this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2024
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Google results are actually already pretty terrible. They just have tremendous inertia.
I stopped using them months ago. I only notice when I'm looking for places (e.g., restaurants, barbers).
I'm not unhappy but may still shop around.
yeah, I appreciate the push towards more privacy-centric search engines but as a result searches that are relevant to me geographically on places like startpage are next to useless. I understand why but I wish that local results were a bit better on the alternatives.
We all keep saying this but can anybody point me to which one is better?
I invariably end up having to go back to them because the other search engines all have their own problems.
The issue is the internet is polluted with SEO and all the useful things that used to be spread out are now condensed onto places like Reddit, or places that aren't even being indexed.
Supposedly there's a paid one that is good. I haven't tried. The thing is Google is completely enshittified. They don't have to care about you or the sites you search. So my theory is Bing is better because they are hungrier and anything that takes away market share from Google is good—but I'm fully aware that Microsoft was just as shitty as Google and will be again if they get back on top.
Everything else I know of is either just an alternate front end for one of them or an aggregator of both. So you're right, there's precious little alternative to Google. But it's almost bad enough I'm ready for the return of web rings of good sites vouching for each other.
I assume you're talking about kagi. I pay for their $5/month subscription and it's great
Serious question. Can you spell out for me the exact advantages you feel they provide? I have a free account, but every time I try them out I feel like their answers are honestly a little bit worse than Ecosia.
I find Kagi results a little bit better than Google's (for most things). I like that certain categories of results are put in their own sections (listicles, forums) so they're easy to ignore if you want. I like that I can prioritize, deprioritize, block, or pin results from certain domains. I like that I can quickly switch "lenses" to one of the predefined or custom lenses.
Ok I don’t think I’m doing it right then. Is there a tutorial?
If you think Microsoft is in the business of innovation and healthy competition, you're wrong.
https://www.wired.com/2011/02/bing-copies-google
A lot can change in 13 years, but a company that starts off morally evil does not magically get better as time goes on. If anything, they're worse - we just don't have the luxury of knowing exactly how yet.
He didn't say they weren't evil. Only that because they are behind they are trying harder than Google (which is also evil).
If that was what you took from my post, give it another read. I'm not pro MS. I'm pro not feeding Google. And Bing is fine.
I feel like this is similar to arguing that Exxon is bad so it's better to buy gas from BP.
Both are shitty options.
Thankfully there are other options because you just nailed the two places I refuse to ever get gas from when there is any other option. If there was a good third option I'd take it here, but while Google commands so much market share and a new competitor would probably siphon users from Bing (and it's not enough users) I don't think a real alternative will come. I'm intrigued by kagi, though.
Part 5 is where I don't see this actually going.
Look at twitter. Now look at mastodon. Tell me which one is more shitty. Now tell me which one has something like 85% of the market, and which one most people haven't heard of.
Just because something it better, doesn't mean people use it. You can fit all of Lemmy in the world in one of the larger NBA size arenas. You can't even fit twitters total user base into some smaller CITIES.
I think the amount of people who are familiar with search engine options besides Google is quite a bit larger than the population of Lemmy. (It fuckin better be, anyway)
Twitter will be dead within 1-2 years, Elon will make sure of that
He's already owned it for nearly two years. I'd definitely take the over on that bet. I just don't see what Twitter could possibly do that they haven't done already to kill it?
This last "let's sue advertisers to force them to come back a d put their ads next to neo Nazis" is just another nail in the coffin.
Hell Be gone soon enough and his legacy will be "what did anyone ever see in that scammer?"
God I hope you're right, but doubt you are.
At least in the UK there is now lots of mainstream discussion of "Is it time for people to leave twitter as it's too much of a cesspool". Granted they usually then mention threads or bluesky as an alternative not mastodon, but it is definitely possible for social media companies to die out. Once people start to leave in large numbers it can become a mass exodus (see digg and myspace).
I think the issue now is that the market got fragmented and now you can’t find as much content as before without using multiple services, which is an annoyance.
He's now suing advertisers to force them to pay him money because he told them (literal quote) to go fuck them selves after they didn't wanted to have their ads shown next to neo Nazis, and well, they all left. Good luck with that, forcing advertisers to come back, lol.
Twitter is barely having any income and the interest in the loans to buy twitter alone cost a billion per year.
Twitter (and I fucking refuse to call it x) will be gone soon
I'm pretty pessimistic about this:
Unfortunately, the vast majority of people do not give a single fuck and they will use whatever is preinstalled on their device