Kagi at the moment. Just feels right to pay for incredibly useful services with money instead of privacy
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Google Search hasn’t been revolutionary since 2008. Most everyone has all but caught up over a decade ago. The only thing GS has is a monopoly by being the default search. Outside of that, their service is just like all the others (and in some cases worse at returning results).
I totally agree, although information itself should be freely accessible for everyone. Nice topic for a discussion though!
Well it still is, the web is open to be indexed.
Now paying for a service which has its own index sounds fine, but I personally don’t trust this model if the code isn’t open source as well (which kind of ties back into freely accessible information), though I can see it being hard to monetize if anyone can host their own version, unless the hardware infrastructure needed was really expensive
Currently trying out Kagi, still on the fence. Boy am I blowing through the trial searches though.
I love the listicles feature. Not because I want to actually look at those results but because they’re all stripped out of the main search. Doing product research is so much better without all those low-quality “top whatever 2023” lists that take up the first 3 pages of google lol
Could you tell me what you’re on the fence about? I’m down to pay for a search engine to reduce my reliance on Google if it works well. DDG doesn’t do great with technical searches all the time
I honestly can’t say I’ve noticed much of a quality difference, so it doesn’t seem like a huge value add. I might just be oblivious though.
Whats the payment methods like?
There are a lot of options: Bitcoin & Bitcoin lightning via opennode + Paypal, Venmo, iDeal, giropay, & stripe.
Personally I converted some XMR to BTC then paid with that (using a single-use wallet)
It does not feel right, it is a logical decision.
Both: I use SearXNG!
SearX(NG)
Ever since Snowden I switched to DDG. You start to get used to one search engine vs the other. So after a bit DDG was just superior to me.
Searx
any advice on using searx? I try to find a usable instance on searx.space but it’s always a struggle for me
Why is it a struggle?
If you are from Europe I suggest German ones … they work really well for me… generally selecting the ones closest to you may also help … I had an issue because some engines has a really long response time and sometimes by waiting for them the search drops giving you an error I keep google Bing qwant and DDG works out great as everything on these days u have to give up comfort and ease of use for privacy…
Seconded.
What’s the reason for picking Searx over DDG? Do they offer better privacy? Query customizability?
I suggest searching the topic online I’m not an expert but I guess that searx makes the researches for you and comunicate the answers back … so it’s at least adding a step in between… Also I heard that DDG was taking a less open and clear politic about privacy witch definitely did help me chose to switch to searx
You mean lesser evil? ddg
ddg is evil?
Sadly yes… But lesser and lesser
How so? Can you please provide something
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
They have their fair share of questionable practices. Most prominent was being in the bed with Micro$$oft. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckDuckGo#Controversies
I think they messed with search result ranking as well.
I don’t know about evil, but my results have been filled with AI generated crap sites lately. I don’t know if others are doing any better filtering them out, but it is making me think to look elsewhere besides ddg
I mean, which engine are you primarily using?
Primarily ddg.
Mullvad Leta, although i’m pondering about getting kagi
Mine* is Whoogle :)
Not ‘my’ use ‘mine’.
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No sorry needed. Glad you didn’t take offense
Startpage
Same here.
Mine is !g on DuckDuckGo
Does that actually enhance privacy at all? Or is it basically the same as using Google?
Same as using Google
Isn’t it worse? Now two search engines know what you are searching for
Somewhat, because you’re proxying your searches through ddg, just like with startpage.
Edit: Apparently I’m mistaken, you are accessing google directly with DDG, unlike with startpage where your query goes through them first. I’m a startpage user so I wasn’t really aware of how DDG does their bangs.
It isn’t like Startpage at all. You are still accessing Google from your PC and IP.
Oh I didn’t know that. Thanks for correcting me, I’ll update my comment.
No problem! Basically using any bang on DDG goes to that actual webpage, so if you need Google, it’s better to use !s than !g.
MetaGer for me, run by a non profit and you can choose to pay for search results to be ad-free and get more search options.
DDG. I used Searxng selfhosted for a while but it was a bit too slow with its results.
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Finally, I see another Mojeek user!
Whoogle.
SearX, Whoogle, sometimes Startpage and Brave
