The tor-browser does a lot to prevent profiling and things like that. It’s always better to use some protection, than non at all. Here there are 6 layers between you and the search engine.
Im just curious how easily they can still identify a user even when taking some of these precautions. 
This is what Whonix uses to, I guess, remedy some of this type of “fingerprinting”:
It is also in AUR:
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I have been using presearch now for close to 3 weeks. Generally speaking, I like it. Here are my thoughts
- I like the results I get from presearch. For queries of a technical nature it does the best job of any of the search engines I have tried.
- For non-technical searches, the results are less effective. I always find what I need but it sometimes is the 4th or 5th search hit instead of the 1st or 2nd. This could indicate a lack of bias or could indicate a poor search algorithm.
- The first result is always an ad(clearly marked as an ad) and it annoys me that adblockers aren’t removing them.
- It is not entirely clear to me exactly how unbiased or private my searches are. Other their marketing claims I haven’t seen much to go on.
- It sucks that there are no date limiting features but since they provide a convenient link to DDG, I just use that when I need date limiting.
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That’s a great review! Thank you so much for taking your time to testing it and sharing your experience.
All in all, it looks like that you have a rather positive view of this engine.
To be honest, I haven’t been using it much since I first posted about it. It seems that I am stuck with DDG to which I go back after some sporadic testing of other engines.
Taking into account what you shared, I will give it a go, hopefully, for more than just sporadic searches this time.
Thanks again!
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I have been comparing Presearch & Google engines for the last couple of months or so & noticed that it returns the very same results as Google. So, I stopped duckdukgoing after a long time.
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hahaha.
You are right, they are just taking google’s results. That explains why the technical searches are so good, google was always good at that even though I hadn’t used it in years.
What is really interesting is some of the poor results I received from non-technical searches. That means that it was google who had the poor search results.
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I’m not too worried about that kind of fingerprinting. First off, I type completely differently depending on which keyboard I happen to be interacting with (not just speed and timing differences either). Secondly, what the cat adds to my keyboarding cannot be anything but randomized in a way!
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I am not seeing this. Maybe it depends on search terms. Non-technical searches, it reminds me of DDG in a lot of its results, as @dalto says, fuzzy.
Currently, I am still using Startpage despite the nefarious change of ownership. It just works the best for me, but I am always looking for that non-corporate option …that works well. DDG, is probably the worst option, imo. The results are all over the place.
Actually, while it may seem different to you there are subtle things in the way people type, write, etc. that give them away
Its like if you decided to mimic someones handwriting, to you it may seem flawless but someone who knows what to look for will spot the difference and pick you out.
I am sure that the possibility exists, but the results are only meaningful if there is some consistency in the input. It has to work by including such things as decreased ‘lock’ time in certain key sequences, and frequency of errors and corrections and so on. If those differ by too much then the comparison basis becomes too flawed - as other people’s results will be more similar than samples of your own… (especiallly cat enhanced)
But Startpage also uses the same Google search engine. I used it till the change of ownership because I find Google Search to be the most accurate for my searches. But then I switched to DDG after reading that Startpage was sold to an…ad company.
The point is that I am back to the Google search results, which I find better than Bing (DDG) & less risky than Startpage (where I have to settle with an ad company`s reassurance that they don t track me). 
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Agree, Google for all its evils, and it is, unfortunately offers the best results overall. 
I do want off Startpage for the reason you stated, but I have not found a viable option yet, still looking. I just can’t settle on DDG, because I usually end up getting frustrated and pulling up Startpage or Google, which defeats protecting privacy. 
What a corporate world nightmare. 
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Why not give Presearch a try, then, & form your own, personal opinion…
I don’t know how much it helps, but running DDG, and then using the ! google prepended to your search term might help - at least if your browser resists fingerprinting. You might get lost in the forest of ‘passed on’ enquiries from DDG…
I have. I find it about on par results-wise with DDG, although I do like its decentralized aspect.
So you are using ‘search term’ + ! Google?
I didn’t really see any change in results.
Other way around: !google seatch term
Theoretically this is just passed on to Google as an enquiry from DDG itself. I don’t know how much you can hide behind it, but it has to help…
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Huh, it pulled up my search term in actual a Google page, which sounds suspect, but I get what you mean …theoretically it is a search from DDG. I will have to look into this more, thanks.
Exactly. It IS a google search - and hopefully it gets lost in the process. Anecdotally, nothing I ever searched that way ever resulted in ‘directed advertising’ or in Google history - but what that ‘proves’ is beyond my paygrade/skill level to determine.
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