SearXNG - it's a meta-engine that serves results from a combination of other ones (you can set up which ones you want to use). I like it a lot. Here's a list of public instances: https://searx.space/
I host my own instance for that added oomph.
They all kinda suck.
I use DDG since it works without complaining on vpns, but if that doesn't work I fall back to google, and eventually kagi
Search is really terrible now
It will get much worse as soon as the internet had another 3-4 cycles where it has been digested to train LLMs and puked out again by LLMs to shitty websites. Then you have the option to search for that shit traditionally or to use another shitty LLM on top of that
Kagi
They're all crap because they all track you, but I stick with DuckDuckGo because I find their lies about not tracking me to be comforting enough
Yeah wait, how do they make money
Ads
Mostly using DDG now for sometime. Once in a while need to use Google.
I’ve found for the last 3-4 years I haven’t had to fall back to Google. DDG results have been good enough I can use it full time.
In my case I've found the need to use Google for local searches, and certain very specific searches (one example is journal impact factors). In a lot of other cases, DDG has actually given me better results - I was getting fed up with some of the crappy results I was getting using Google, which prompted me to try out and eventually shift to DDG.
I'm using Qwant. Works better for me than DuckDuckGo.
Another Qwant person! I'm enjoying it.
People here need to try Qwant. It's refreshing how clean it is and I think the search results are pretty good
Qwant isn’t available in a lot of countries though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qwant
Thanks for pointing this out! I finally have the reason to use the mullvad per site proxy settings.
DDG, but ever so often I have to use bangs to Google or some dedicated sites. Been trying out my own instance of the SearchX meta search engine but honestly it's not that much of a difference except it lags. I've been using ChatGPT way more for direct questions instead of using search words and sifting through the results, with the risk of hallucination so still need to double check on important stuff. Copilot sort of works but I don't know why I'm not comfortable with it. Too bad Gemeni seems to be a dud so far. I'd love to see a FOSS language model that can be tweaked for personal interests and custom commands for external APIs and that gives references to the answers.
DDG for me, but mostly I use !wi and !gh. Pretty rare to do a rawdog search
DDG for everyday browsing and Kagi's free trial for more "difficult" searches.
I'm not sure how many Kagi searches I have left but I'm most likely buying the unlimited plan when I run out.
Where, sadly, „search engine“ essentially means „Bing frontend“ these days …
I've been using kagi the past few months
Ecosia. I don’t like their links to Microsoft but I think the environment is more important than anything these days.
Ecosia is fine. All of them seem to be trash these days so might as well go with the quirky one.
Ddg
DDG works just fine for my purposes.
Duckduckgo. Just moved to it within the year, and it's been fine for my basic searches.
Paid, but less crap.
I just cancelled Kagi. It's good but not really good enough to justify the cost, plus stuff detailed here https://www.osnews.com/story/139270/do-not-use-kagi/
I gave yandex a quick run, it's actually very good, functionally, but a privacy nightmare.
Currently trying out Mojeek, one of the few outside the big three to have it's own index. Pretty good - not all the conveniences of the bigger ones but maybe good enough most of the time
I'm a Kagi user ... I've also previously responded to the referenced post on Kagi.
https://alexandrite.app/social.packetloss.gg/comment/1704525
I've been using kagi for a while now, but I'm not ready to pay for search results. So I'll basically stick with google plus a bunch of excluded terms for the time being, and use the free search contingent from kagi if that doesn't yield and useful results regardless.
I've been using bing for a few years now they kinda got me in when they were paying people to use it and I was also working with Microsoft and wanted to see what was up. its actually not bad. it being the first one to roll out ai was a bonus too. y'all may hate everything I just said but its been working well for me, and in the rare times it doesn't I try others.
startpage.com or DuckDuckGo
I use startpage but there really is no "good" option
I'm fine with DuckDuckGo. Very catchy name, too. Sounds like something straight out of CBeebies.
I might try out Kagi and Qwant sometime to see if they're really that great.
I'm using the French search engine Qwant a lot. It's just straightforward and I can muddle through enough French to navigate. I like DDG but the results are middling at best.
If you're using Qwant in French, you must have your location set to France. Because I use it from the US all the time and it's all in English
Startpage. I know there’s been criticism of the company that acquired them but I believe they gave satisfactory responses to privacyguide’s queries about how they handle user data. Obviously it doesn’t automatically mean they’re telling the truth.
Does Wikipedia count?
I see a lot of duck duck go responses in this thread, my understanding was that ddg is just front ending bing search, it's not a native search itself. Is that right? Is the same true of any of the other ones mentioned here?
You are wise not to just use one search engine. I use them all to grant maximum results. Ecosia comes close though, it would be my favorite if the thing about planting trees worked, but it's just another Established Titles, minus the ability to say you're a Scottish lord or lady. DuckDuckGo would get an honorary mention too, but as I've said very often before for years, its claims of not tracking you show suggestions of being false, as someone with slow internet used to be able to see the tracking links change a few times when you hover your mouse over a link and look at the bottom of your browser. I use them both for their search differences, but in terms of government, they're red flags.
