I’ve been using duckduckgo for years now with no issues, but today I opened it and realized there were no longer any search results before scrolling. It was all ads/info cards. So I guess I’m looking for a replacement. Any suggestions?

Related: anyone know if there’s a way in the Adnauseum Firefox extension to hide ads on a specific trusted site? I like their goal of not punishing ads following the do not track standard, but DDG has crossed a threshold and I now want to blacklist them specifically.

  • SavvyWolf@pawb.socialEnglish
    241·
    2 months ago

    Out of interest, has anyone here been using Kagi? It’s a premium search engine, which means it has reasons and resources to not suck, in theory. Kind of interested in trying it, but not sure how good it actually is.

    • gedaliyah@lemmy.world
      17·
      2 months ago

      I’ve been using Kagi for the better part of a year. I find it removes about 2/3 of the time and effort between search and goal. There are a lot of very simple quality of life things that every search should have (and would have if not for user tracking).

      Some people have fairly said that paid search is inherently privacy unfriendly. You have to log in to use it. That doesn’t really bother me, and if it doesn’t bother you, it’s great to use a quality search where you are not the product.

      • yeehaw@lemmy.ca
        2·
        2 months ago

        That’s the kicker for me. It’s possible they log your entire search history which is disturbing.

        • wreckedcarzz@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          I looked into it before I started using it like a year ago. They count the number of searches but claim to not hold actual search queries. I don’t have a citation handy (it has been a year…) but even if that’s untrue (which I don’t think it is, but hypothetically) and they were found to be using it to tweak their engine, meh? I search for memes, accounts for art/porn, games/reviews, etc. I’m not searching for my home address or anything of interest or value. “hey, the horny furry searched for more horny furry stuff” is like “water is still wet, more at 10”.

          This is a super low-important possibility, imo.

      • jh34ghu43gu@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        2 months ago

        I think it’s just a flat 100 searches trial, not per month. Of course you could use another burner email if you wanted to game the system but I think it’s worth paying for.

    • hibsen@lemmy.world
      8·
      2 months ago

      I have. It didn’t seem ridiculously priced and the results have included what I want the majority of the time. No complaints so far, and it’s been about six months.

    • ultranaut@lemmy.world
      8·
      2 months ago

      I’ve been using it for a number of months now and have been really happy with it. I think it saves me time and aggravation compared to using Google.

    • Subverb@lemmy.world
      7·
      2 months ago

      Try it, they give you 100 free searches.

      I’ve been using it for months and really like it. It’s so refreshing to get clean and useful search results.

    • gpopides@lemmy.world
      6·
      2 months ago

      I do. Just the feature where I block domains and they pop up in the results when I search something is a reason to pay for it for me.

      And people voting down those spam sites means that you also won’t get them in your results. 5/5

    • howler@lemmy.zip
      6·
      2 months ago

      I’ve been using it for over a year. It makes my life easier, to be honest. I’m on the 5€ plan because I don’t need more than 300 searches per month.

      I like how customisable the search results are, the lack of SEO stuff and I’m a big fan of the “small internet” results.

    • cobalt42@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      2 months ago

      I couldn’t live without it. Love being able to up/down-rate my results. I’ve been trying to de-google my life but search was always the one thing I couldn’t give up. DuckDuckGo being Bing results just didn’t have the quality. Kagi’s results are S tier. As I understand it, they’re sourced in a privacy friendly way from Google and then they apply your preferences on top of them. Definitely went in skeptical and now I can’t imagine not having Kagi.

    • sbv@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      5·
      2 months ago

      I tried Kagi and found the results to be significantly less helpful than Google. Searches for local businesses, open source libraries, and Canadian history missed useful sites that Google provided.

      I guess I’m an outlier, because other people seem to have a good time with it.

      • peereboominc@lemm.eeEnglish
        4·
        2 months ago

        No, I have the same experience. Especially if you want to search for local stuff in my country. It is like my country (Netherlands) does not exist Kagi.

        For general topics it is ok I guess. I do have premium but I am barely using it anymore. I use Qwant.

      • darreninthenet@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        I’ve been using Kagi for a while and would not hesitate in recommending it to anyone BUT with the caveat if you want to search for a local business or similar, at least here in the UK, then it’s pretty rubbish… I find Google still reigns at that.

    • IMALlama@lemmy.world
      4·
      2 months ago

      I am somewhat tempted to sign up and give it a shot. DDG is pretty solid for me, but it would be interesting to try a search engine where I’m not the product, it is.