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Leaving Google has actively improved my life

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Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#241

Post by rcarmo »

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…

I would concur, although I am using Edge instead of Brave (work requires it, but I also adopted it as a personal alternative to Safari for when I need Chromium).

Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#243

Post by ekjhgkejhgk »

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…

Bullshit.

The problem isn't that companies would be happy to pay money but people don't and so they put on ads. The problem is that many companies even when you pay them they show you ads. So, you have to look at products with this in mind: does this specific company have a history of behaving like this?

Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#244

Post by MattPalmer1086 »

bartread wrote: post #20
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…

Same experience with DuckDuckGo. I've probably been using it as my primary search engine for, well, I'm not absolutely sure, but I want to say it was sometime during the pandemic so that must be, what, 5 years? Honestly, it's got to the point where 8 or 9 times out of 10 I switch to Google search because I'm unhappy with the results I'm getting... and really it's at the point where, why am I even still using it? It's…

Huh, I've been using DDG for years now, and I maybe use !g a few times a year.

It used to be the case that shopping was way better using Google than DDG, but Google seems to have enshitified that now, and it seems to mostly show me deals on different models than I searched for.

These days when DDG fails me, I usually find Google does too.

Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#246

Post by s_dev »

sedatk wrote: post #185
s_dev wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is better, I was a paying subscriber. Then I realised they pay money to Yandex and I feel and obligation to support Ukraine right now. When the war is over or Kagi drop Yandex support I will be a paying subscriber again.

Kagi's response: https://kagifeedback.org/d/5445-reconsider-yandex-integratio...

I've read that before, it doesn't change anything. They're free to work with Yandex and I'm free to not pay for Kagi.

Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#247

Post by bartread »

expensive_news wrote: post #80
bartread wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same experience with DuckDuckGo. I've probably been using it as my primary search engine for, well, I'm not absolutely sure, but I want to say it was sometime during the pandemic so that must be, what, 5 years? Honestly, it's got to the point where 8 or 9 times out of 10 I switch to Google search because I'm unhappy with the results I'm getting... and really it's at the point where, why am I even still using it? It's…

Do you find the results are better when you use the same query on Google? Because I’ve also exclusively used DuckDuckGo for the past 5 or so years, and every now and then I get frustrated by the results try Google. But only once did Google actually give me what I was looking for. Every other time the Google results were the same SEO garbage I was getting with DDG. Maybe I should try switching to Google for a full mon…

Yeah, same queries. Results are (mostly) much better with Google. It's honestly disappointing because I'd love to be able to ditch Google as a search engine but, whilst it's not without its flaws, it's still much better than the alternatives[0].

[0] I'm deliberately avoiding talking about LLMs here: I mean specifically in cases where what I want to do is execute a web search - often because I'm dissatisfied with, or suspicious of, something an LLM has told me.

Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#248

Post by mat0 »

xnx wrote: post #35

"Leaving Google" = "stopped using Google services" in this case (vs. "quit working at Google")

I hate that the Internet thought me now to distrust everything. In this case, I have the feeling that the author chose those words carefully to click bait us somehow without actually lying

Re: Leaving Google has actively improved my life

#250

Post by AdrianB1 »

drnick1 wrote: post #186
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…

> The problem is that people want a "free internet" without ads Just run an ad blocker and be done with it. The business model of the website is not my problem; if websites cannot cover their costs without printing ads that I do not want to see, then they will disappear. We will be left with websites that are actually useful, for example businesses operating a website to sell things, or that are funded through donati…

The business model of any website that you care is your business. Or else it may just disappear. For example, this is why we all pay a maintenance fee on a small forum that we keep for 20 years, because without that it will close. "Not my business" can easily get to "no revenue" that means "no web site".
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