn't understand that you're turning heads and hearing whispers because you're not just A Woman on his arm, you're A Black Woman on his arm. they might not understand why you being Black matters in these situations, and they might not think that it should matter--and they're right, it shouldn't! but it Does, and they would have to understand why that matters in order to continue their relationships with us.

and yeah maybe I should indulge in the escapism of the game instead of thinking about this, and I shouldn't apply real-world logic and social norms and mores to a fictional setting that's made no indication that it operates under the same terms, much less the Boyfriend Simulator Gacha Game, but it's hard not to think about these things and immerse in the escapism because there are no Black people in the game. my fellow Black hunters and I are the Black people in the game. there's no people of color in Linkon City (and the loading screen dialogue about how Linkon City is such an inclusive place is a nothingburger statement to me), we don't know the racial demographics of any Philosian societies featured in the myths, and the only other place where we see people of color is the Echoes of Kahli UNICORNS mission. dat's it.

More info from GLAAD:

https://glaad.org/fcc/

They have some good tips about writing a comment and protecting your privacy which, fuck it, I'll just paste here:

Providing an email address is optional. If you have concerns about privacy, you may use your initials or public address in your local area, such as City Hall. Do not use a joke name. It diminishes the comment’s credibility.

Your submission does not need to be long. A single, well-reasoned paragraph is sufficient.

Do not copy/paste a template comment. The FCC values unique perspectives, and an original comment carries significantly more weight in the public record. You can explain why this matters to you without revealing private or sensitive personal information.

Here's what I said:

“Free speech is a fundamental American freedom. I do not need a warning about seeing queer people, much like I do not need a warning about women, veterans, or any other group of people.”

Here's the link to submit your comment by May 22:

https://youtu.be/93wE-2E0b4Q

you know this one: https://youtu.be/YMcGLQ-RZ44

like this kids’ website that had these shitty webcomics and animations telling them all about DA LAW

i mean this shit was hilarious even by itself

BUT THEN PEOPLE STARTED MAKING PARODIES

AND THEY JUST KEPT COMING