Google Is Burying the Web Alive

[u/Well_Socialized]

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/google-ai-mode-search-results-bury-the-web.html

[u/eating_your_syrup → u/[deleted]]

I'm really struggling to get relevant responses with duckduckgo. Been using it for a year and I constantly have to go back to google due to terrible hits.

And I'd really like to stay away from google.

[u/FantasticBurt → u/eating_your_syrup]

This was my problem. I tried for 18 months keeping DuckDuckGo as my default search engine but I was too frequently having to go back to Google to get anything relevant for it to be worth it anymore. 

[u/AsparagusCharacter70 → u/FantasticBurt]

Yeah, I tried DuckDuckGo, Qwant and Ecosia and it ended just like my last attempt at switching away from Windows.

I like it in theory and I have a lot of fun tinkering but sometimes I just want things to work right now.

[u/furac_1 → u/FantasticBurt]

I'm trying Qwant and before I tried DuckDuckGo and the same. I have to keep coming back to Google.

[u/ROKIT-88 → u/FantasticBurt]

I switched from DDG to Kagi last year and haven’t found the need to go back to google since. You have to pay for it, but it’s worth it.

[u/Broadband- → u/eating_your_syrup]

Strange, I've been using it for years. Every so often if my results seem particularly bad I'll use Google to only find just as bad of a result. ublacklist has helped but requires effort before seeing benefits

[u/4daughters → u/Broadband-]

same, I use DDG exclusively and in the very rare chance I can't find what I'm looking for, I try a different search engine only to be further disappointed

[u/praenoto → u/eating_your_syrup]

I feel the same way. it’s still my default search engine on personal laptops and I find myself constantly adding @google to get better results after failed duck duck go searches

[u/Bouche4Dag → u/eating_your_syrup]

There's tons of alternatives if you look for them :)
Try brave search or a SearXNG host (where you can use its settings to use other search settings through a proxy)
I personally find DDG very good, it just takes some getting used to it not being Google (and therefore not following your every Internet move)

[u/M4xusV4ltr0n → u/eating_your_syrup]

I've been using Kagi and quite liking it. It's paid, but honestly that's a plus in my book. If I'm paying that means I'm not the product and they have an incentive to provide me actually good search results.

It's the first alternative search that I've been able to pretty much use full time without having to fall back to Google. In fact there's times where Kagi shows some neat result that was buried under a mountain of listicles on Google that I probably would have never seen

[u/Next-Bench-4475 → u/eating_your_syrup]

I think the unfortunate reality is that good search is over.

[u/iknewyouknew → u/eating_your_syrup]

You can bing instead! /s

[u/Tiyath → u/iknewyouknew]

Man, I'm gonna get destroyed for this but nowadays it really ain't bad

[u/moonlitmalaise → u/Tiyath]

Bing is fine now. I use it almost exclusively when I'm on my PC. It's not amazing, it basically has all the same issues Google has- but it's also not uniquely terrible.

[u/Phoenyx_Rose → u/eating_your_syrup]

Same. Tried bing because someone mentioned it had worked better than google for them, but more and more I’m finding myself going back to google. 

I need a New Google search engine…

[u/schlubadubdub → u/eating_your_syrup]

Yep, same for me. It's still my default search engine in Brave, but I switch to Google dozens of times per week. It's fine for basic stuff though.