Leaving Google has actively improved my life • Hacker News Board

Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#161

Post by mabedan » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 10:29 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #7

> After giving them a fair shot, I think I can now honestly say that Brave and DuckDuckGo are better than Google for >90% of searches I've had DuckDuckGo as my primary search engine for years and I couldn't disagree with this more. DuckDuckGo is fine for quickly getting to well known sites where I can't remember the URL, but it's objectively worse for trying to find everything from Reddit threads to Recipes. Their de…

100% agree. My default is also DuckDuckGo, but I know for a fact that if the search is anything other than finding the homepage of a company, I'm gonna struggle with duck. I still use it because I want to not use Google, but Google is 10000000% a superior product.

Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#162

Post by raincole » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 10:30 PM UTC

realprimoh wrote: post #52

This being on the front page of hacker news is embarassing. Low substance post that is misleading if anything - I was hoping for a career reflection. Not a low-quality "pat on the back" post of no value

HK likes bashing big corps, but Google is the special soft spot for us. By 'soft' I mean easy to punch.

Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#163

Post by ivankelly » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 10:32 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #7

> After giving them a fair shot, I think I can now honestly say that Brave and DuckDuckGo are better than Google for >90% of searches I've had DuckDuckGo as my primary search engine for years and I couldn't disagree with this more. DuckDuckGo is fine for quickly getting to well known sites where I can't remember the URL, but it's objectively worse for trying to find everything from Reddit threads to Recipes. Their de…

There’s queries and there’s queries. Many queries are effectively undefined bookmarks. You know this exists but haven’t saved it but your know a few key words to get to it. “Rustdoc moka api”. And then there’s the “I’m researching a subject queries”. Google used to be useful for both. But for the later case it send to have gotten worse. Which is irrelevant because LLMs are so much better. So people will use LLMs for these usecases. So Google search basically becomes a phonebook. And that’s easy to emulate. Their calculator is still my go to though

Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#164

Post by rpdillon » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 10:33 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #7

> After giving them a fair shot, I think I can now honestly say that Brave and DuckDuckGo are better than Google for >90% of searches I've had DuckDuckGo as my primary search engine for years and I couldn't disagree with this more. DuckDuckGo is fine for quickly getting to well known sites where I can't remember the URL, but it's objectively worse for trying to find everything from Reddit threads to Recipes. Their de…

Weird, I switched to DDG years ago, I used !g for a couple of years, but I don't really ever use Google anymore. I don't seem to struggle to find things, so I wonder what's up. Maybe I'm just training myself to be OK with something that isn't optimal. That said, Google seems pretty spammy these days (i.e. actual search results below the fold in many cases).

Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#165

Post by amelius » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 10:33 PM UTC

jonahx wrote: post #139

yacthing wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is about as useful of an argument as when people say taxpayer funded services aren't free. Those who are wealthier pay more into the tax system, allow those who are less well off to gain access to things they normally wouldn't. This is a good thing. Likewise, those who are wealthier are buying more products that are advertised, allowing those who are less well off to gain access to the internet for closer-to-fre…

So the hellscape that is the ad-based internet economy is a good thing because it's an indirect form of wealth redistribution? That's a new one!

It's also a pricey form of wealth redistribution :(

Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#166

Post by teaearlgraycold » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 10:36 PM UTC

bengale wrote: post #98

layer8 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Critical services like email and search should be treated as a public utility. Those cost money as well, but are affordable to almost anyone, and social safety nets should be taking care of those who don’t.

Government email, sounds great. Sign me up.

The infra is what’s expensive, and that doesn’t need to be able to read the contents of your email.

Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#167

Post by tetrisgm » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 10:36 PM UTC

Willish42 wrote: post #126

I've been meaning to get off Gmail, and Proton Mail does seem like my favorite of the alternatives from a quick glance, but I'm also concerned about privacy focused services like Proton getting blocked or compromised in the US... This was a pretty good read Also, > I do my best to boycott bad things. And I fail pretty often. I still use Amazon on occasion and I can’t get off Spotify. I use Uber and DoorDash a lot mor…

I switched from Fastmail to iCloud Mail and I’m happy.

Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#168

Post by ethbr1 » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 10:37 PM UTC

herrherrmann wrote: post #130

Willish42 wrote: post #126

I've been meaning to get off Gmail, and Proton Mail does seem like my favorite of the alternatives from a quick glance, but I'm also concerned about privacy focused services like Proton getting blocked or compromised in the US... This was a pretty good read Also, > I do my best to boycott bad things. And I fail pretty often. I still use Amazon on occasion and I can’t get off Spotify. I use Uber and DoorDash a lot mor…

Apple is very anti-consumer, locking devices down, using planned obsolescence, fighting hard against movements for more open and fairer market practices and standards (e.g. switching to the standard USB-C port, allowing third-party app stores, exploiting developers releasing software on their platforms).

Or as I tell my Apple-philic tech friends: your devices are a single year of flat revenue away from user-hostile decisions.

At the end of the day, Apple exists to make money and keep shareholders happy.

If the business stops growing organically, do you really think they're going to benevolently use the massive control they have over their own platform?

"Apple" isn't privacy-focused. Their marketing strategy is currently privacy-focused and their economics currently permit them to be.

Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#169

Post by jmspring » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 10:38 PM UTC

I'm in the process of de-googling. It will take time (changing third party contact emails - banks, etc is annoying) - I honestly wish there was the equivalent of "moving" where emails could be updated the same way.

DDG - I love the premise, but their search relies too heavily on Bing which - worked for msft, etc... - no idea why it sucks so much.

Claude/etc for search - artificial guardrails. "Hey give me an example of Charlie Kirk being a homophobe" - "I can't do that". Contrived example, but realistic result.

Google started out as a non-opinionated (outside of link weight) search engine that is now gemini and bs. But even search is not useful. DDG tries, but responses are sub-par.

Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#170

Post by saalweachter » Fri, Feb 27, 2026, 10:38 PM UTC

simon666 wrote: post #127

WarmWash wrote: post #37

The problem isn't Google. The problem is that people want a "free internet" without ads, and without any form of data harvesting. But they also don't want to pay any money, because the internet, as we all know, "is free". In 30 years, no one has figured this out. So I feel pretty confident in stating that it's either gonna be ads or payments. And if we switch to a payment model, then the internet becomes another syst…

> So I feel pretty confident in stating that it's either gonna be ads or payments. I'm assuming you mean exclusive disjunction here, but in reality it's something closer to a conjunction, if not occasionally an inclusive disjunction. So many subscription services also have ads and if they don't, they eventually do. The problem isn't that people want things for free; hell, we all pay for access to the internet already…

Someone who is willing to pay for a service is also an extremely desirable person to show advertisements to. You've just demonstrated you have disposable income.