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Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore

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

#441

Post by nunez »

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…

I don't think they papered over this? They've been transparent about paying to scrape other indices while they work on their own.

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

#442

Post by freehorse »

TylerE wrote: post #251
xp84 wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using third-party browsers on iOS isn’t nearly as annoying as it was a few years ago. I had been driven to switch back to Safari a few years ago after trying to make a go of it. But last year I switched back to a third-party default browser and have been happy. Third-party keyboards, still not usable but browsers are basically ok.

3rd party browsers don't actually exist. iOS Chrome is just V8 bolted onto Webkit/Safari. Chromium is not part of it.

The point was that in a third party browser you can usually set any search provider, not which rendering engine they use.

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

#444

Post by yegg »

prism56 wrote: post #393
wuhhh wrote: post #289

I used Kagi for a bit but began to question what I was paying for, there are plenty of other search providers basically doing the same thing, DDG, Ecosia, Brave search etc. I mostly just use DDG now because search as a paid offering that scrapes results from other indexes doesn’t seem like good value

I'm in this boat, currently subscribed and with the news of them potentially stripping out the AI offering from the $10 subscription tier, I might give DDG another shot. It just doesn't seem to surface much reddit content. I know I know reddit, but on niche topics they often have some good discussions/links/experts.

If you mean on DuckDuckGo, we have a (relatively new) reddit module that should surface that content if you add reddit to your query.

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

#445

Post by yegg »

prism56 wrote: post #391
BrunoBernardino wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! Reach out for any suggestions, questions, or comments!

Does it index new reddit content? I refuse to use Google, DDG doesn't seem to surface much new reddit content. Currently settled on Kagi but the price is a little steep, happy to support EU based services.

We (DuckDuckGo) does if you add reddit to the query; that forces our reddit module to show.

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

#446

Post by yegg »

Dwedit wrote: post #396

Unfortunately, search results on DuckDuckGo contain AI-generated descriptions. These sometimes contain mistakes.

That feature (Search Assist) can be turned off in the settings, and we have a noai.duckduckgo.com domain that automatically turns it off along with other AI features. That said, Search Assist just summarizes web content and does not generate its own answers, but the summary is AI generated.

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

#447

Post by aaravchen »

dmd wrote: post #84

I really really really really want to love Kagi, but every time I try it (and I just spent a month trying it, ending a week or so ago), I end up back at Google, finding that my search results are better. I think the reason is my searches are almost entirely long-tail searches that Kagi's index just isn't good enough for. I am never searching for something like "best mattress" or anything else that is heavily SEO'd -…

I find that both fail to find matches on anything long tail, but with Google/Bing/DDG I quickly start getting results that don't follow my search criteria. Probably one of the more useful features I wish all engines did was to acknowledge when they simply don't have results.

I'd say about 1 in 5 searches for me is apparently "long tail" and I've never been more aware of how dead the internet is. I regularly still compare to DDG and Google, and spend about 300% more time on the others trying to find a match and discovering I have more results only because they made my quotes terms optional or ignored my time restrictions.

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

#448

Post by Dwedit »

yegg wrote: post #446
Dwedit wrote: post #396

Unfortunately, search results on DuckDuckGo contain AI-generated descriptions. These sometimes contain mistakes.

That feature (Search Assist) can be turned off in the settings, and we have a noai.duckduckgo.com domain that automatically turns it off along with other AI features. That said, Search Assist just summarizes web content and does not generate its own answers, but the summary is AI generated.

I am not talking about the search assist, I'm talking about the descriptions that show up in individual page results.

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

#449

Post by latexr »

carlosjobim wrote: post #309
latexr wrote: post #196

It annoys me to no end that Safari only gives you a limited set of search engines to pick from. Changing it to anything else requires a cumbersome trick of catching a search URL and redirecting to something else, which not only stops you from using that particular search engine, it makes every search slower you’re sending your query to two entities instead of one. Seeing as Apple has reportedly partnered with Google…

On MacOS Safari you can set your homepage / new tab page to whatever search engine you like. It's almost as convenient. On iOS it's worse.

That doesn’t work for me because it’s very common that I’ll just repurpose the page I am on by doing ⌘L and typing something.

Plus, my tabs open with the Start Page, showing my Reading List and iCloud Tabs, so I never even see the homepage.

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

#450

Post by onetokeoverthe »

tokai wrote: post #409
mystraline wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yandex is great if youre searching for pirated content or for DMCA'd content that ended up on Gitflic.ru Anti-drm tools are a big case in point. And so is Bypass Paywalls Clean Firefox plugin. All of these have been purged from the "Great American Corporate Firewall". Russian people != Russian govt != Russian companies. I just use the tools that work.

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