Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore • Hacker News Board

Re: Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore

#141

Post by WarmWash » Mon, May 25, 2026, 1:55 PM UTC

rpdillon wrote: post #100

d12bb wrote: post #7

I switched to Kagi little over a year ago and couldn’t recommend it enough. The search results are actually what I’m searching for, there is AI for the occasions I want it (and only then), and it comes with nice extras like search personalization and a great translation app. Tried to live without it when my first year of subscription ran out, but I didn’t last long…

I paid for Kagi for a bit, but got a weird vibe when I realized they were working pretty hard to paper over the fact that they pay a third party to scrape Google search results for them. The public-facing side of that coin is Kagi's position that Google should make their index available to competitors (see https://blog.kagi.com/waiting-dawn-search ). All that's to say: when I paid for Kagi, I thought I was investing…

Nobody wants to pay for anything, so the services that figured out how to profit from people not paying will win.

There was this idea born in the late '90's/early 00's that everything digital should be free. The internet was dominated by teenagers with no job and no credit card, so it made sense.

But the result of that has been a whole generation with an allergy to compensation, and the inability for anyone to compete with "free" services, even if everyone hates that service.

Re: Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore

#142

Post by ianhxu » Mon, May 25, 2026, 1:55 PM UTC

Not sure how Brave is. I'm using its API on OpenClaw, and so far my experience with OpenClaw has been satisfactory — though search is only one part of the overall quality.

I'd guess due to compute constraints, AI overview will struggle to reach truly great quality. That said, for now I find adding this section at the top still useful to me. The broader decline in Google's search quality is the bigger drag on me.

Re: Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore

#143

Post by kgwxd » Mon, May 25, 2026, 1:56 PM UTC

timpera wrote: post #65

Brave Search has its own index which is fine, 10 blue links and no forced AI, and more importantly support for DDG-like "bangs" (like !gi sending you to Google Images), without DDG's performance issues. I highly recommend it for people who don't want to pay for Kagi.

Brave is such a horrible brand. I don't think they'll succeed, but they're definitely trying to do MS-style EEE. Browser, search engine, and security (nefariously called "ad blockers" by the people that don't want users fully controlling traffic and code that reached and runs on their machines) should forever be separate entities.

Re: Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore

#144

Post by k8s-1 » Mon, May 25, 2026, 1:56 PM UTC

WhyNotHugo wrote: post #89

I switched to DDG a long time ago (maybe close to a decade now?). There's plenty of reasons to dislike Google, but my main reason for switching was better quality results and a faster, simpler UI. The UI has gotten a bit clunkier over the years, but it's still good, still more focused than Google's. As I write this, I give Google Search a quick try and notice that the first thing you see is a full-screen cookie banne…

Also a long-time DDG user here, the lack of AI chat by default at the top of searches is great, if i wanted to use AI I wouldn't be opening a search engine.

Re: Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore

#145

Post by InsideOutSanta » Mon, May 25, 2026, 1:56 PM UTC

rpdillon wrote: post #100

d12bb wrote: post #7

I switched to Kagi little over a year ago and couldn’t recommend it enough. The search results are actually what I’m searching for, there is AI for the occasions I want it (and only then), and it comes with nice extras like search personalization and a great translation app. Tried to live without it when my first year of subscription ran out, but I didn’t last long…

I paid for Kagi for a bit, but got a weird vibe when I realized they were working pretty hard to paper over the fact that they pay a third party to scrape Google search results for them. The public-facing side of that coin is Kagi's position that Google should make their index available to competitors (see https://blog.kagi.com/waiting-dawn-search ). All that's to say: when I paid for Kagi, I thought I was investing…

They are building their own search index, and they should be allowed to scrape Google in the exact same way Google scraped everybody else.

Re: Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore

#146

Post by projektfu » Mon, May 25, 2026, 1:57 PM UTC

WhyNotHugo wrote: post #89

I switched to DDG a long time ago (maybe close to a decade now?). There's plenty of reasons to dislike Google, but my main reason for switching was better quality results and a faster, simpler UI. The UI has gotten a bit clunkier over the years, but it's still good, still more focused than Google's. As I write this, I give Google Search a quick try and notice that the first thing you see is a full-screen cookie banne…

Sad, because Google's homepage was once a paragon of bloat-free design. While their competitors enshittified, Google kept just giving good results fast without a lot of junk. They became the 90+% market share leader, and enshittified thereafter.

Re: Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore

#147

Post by Akronymus » Mon, May 25, 2026, 1:57 PM UTC

king_geedorah wrote: post #140

Akronymus wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the HN guidelines: > Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents, and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data.

There is no insinuation. The astroturfing objectively occurs and that it does so is an inherent strain on the credibility of engagement like that of the GP.

To me, it read like you implied the poster to be an astroturfing account. Though I may have misinterpreted that.

Re: Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore

#148

Post by fnord77 » Mon, May 25, 2026, 1:57 PM UTC

king_geedorah wrote: post #85

nekzn wrote: post #18

I must be the only person in this website who is happy with the AI Overview feature. It messes up sometimes (very rarely) but so do websites. And between ads, cookie popups, newsletter popups, notification permission popups, websites with a high Time to First Byte, and all the useless filler around the content, websites are a nightmare to browse. I would say that for almost all of my searches the AI Overview feature…

[flagged]

As not a Large Language Model, I also like the AI overview feature.

Re: Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore

#149

Post by WarmWash » Mon, May 25, 2026, 1:57 PM UTC

eb08a167 wrote: post #82

nekzn wrote: post #18

I must be the only person in this website who is happy with the AI Overview feature. It messes up sometimes (very rarely) but so do websites. And between ads, cookie popups, newsletter popups, notification permission popups, websites with a high Time to First Byte, and all the useless filler around the content, websites are a nightmare to browse. I would say that for almost all of my searches the AI Overview feature…

Enjoy it while you can. Google spent years perfecting the art of steering users away from what they searched for and toward advertiser sites, all while pretending to be a search engine. There's no way showing users the exact answer right beneath their search query is profitable in any meaningful sense. And so, it will end.

This is what people wanted, and we all act like it's bad they did it.

Re: Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore

#150

Post by fer » Mon, May 25, 2026, 1:57 PM UTC

king_geedorah wrote: post #85

nekzn wrote: post #18

I must be the only person in this website who is happy with the AI Overview feature. It messes up sometimes (very rarely) but so do websites. And between ads, cookie popups, newsletter popups, notification permission popups, websites with a high Time to First Byte, and all the useless filler around the content, websites are a nightmare to browse. I would say that for almost all of my searches the AI Overview feature…

[flagged]

My account is older than yours by a decade and I also like the AI overview more often than not, or rather, I instinctively know when to skip it depending on my query.