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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

#61

Post by FractalParadigm »

veber-alex wrote: post #38
cromka wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It did for me, I can no longer find any GitHub project. Duck duck returns them on first try. Absolutely ridiculous, couldn't believe my eyes when I finally realized that. I get a ton of ads and product placements on first couple pages. What I search for is literally, word for word, name of the repository and it's not ambiguous.

Huh? the github page of pretty much anything is always in the top 5 results for me.

And honestly, that's my biggest gripe. Identical search terms on different systems, or even the same system in different physical locations, almost always return different results from one-another. Telling someone to "Google it" stopped being a reliable way to share information.

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

#62

Post by xstas1 »

Shank wrote: post #11
xstas1 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kagi is good, but only for English language queries

I find it great for Japanese, provided you search in the Japanese language mode.

How do you set it to search in Japanese language mode?

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

#63

Post by lelanthran »

simianwords wrote: post #20

I don't get the hysteria against LLM here? Like LLM's are the best thing to happen for search engines. They are a huge step above traditional ones like google. So what that google uses LLM's as a supplementary tool for no cost? This really looks like some ideological thing evoking visceral emotions. If you really want the best search engine, ChatGPT with thinking mode enabled is by far the best search engine technolo…

> I don't get the hysteria against LLM here? Like LLM's are the best thing to happen for search engines.

By eating the source of their results, pretty soon there wont be any sources that aren't crap.

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

#65

Post by timpera »

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.

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

#66

Post by Barbing »

parrellel wrote: post #56
Barbing wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What (What do you search) they stink vs. Google even though Startpage is proxying them. DDG is _not_ a “good” search engine — please, anybody have a hundred side-by-side screenshots to compare identical searches? Edit - also admit Kagi’s great, I’m not affiliated; if you have money Kagi should be the pick (ideally purchased via their more private payment options probably)

DDG is a mediocre search engine. A mediocre search engine is still much better than whatever Google's become. Honestly, the answer is so often a little toy search like Marginalia or going straight to the website in question now, its frightening.

Are we both blocking Google ads and scrolling past the AI summary?

Their business practices are just the worst. But are the first 10 blue links they show you usually bad? (Like you know that one of those 10 should be the exact thing you want, so you decide to rely on another search engine instead, & the alternative search succeeds where Google failed)

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

#67

Post by retsibsi »

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…

I blocked it because I found it was in the sour spot of being good enough to be tempting to rely on, but bad enough to be risky to rely on.

When the search results are bad, usually I can at least tell that they're dubious: either they're from obviously unreputable sites, or they conflict with each other, or they just don't quite address my query. But an inaccurate AI overview can look very similar to an accurate one.

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

#69

Post by t1234s »

fbnlsr wrote: post #17

I usually switch between DuckDuckGo and Startpage. Both are good.

Been using DDG for about 8 years instead of Google search. Occasionally use google image search for matching an uploaded image. Use google maps for any local searches (credit to where credit is due its a superior map product).

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

#70

Post by yuppiepuppie »

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…

I do like it - however, I find my self using google less and less every day. I lean much more toward agents as my primary search tool for work related items.

For daily things - finding restaurants, looking up my kid's symptoms, etc. - I still use Google

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