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[–] 94 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (35 children)

I'm actually surprised people still heavily use Google search.

Not for some tech snob snark reason, but because it's unusable.

I only ever go back to Google if I'm really desperate, and I can't recall the last time it ever delivered me a result I considered useful.

It's all SEO AI spam, and those are the web results Google returns only after all of its own AI and shopping bloat.

Completely useless.

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  • [–] 25 points 1 year ago (28 children)
  • [–] 37 points 1 year ago (17 children)

    Not the person you're replying to, but you could try DuckDuckGo

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

    Ddg is crap. I pretty much immediately went back to google.

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  • [–] -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (13 children)

    That's just Bing with extra slop

    Edit: downvotes from people I can only assume are mad that they've been tracked by Microsoft this whole time and can't figure out how to properly channel their anger

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (10 children)

    It's a sad day when Bing is better than Google, but we've been there for a while. Not to say either is good, I switched to a self hosted SearXNG a while ago and it's so much better.

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  • [–] -2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (8 children)

    I consistently get much worse results with DDG/Bing than Google.

    Edit: downvotes? My personal experience is wrong?

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    If you're still using Google I don't think you should be complaining about the AI slop elsewhere.

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  • [–] -2 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    You might note that I'm not suggesting alternatives that are just as sloppy and worse overall.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    I did note that you are not suggesting alternatives, yes.

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  • [–] 27 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    Also not the person you are replying to, but I pay to use Kagi so that I am the customer and not the product.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago

    I used Kagi for a year. It's fine.

    I like the idea of paying for this type of service.

    I stopped because... IDK something about the CEO I think.

    I've been using searxng for the last year or so, I quite like it.

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Is there a tier without AI? Seem the pricing is used to pay AI model instead of search

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    The pricing was the same before they introduced the Ai.

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  • [–] 16 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Duck is powered by bing and does not block all microsoft trackers with whom they have a partnership.

    Bookmark trusted websites and sources and accept that almost all alternative search engines use google/bing, are compromised.

    If you are particularly paranoid run your own searxng instance on a anonymously owned server.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    Searxng still has to send out queries and receive results, but yes, it's one of the better options, and I mentioned it in another comment.

    Regardless, my beef with Google search isn't specifically privacy related, it's that in exchange for giving up some privacy, I get no useful results in return, just slop.

    DDG isn't perfect, but it substantially better than most of the available alternatives.

    Externally hosted search engines have to make money, you'll either exchange some privacy, or some cash, in exchange for results.

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  • [–] 16 points 1 year ago

    I had my first "internet eating itself" encounter a few weeks ago, when the Google AI result told me something that was factually incorrect, and cited as its source a website that was blatantly AI-generated.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago

    The thing to understand is that... people are barely searching these days. The vast majority of people are fully dependent on The Algorithm to tell them what they want to see whether that is a youtube video or a reddit/facebook post or whatever. Google is for quick questions, not reading articles or getting educated on a topic. And... gemini is not horrible for those quick answers. And when it IS horrible, people don't actually care. And the rest is SEO hell to whatever the first fandom wiki result is.

    As someone who still very much DOES search for things on the regular? I have some concerns with the company (mostly they seem like bog standard tech bro "freedom of speech" libertarians) but damned if I don't love Kagi. Feels like the internet I grew up with combined with the ability to prioritize or block websites (see: first fandom wiki result) and a halfway decent LLM for those "quick question" searches.

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