I ask because I’ve been doing a lot of research the last few weeks and Google search has really let me down. I’ve been finding better results on DuckDuckGo and Bing. Is this a recent thing with Google or am I out of the loop? Any other search recommendations?

Edit: In no particular order, some recommended alternatives to Google
SearXNG
Whoogle
Ecosia
Brave
Dogpile
DuckDuckGo
Kagi
Swiss Cows
Qwant
Bing

    • corytheboyd@kbin.social
      33·
      2 years ago

      That article is about their web browser. Agree that it doesn’t exactly instill confidence that their search engine is squeaky clean. Regardless, DDG results are much more useful than Google results, as the entire first page isn’t ads.

      • Catch42@kbin.social
        8·
        2 years ago

        This. It was an interesting read and gives me doubts, but it’s undoubtably better than using google and I can set it to my default search engine in safari

        • BananaTrifleViolin@kbin.social
          4·
          2 years ago

          Iwould honestly not use Safari either. Mozilla Firefox is the way to go (unless you’re on iOS where there actually is no real choice, although the probably still better to use the Firefox front end)

      • tivasyk@fedia.io
        2·
        2 years ago

        «DDG results are much more useful than Google results» – not if one is searching in anything but english; not sure for english either (had very poor results myself whenever i tried it) but at least can’t disprove it.

        • marron12@kbin.social
          1·
          2 years ago

          The English results are pretty good from what I’ve seen. Hit and miss in some areas though, like if you want to search in quotes.

          Simple searches in other languages seem to work OK. It might depend on the language though. Google does better overall.

        • pixelpop3
          1·
          2 years ago

          DDG is really good for my English searches. I was shocked yo learn that it relies on Bing because Bing searches are always trash for me.

    • BananaTrifleViolin@kbin.social
      3·
      2 years ago

      Yeah although this is specifically the Duckduckgo web Browser rather than their search site. The only web browser to use is Firefox, set up the privacy and tracking settings correctly plus add in privacy extensions.

      Duckduckgo website doesn’t track you in the same way, but still it is a company and should not be treated as a virtuous entity.

    • Glome@kbin.social
      2·
      2 years ago

      For me searxng hasn’t been working (tried multiple instances, throws mixed errors). I’ve been using whoogle and it works pretty well.

    • enigmatic_cloud@kbin.social
      2·
      2 years ago

      I honestly went back to Google after seeing every fucking link in DuckDuckGo behind MSN. Almost every alternative search has Microsoft’s claws in them.

      Glad to see a potential alternative in SearXNG. Thanks for the info.

      • pixelpop3
        1·
        2 years ago

        Huh That’s odd. The MSN bullshit is what I see in bing. DDG always is great. I wonder if it’s because I’m mostly comparing Edge+Bing vs Firefox+DDG and Firefox is the magic?

      • tivasyk@fedia.io
        1·
        2 years ago

        same here (concerning going back to google every time); unfortunately can’t share optimism for searxng: afaiu it’s not a search engine but an aggregator/frontend, i tend to get all the same sh*t with it no matter which combination of search engines / settings i tried. finally just gave up for the moment with an internal promise to do more testing in a year or two.

    • FIST_FILLET@kbin.social
      1·
      2 years ago

      DuckDuckGo is not your friend

      please, PLEASE, never forget that the CEO of DuckDuckGo is also the founder of the “Names Database”. it is insane to me that anyone trusts DDG. where do you think they get all the money for marketing from? i’ve seen a DDG ad on a fucking bus stop in the middle of nowhere

      edit: throwing in an honorary mention for Qwant, which is an EU-based privacy-oriented search engine. i’ve been using them for a couple of years now and have yet to hear anything bad about the company. SearX is also supposedly a safe bet

    • pixelpop3
      1·
      2 years ago

      Huh. That’s odd because bing search sucks and DDG does not. Work IT forces Edge+Bing as default at each Citrix login so force of habit url bar searches wind up there first somewhat often. So then I immediately go to DDG and search and find what I want… that’s a poser. On my own machines/phone I use Firefox with DDG as default search engine.