this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2023
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DeGoogle Yourself

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Been looking for a search engine that isn't plauged with SEO garbage every time I look for anything. Been using DDG for quite a long time now, and I'm starting to get dissatisfied with results. It seems like more and more results are just companies trying to make their way to the top of the search results instead of anything organic. It's even worse when I look for any kind of service or product.

Looking for as close to 100% organic results as possible.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't think you'll find anything. Search engines locate relevant results by design. The only way they can do that is by interpreting the contents of public-facing webpages. There are some things they can do to combat obvious keyword stuffing, but ultimately, overly SEO'd sites are going to work around it with content that appears relevant but really isn't (think recipe websites with 20 paragraphs and pictures of bullshit nobody cares about and the actual content you want to see at the bottom ... that kind of thing).

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

A search engine that used Bayesian filtering could work, with users providing feedback on results. This approach works well for a spam filter (and gamed search results is essentially a form of spam), and as spammers change tactics to try to game it, the bayesian algorithm adapts.

[–] asap 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

https://kagi.com/ if you haven't heard of it. Has been working well for me. I went from DDG to this.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Same here too

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

+1 for kagi. I tried it out with their trial offer and liked it enough to stay with it. Used DDG before that.

[–] agedbeef 3 points 1 year ago

100% kagi. I only need google if looking for images/video. But otherwise kagi is significantly better than anything I’ve ever used. Worth the $10/mo I pay

[–] huojtkeg 15 points 1 year ago

SearxNg is a meta search engine. You can combine results from Google, Bing and DDG. The most repeated results will be sorted first eliminating the SEO

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)
  • so yeah, Google is Google, the very definition of SEO – to the point now they will completely ignore your query to show you “relevant” results
  • and Bing is Microsoft, ’nuff said – although I hear they seem to be THE choice for porn searches …
  • people have been claiming DuckDuckGo has become just a frontend for Bing which is why their results have been declining 🤷
  • ad tech company System1 owns a majority stake of Startpage – apparently they’ve mollified PrivacyTools that it would not impact Startpage’s privacy focused mission
  • Qwant out of France actually seems to be stepping up as a good netizen, not only focusing on privacy but also investing in privacy initiatives in EU
  • otherwise you’re stuck bouncing around ~~SearX~~ SearXNG instances – Google and Bing REALLY don’t like meta search engines and will regularly block overactive instances

EDIT: looks like SearX is pretty much dead and had been replaced by SearXNG

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Qwant "The search engine that doesn't know anything about you, …"

Clicks on link: "Unfortunately we are not yet available in your country."

🤔

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I mean … I suppose that’s marginally better than Google’s frontpage telling me what town I’m in?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I guess any site will have access to the address that is used to access them. The question is what do they do with it. Maybe Qwant has a bot that scans addresses and sends back this message if they are not operating in a specific country. Important thing is that they don't put any cookie in your navigator and don't keep any information after you've left.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I’m not quite sure what Qwant is basing their country availability on

[–] Geth 2 points 1 year ago

I'd be curious to understand what Qwant brings extra to the table compared to DDG. Backend is the same, results seem quite similar and it's missing some things like math and conversion quick tools.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

and then there is monocles 👍

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Kagi is how I search now. Very, very occasionally search for something on Google in specific circumstances, buy otherwise it's all Kagi. Web has become a lot less noisy for me, and they label each search result with how many ads/trackers the site uses. Definitely have found smaller, "quieter" sites that have given me much better info, that hasn't been paid for.

Especially good for tech-review searches.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm hearing a lot of recommendations for Kagi. Maybe when I can afford another subscription service, but that time isn't right now.

I'm also not a fan of having all my searches potentially tied to one account, even if they say they respect privacy. Makes me very weary to try it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

$5/month is very steep, and it only includes 300 searches. There's no way Google makes that per month off of advertising to me, and I really don't see how $1/month wouldn't be more than enough to cover their costs.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Just remember that when something is free, you're the product.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I second this. It's paid, and I've only been using it a week, but I like it.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

SearX or yacy are probably the best fit for this if you're looking to avoid manipulated results. Qwant seems pretty good too but I have only been using it for about a month.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

metaphor is pretty good. it actually uses llm's as a way to generate links, rather than an unsourced mess of text.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Interesting, thanks

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You need to be more specific about what you mean by "SEO garbage" because every search engine is going to put "SEOed" pages higher up.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I guess we all know that mean, some page are filled with just a bunch of keyword and no content to just raising it SEO and for visitor traffic.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Kagi, as others mentioned is good but need to pay. Logical. I used to have SearxNG instance but I tend to use search engines in general less and less so no worth to maintain it, currently using DDG or BraveSearch

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago
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