Google (search engine) alternatives?

potajito@lemmy.world to Open Source@lemmy.ml – 42 points –

Hi! I'm trying to find a Google alternative, tried duck duck go but found it very lacking, both in results and interface (not showing the date on the links, for example, that's useful). Obviously don't wanna go the bing route. Any recommendations? Also, sorry if this is not the right place to ask, I didn't know where! Thanks!

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I've been using Duckduckgo for a while now, really like the option of using bangs to quickly search on other platforms like Maps, Google News, YouTube, etc.

I use a selfhosted searxng. There are many public instances too. Take a look at GitHub

I've been selfhosting searxng as well. I'm very happy with the search results once I configured it. Public searxng instances work very well for me too.

Yes once configurated it is very good ☺️

I been trying to configure it myself but I wasn't able to do it. I change the config file so I can use Brave and Startpage as default search engines but the changes did not applied. I restarted the service and everything.

We are here to help :)

I use my own docker-compose.yml. I made modifications, but it is very easy to use. Replace YOUR.URL.HERE with your URL for searx and enter a path for the configuration mounting. Now start the stack and wait a few seconds, while the config files are generated. Now stop the stack and remove the # in the two lines 30 & 31 (CAP DROP / ALL) in the docker-compose.yml for security reasons.

Make your changes to the configuration files now (backup recommended), before you start the stack again. Start trhe stack and try it out 😊

My docker-compose.yml is on my Cryptpad. You can make a copy, but the link won´t be valid forever.

Hi! Just came to thank you for this! After trying a couple of methods to get it running yours was 100% instant, no hassle. Thanks!

I run searx(ng) and highly recommend it if you're inclined to diy

Seconded SearXNG. Its especially great if you can self host it, otherwise find a server within your country so it isn't slow.

Depends on if you want to pay for it. If yes, then there are alternatives like https://kagi.com/. I do not know how good it is, however, as I haven't made the step towards paying for my search engine.

I just signed up a few days ago. It's great! No more ads, no more tracking, no more results that are all news and products, no more political bias.

Startpage.com does the job for me

I use that as well. It's great because google still give the best results and startpage (mostly) just proxies the requests to google.

That's btw. the way most other alternative search engines work as well. E.g. ecosia is mostly bing.

In any case, I do trust startpage over duckduckgo, because they're (more or less) European. I.e. would get into a lot more trouble when spying illegally.

Like others have said SearXNG if you like to tinker a bit, especially with self hosting. Otherwise, use Brave search if you're comfortable with Brave or something like Whoogle, a search engine using Google without ads or tracking.

Kagi! It costs money, but it's worth it. I just heard about it here a few days ago on a similar post and I signed up. So long corporate tracking and advertising!

I wouldn't even necessarily mind paying a subscription but having a monthly search limit just gives me anxiety.

Me too. I signed up for the $5 one and then immediately upgraded it to the 10 dollar one. It's 1000 searches every month. I've used 130 searches in the last 4 days, so if that trend holds true then I'll be under the limit by a considerable margin. I set the configuration to alert me as soon as I hit my limit so I don't get charged the 1.5 cents per search if I go over. Initially I felt that the unlimited plan of $25 was way too expensive, but after using it for a few days and thinking about all of the constant frustration I've been feeling with the free search engines, every day, several times per day, for several years now, I'm willing to go unlimited if I need to.

If you live in Europe, https://qwant.com is your friend, with their own search indexer.

Thought they still relied on Bing results?

Now it's completely dependent on Bing's results! I'd even say it does a worse job than Bing. I compared results for different queries and Bing was much better than Qwant! In fact, if you read their privacy policy, they sell your private data to anyone who asks for it.

Presearch is an ok tool. Haven't heard much of it out there, so it'd be interesting to hear others' takes.

just don't pay attention to the crypto stuff, but otherwise it's alright. it gets its results from other search engines

I have previously tried selfhosting searX with varying results

Thank you all for the great suggestions! I was like... they are going to send me to duck duck go and call it a day! But there are plenty of engines to try! Thanks!