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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

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

Switched to DuckDuckGo a while ago. Used to be able to get much better results by adding "site:reddit.com" to the search phrase. Esp. when searching for technical information or solutions to problems.

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

I use Ecosia, not sure if it's the best for privacy but I think that it's better than Google on that regard. They also plant trees so that's nice.

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

Both Google and Microsoft (Bing) aren't your friends...

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

I have mostly transitioned to Ecosia (which uses Bing) for most of my searches. I got sick of irrelevant results and half the screen covered by Google asking me to log in.

[–] styx 1 points 1 year ago

I am running my own instance of searxng and it returns a mix of whatever engine I select, so I am very happy about it. One issue I am having is I cannot put a search widget in Android, and cannot add it as a search engine because I am using POST requests for privacy and Firefox Android only adds search engines that use query strings. I might have to write a widget of my own for that 🤔

[–] kratoz29 1 points 1 year ago

I still use Google, I checked briefly DuckDuckGo but I felt more attractive the Google links...

It doesn't helps that Google search is bundled in my launcher (Pixel Launcher Extended).

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

My primary search engine is rarely Big G. More often than not, if I can't find what I'm looking for by SERP 4 on DDG(Bing), I'll figure out what the missing keyword was, and edit the query. I've also been using Brave search some, but their connection to crypto bugs me enough that I don't want to rely on them.

If I really do need Google, I use Millionshort, with the full million excluded.

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

I use it as a fallback if I can't find anything (usually searching specific errors) but 90% of my searches are through brave.com now

It's a shame they're run by a shitty person because their products are actually really good.

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

Google has been on a steady downward trend for several years now, to the point where it's getting nearly unusable.

It still works relatively well in English, but have you tried searching in other languages?? It's hot garbage. Google does not know the difference between Japanese and Chinese even in 2023.

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

I tend to use Brave search, since it is the default in by browser. Sometimes I don't get good results, and will go to another search engine. Google has become a bit unreliable though, since they started integrating these "ChatGPT"-style responses. These AI systems often seem to just make stuff up, and you really can't rely on the information at all.

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

This may be confirmation bias, but I was thinking much the same thing before seeing your post, over the same time frame (last few weeks/days). Could be people are getting better at manipulating Google's algorithm, could be something else. But I've stopped going to Google as my first choice, getting much better results with Duck Duck Go (which is Bing I think).

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

I haven't been using Google anyway since Bing got its redesign. It's just so much more useful now than Google.

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

I’ve been trying a few different alternatives namely Qwant and Startpage. I find Qwant to be the quickest of those two and have been using it most often. Trying to get away from the google ecosystem as much as possible, searches are getting bogged down even with an adblocker.

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

I have found my results to be more repetitive, filled with sponsored content, and less relevant. As a lot of what I search for is within articles/research, having equity company products shilled at me during the process is frustrating. It’s been a lot worse lately.

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

Switched to DuckDuckGo years ago. Using Google only occasionally. Recently I have been distancing myself from both, using a combination of search.brave.com (works at least as good as DDG) and SearXNG.

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

I've been trying DuckDuckGo since I migrated to Waterfox recently. It seems more functional than when I last used it, some 6~12 months ago. And I've been noticing my searches are usually more successful on DDG than on Google too.

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

There have been less relevant results on google for a while. The same can be said for youtube as well.

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

Swiss Cows users: there are dozens of us!

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

I'm surprised to see that Brave Search isn't mentioned more. Is there a privacy reason behind it?
So far I'm happy with it. It is pretty annoying to switch a different image search provider though...

[–] miraclerandy 1 points 1 year ago

I've been playing around with Bing's copilot for searches. It gives some answers and if I want to read more it offers links to check out on the response. I can see that as being a default for a lot of people to avoid all those pages that are only designed for SEO

[–] passably9 1 points 1 year ago

I really love Brave. It's the perfect working alternative. Gotta retry DDG, because the last time I tried it, it was really underwhelming

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

Not really.

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

I haven't used Google Search in years.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I still use google a lot. It has a lot of features and gives me accurate results. i have started to use Bing because of Microsoft Rewards

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago
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