this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2023
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I live in a country which uses a language I don't speak but Google defaults to regional results in spite of my language being set to English. All other engines give me really poor results (not that Google was giving good ones, the image search has really gone to shit since they started populating it with AI stuff).

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I use DuckDuckGo and am happy with it

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Honestly the search bangs are the killer duckduckgo feature. I started using it because I was upset with Google hiding search results, but it's being able to easily search any search engine that keeps me using it.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The dealbreaker for me with DDG is they use Apple maps as default and don't let you change it.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not exactly the solution you're looking for but starting a search on DDG with "!gm" will search google maps directly.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (8 children)

DuckDuckGo 95% of the time, Google if I’m having trouble finding something.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Big fan of DuckDuckGo and Startpage. Brave Search is also a fine choice, as well.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I use duckduckgo with Google as a backup for when what I'm searching for is too specific. I've had to use Google less and less lately though

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Been using Duck Duck Go too for a while. Not heard of Startpage before.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

Duckduckgo by default, adding !g bang syntax to use google if DDG isn't helping.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Nothing compares to DuckDuckGo with bangs, which let you change over to any other search engine with two or three characters. I usually use !g (Google), !w (Wikipedia) and !aw (ArchWiki).

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

My own SearXNG instance. I get the best out of all search engines.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Duckduckgo as default. If I need location/region specific stuff, I will sometimes use google.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I use Qwant and find it gives me better results than Google most of the time. It claims to be private and such, so I'm happy with it.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’ve used DuckDuckGo for a long time now and have never had a problem with it

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Bing, actually. I think it has greatly improved. Mostly. Plus the new Bing and AI stuff has been great. Much better than google

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I also use Bing. I like the AI features and the rewards program. The results are meh in terms of quality, but at this point honestly so are Google's.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wow, are we going to see the downfall of Google in our lifetimes?!

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Brave. It’s interesting getting completely different results than from any of the big players. And the results from Brave are often better.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I use the Brave browser on my phone. The searches are good, but I mainly like that I can watch YouTube without adds, and make the video windowed and even turn off the phone screen while it plays.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ecosia. If my searches are going to be used for data mining no matter what, might as well have some trees planted as compensation.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I use kagi. It's pretty nice, though it's not free.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I mostly use Startpage or DuckDuckGo.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Duckduckgo. I stpped using google for the privacy stuff but I stayed because of the language switch.

I don't know if I tweaked a setting to achieve it, but I have a language switch below the search bar. Google always showed me german results when searching for something english and the other wy around, so I love this feature. Search results are good enough for me, so duckduckgo it is.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Kagi is a great premium alternative. They focus obsessively on search result quality and adding helpful, but non invasive AI tools. One of them is even free as an experiment!

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Running my own SearX instance, fetching from multiple different sites.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mix and match.

DuckDuckGo is my main one, but I often find myself just using bangs and either throwing in !brave or !g before some searches because sometimes the results aren't as relevant as I'd like.

I obviously don't like Google, but if I need super quick results, they're typically better for me, though they've honestly become ridiculously terrible over the last couple of years.

Not just because of promoted content, but because they don't even seem to care about syntax anymore.

If I put quotes around a search term, Google seems to ignore it. Why? Who knows.

As much as I have... let's say mixed feelings about Brave, I find myself using !brave more and more on DDG. More relevant results, at least in my looooong experience of using DDG as my primary.

Startpage doesn't like me because VPN or whatever, otherwise I'd use it more.

I sometimes use a SearxNG instance as well, but that's only if I'm really struggling to find something.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I use DuckDuckGo, because I really love the "bangs" feature. Want to look up something on the AUR? Use !aur term. Google Images? !gi term, etc. There are tons of them!.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I used DuckDuckGo as my default and it works out for me most of the time. Though, were it tends to fall apart is with image searching. When I can't find what I'm looking for I'll go to Google and find it pretty quickly.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

DuckDuckGo. I've become reliant on the bangs. Regular search not giving me what I want? Just add !g. Want to find a word? !wt. Look up an album? !rym. Just want to search something on YouTube quickly? !yt

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

As much as I dislike it, mainly Google still. Sometimes Bing for the AI help. Brave Search is also really good and the only new search engine I can see surpassing Google some day.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I use DuckDuckGo. When I first heard about it, I tried it for a bit, found that it didn't really give good results, and switched back to Google. Some years later I found that Google also stopped giving good results, so I figured that if my search results just aren't going to be good, I'll at least switch away from Google.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I use the following search engines listed by priority:

  • Brave
  • DuckDuckGo
  • Google / Bing

Sometimes the first two just don't have the right results.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I started using Kagi recently and it’s fantastic. The results have been great, it’s pretty customisable and it uses all the same ! bangs as DuckDuckGo. Don’t feel like I have to use Google at all anymore (which wasn’t the case when I used DDG as my go-to). Plus, since it’s a paid service, there are no ads and no guff.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Duckduckgo.com. This is the way.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

DuckDuckGo, if that doesn't work then I go to Startpage.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I'm using Startpage and it's been mostly fine. The biggest issue is that the "nested" results that come from Google (e.g. a forum and related posts) don't show in Startpage, it will only show the main result.

I really wanted to use something like SearXNG, but I get basically zero results whenever I use an instance, no idea if I'm missing something in how they work.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I run my own SearXNG instance, which is a metasearch engine that shows results from a bunch of other search engines. I find it incredibly useful! It's very customizable as well

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I've ditched Google. I use Qwant for searching. It's about the same as Google in terms of results, I think.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I use Qwant right now and used it a bit in the past and it's really bad for my use. I literally always have to swap to Google just to get a result which answers what I check for. :/

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I hop between Brave search, Startpage and DuckDuckGo depending on the results I get.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Brave search. When I don't find something I try with google.

Most of the time brave search is good enough. But everyone searches for different things so idk.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Sadly, I use Google. Their query syntax is so good and can be so precise in their results. I wish to get any search engine with that quality in their query syntax.

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