So ddg is down, so I visit Google. It’s been some years.

I just can’t believe how poor it’s results are, and how it’s trying to suggest things it think I might also want (and failing miserably).

I just assumed ddg would be the lesser, but I use it for privacy. Turns out I’m wrong.

How long has Google been this bad?

        • elvith@discuss.tchncs.de
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          6 months ago

          Its searxng now (the original searx is dead) and is quite good. Performance differs. I’ve seen very slow instances, but when I started hosting my own semi-private instance, I saw how fast it can be, if the server isn’t a potato.

      • JetpackJackson@feddit.de
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        6 months ago

        Do you ever have moments where you type something to search into the address bar and you just get taken to the instance home page? That happens to me every now and then and I’m wondering if it’s the instance I’m using

        • Mr. Camel999@programming.dev
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          6 months ago

          I have not experienced this, no. Unsure as to what that could be, but if another instance doesn’t cause that issue that would be a good sign that it is the current instance you’re on.

      • clearedtoland@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        I can’t justify Kagi’s pricing but I liked it. I’d blow through the cheapest plan in a week. Neeva was pretty good too before they pivoted, also pricey imo though.

        • walden@sub.wetshaving.social
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          6 months ago

          I blew through the $5 plan in a short amount of time. I’m a curious person, I guess! I really like it though so decided $120/year was worth it for unlimited.

          Compared to DDG (Bing) the search results are really good. When using DDG I would frequently revert to Google, but not with Kagi.

          • Alk@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            Same. I work and play at my computer, so I certainly get my use out of it. I wouldn’t pay for it if both my work and my hobbies weren’t both on my PC.

        • Alk@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          I haven’t touched the ai feature, I’m glad its separate and not forced into search, but I’m also glad people seem to be getting good use out of it. Best of both worlds.

    • 30p87@feddit.de
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      6 months ago

      If you have spare hardware lying around and a public IP (or a server anyway), you can selfhost SearXNG.
      If you’re fine with paying 12$/month (with tax) for a customizable search engine, very accurate and transparently sourced/quoted LLM, and just a better index than any other search engine I know, use Kagi. I heard some rumors and bad things, but nothing to do with privacy, only the aforementioned tax.
      And for a free search engine which claims privacy and is an alternative to DDG, with its own index afaik, Brave.

      • frezik@midwest.social
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        6 months ago

        How are SearXNG results? I tried a self hosted yacy instance, but its results are pre-AltaVista bad.