is there a good search engine out there?

esty@lemmy.ca to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 69 points –

we all know Google's usefulness has diminished if you're searching for something the algorithm doesn't have it's nose on, personally i don't feel searxng (i used the nicfab.eu one) gives the best or most useful results either, what's out there?

48

DuckDuckGo/Brave + Kagi.

Others, more specific uses:

I use Perplexity.ai. It was so good, I ended up buying the Pro version. Google ain't got shit on Perplexity. On the other hand, Perplexity is most useful for information that requires some sort of synthesis. It's less useful for a basic search like definitions or where to find something nearby.

Thanks for the suggestion I hadn't heard of this.

I just tried it to find some simple info that I struggled finding last night because I had to shovel through so much crap with Google. It definitely did a better job than Google did.

It's sad how far the Goog had fallen.

How did you buy a “Pro” version of Perplexity? I have the app installed and there’s no option to purchase anything.

In a browser, there's an option on the left hand bottom corner if you sign in.

Been using duckduckgo for years and generally gets the job done. If I want more local specific results then I'll just add !g to my search which'll do a Google search

Duck Duck Go is literally just Bing without the personal data. If it works for you then it works for you, but it's good to know what you're really using.

from wikipedia: DuckDuckGo's results are a compilation of "over 400" sources according to itself, including Bing, Yahoo! Search BOSS, Wolfram Alpha, Yandex, and its own web crawler (the DuckDuckBot); but none from Google.[62][3][63][64][53] It also uses data from crowdsourced sites such as Wikipedia, to populate knowledge panel boxes to the right of the search results.[64][65]

I'm quite aware of that fact. Not sure where I gave the impression otherwise. When it comes down to it, pretty much all the options are just proxies/aggregators for other search engines - that introduce privacy.

I know DuckDuckGo has its own issues, but surely it’s better than Google at least?

Results wise it’s just a bing wrapper. Which is not all that good in all honesty.

Ever since Microsoft nuked it a couple years back (because results included csam) search has been heavily restricted and most definitely was shot in the ankle, used to use bing a lot to find older resources for stuff I needed, now I cannot use it for that any longer

duckduckgo is the most useful and straightforward to use, brave isn't bad either although it struggles with non english searches from my experience. searx is powerful but a bit overkill and it is not the most intuitive

searx.be is my favorite by far. You can get results from DDG, Brave, Startpage, etc. all in one place and it's self-hostable

DuckDuckGo works in 98% of the time for me. If I can't find something on DDG, I'll switch to Google. But that's only rarely needed.

I like the paulgo.io searxng instance for most queries its fine. As for truly novel search engines that dont just scrape google, theres search.marginalia.nu and yacy.net

eh, i've been doing a mix of duckduckgo or brave's search engine. tbh it works for basic things but i've yet to find a better search engine for more niche or specific queries

I use Bing for Microsoft Rewards. You can get the equivalent of $10 a month in gift cards for your searches.

I like Ecosia.

It does run on Bing, but I like seeing the lil tree planting counter (⁠•⁠‿⁠•⁠)

I miss the days of Alta Vista that could do searches with Boolean logic. DuckDuckGo is probably the most popular alternative.

i always hear duckduck in these threads. though im still trapped in google land.

So many people are saying Duck Duck Go so I'm just throwing a comment out there to make sure everyone is aware that it's literally Bing without the personal data. People joke about how bag Bing is, and Microsoft is a bit of a monster so I think people need to be aware of what they're actually using. That said, if it works for you then cool, since Google is garbage now and there are not a lot of great alternatives.

I think they also use other engines too.