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Alternative search engines to Google (2016)

searchenginewatch.com

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Re: Alternative search engines to Google (2016)

#11

Post by gambler »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #8

This article doesn't seem to say, so, how many of these search engines use their own index and don't "borrow" one from another larger engine? DDG uses Bing and Yandex, for example.

I'm willing to bet no one* does their own search crawling aside from companies the size of Yandex and larger. Google carefully manipulated web standards to make sure you can't do that effectively without tons of upfront investment. You pretty much have to run a customized headless browser to get real content. And then you have to figure out how to interact with whatever you get, since increasing number of websites are SPAs. Google itself has it easy, since developers actively modify their site to fit Google's capabilities.

But hey, everything is "fine" as longs as the Web keeps a bunch of developers employed with six-digit salaries. They will put up with any amount of accidental complexity and ignore any effects on future innovation as long as their jobs are secure. (And those jobs are more secure than ever because you need ever increasing number of specialized professionals to keep the increasingly complex technology stacks operational.)

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* One exception I know of: Web Archive. But their coverage is pretty spotty and they aren't strictly speaking a search engine. Still, it's an awesome effort. At lease someone tries to swim against the tide.

Re: Alternative search engines to Google (2016)

#14

Post by ethana »

nxc18 wrote: post #5

Bing offers a bit of a dilemma. On the one hand, its search relevancy is actually really great, its special search features (weather, elections, etc.) and graph tools are generally better than Google's and they overall just seem to try harder on search nowadays. On the other hand, search isn't the only important thing - presumably that is why Google doesn't seem to focus there. Bing has seemingly given up on some of…

One of my favorite things on Bing: https://www.bing.com/search?q=speed+test

Re: Alternative search engines to Google (2016)

#16

Post by aub3bhat »

ethana wrote: post #14
nxc18 wrote: post #5

Bing offers a bit of a dilemma. On the one hand, its search relevancy is actually really great, its special search features (weather, elections, etc.) and graph tools are generally better than Google's and they overall just seem to try harder on search nowadays. On the other hand, search isn't the only important thing - presumably that is why Google doesn't seem to focus there. Bing has seemingly given up on some of…

One of my favorite things on Bing: https://www.bing.com/search?q=speed+test

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e...

Re: Alternative search engines to Google (2016)

#17

Post by briantakita »

Safety1stClyde wrote: post #2

I've been using DuckDuckGo for about a year without ill-effects. Although sometimes I have to go to Google, often when the results are disappointing I try !g and the results with Google are just as disappointing. It's also actually easier to switch to an image search using !gi than it is to click the image search with the mouse at Google's site.

DuckDuckGo also has keyboard-friendly navigation. No clicking necessary.

Re: Alternative search engines to Google (2016)

#18

Post by theprop »

I tend to use EpicSearch.in as much as possible (generally in the Epic Privacy Browser), then click to Bing/Google if the results aren't good. EpicSearch's results are so-so (built on Yandex), but it's TOTALLY private and has no ads so it's my first go-to option. Maybe 25% of the time I'll click onto Bing or Google.
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