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] 47 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I use DuckDuckGo and am happy with it

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years 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] 10 points 2 years 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] 14 points 2 years 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] 19 points 2 years ago (7 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

DuckDuckGo 99% of the time, ~~Google~~ Startpage if I'm having trouble finding something.

*Note: Startpage uses Google as their source of search result.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I switched to DuckDuckGo a while ago and haven't regretted it at all. I honestly barely notice the difference. Realistically I should switch to firefox next but I'm pretty ingrainded in google chrome admittedly.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 years ago (4 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years 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

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 years ago

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

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 years 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] 13 points 2 years ago

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

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago (2 children)

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

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years 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] 9 points 2 years 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] 9 points 2 years 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 2 years 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 2 years 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] 8 points 2 years ago (4 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] 7 points 2 years 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] 7 points 2 years 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] 8 points 2 years 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] 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago (4 children)

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

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years 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 2 years ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years 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] 6 points 2 years ago

I mostly use Startpage or DuckDuckGo.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

Results are very hit-and-miss, but if you're into the whole distributed search engine thing you should give Yacy a try. https://yacy.net/ I ran a node for a long time and as long as you keep feeding the index you usually get decent results for the things you search for often.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years 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] 5 points 2 years ago (1 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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

Brave's latest update made it so image searches are only through Google or Bing for mr. After seeing this, I've been using ecosia.org and it's fantastic!

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (3 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] 4 points 2 years ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

StartPage or DDG

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (3 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 2 years 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 2 years ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

I use Duckkduckgo, I'd like to use Kagi though, From my short experience, the results were excellent and I'd like to curate the websites I like and don't more as I think that would improve things the results even more.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years 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 2 years ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Today I tried Googling something about following kbin magazines on lemmy and got 0 relevant results on the first page. Then I entered the same search on DuckDuckGo and the first few results were all relevant to my search. Finally I decided to make the permanent switch to DuckDuckGo. Google has been undergoing enshitification for a long time now. Ever since I started needing to include Reddit at the end of all my searches. Since I no longer want to include Reddit in my searches, I need to find a better search engine in general and hopefully DDG can be that.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I'm a developer and I've been trying out www.phind.com, has been decent so far. It gives you both a chatGPT/AI answer and a regular search engine result at the same time. Just don't rely on it to write an accurate RegEx...

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