Someone (average smartphone user) complained to me the other day that there isn’t a clear solution to navigating the web because it’s either ai slop or the results are poor.

And I kinda agree, nowadays you do have to put in some more effort to get what you’re looking for.

And so I told them I’d compile a list of which search engines are best for what purpose.

So far I have:

Startpage: works, but does a poor job of finding product codes and whatnot.

Duckduckgo: gives more general results afaik

Ecosia: works great but relies on bing

I have tried things like qwant ect but haven’t really settled on those.

Any other suggestions?

I’d tell em to use udm14 but it’s still google so I’d rather keep that as a plan B.

  • ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    1·
    5 days ago

    Download of searxist on my phone that rotates instances to confuse fingerprinting.

    Ironfox rotating DDG, Startpage, Searx and sometimes a fork of Chromite rotating 4get, Searx, etc.

    I am interestwd in self-hosting Hister, to make my own results over time. I’d like to make privacy centric ones.

  • thomasshikari@lemmy.world
    1·
    6 days ago

    I use noai.duckduckgo.com I used startpage for a while but I kept having captcha pop ups when I’d use a vpn and I got sick of it. While I really wish DDG didn’t push AI as much as they do, it’s at least nice that they offer a completely AI free version too, I guess. There’s definite give and take with all of the search engines.

  • Admirable_Bagel_0989@lemmy.ml
    1·
    7 days ago

    I use duckduckgo on Firefox and mullvad browser, I also use it on my phones, but in my ungoogled chromium I’m trying out startpage.

    • mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      10 days ago

      and you can downrank/ban websites.

      Holy shit, I’ve been wanting that for years. I’ll have to check them out.

      Edit: Aaaand they have a built in AI despite calling themselves “human-focussed”. That’s a turnoff. If I’m paying for a search engine, I’d prefer to have a subscription option with the AI stripped out so I’m not subsidizing it for others.

      Plus, I’m thinking about it I’m not exactly on board with needing an account with a search engine. That makes it super easy to track you. Meanwhile, using noai.duckduckgo anonymously via a VPN is way more private

      • graynk@discuss.tchncs.de
        0·
        9 days ago

        I’m not exactly on board with needing an account with a search engine. That makes it super easy to track you.

        https://help.kagi.com/kagi/privacy/privacy-pass.html

        they have a built in AI despite calling themselves “human-focussed”

        Because it’s a tool that can serve humans. Not strictly search-related, but their AI-based translation tool is genuinely great and very useful to me.

        https://help.kagi.com/kagi/why-kagi/ai-philosophy.html

        You don’t have to use built-in AI, it only triggers when you explicitly ask for it and you can completely disable it in the settings.

        They also have anti-slop filters, BTW: https://help.kagi.com/kagi/features/slopstop.html

        Finally, not sure what models the search summarizer and the translation tool use, but the assistant lets you use open weights model like Kimi, GLM, DeepSeek et al.

        • mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          1·
          9 days ago

          You don’t have to use built-in AI

          I don’t care. It’s bundled in with even the basic plan, which means you’re paying for it, even if you don’t use it. And no, it’s not magically better to use open models.

          I don’t get how this concept is so hard to understand.