I have used SearXNG for a while, but I switched to LibreX after the search engine started glitching. Recently, though, LibreX has stopped returning any results. I am currently on Mojeek, but the results aren’t that great.

I have also tried Qwant, but I wasn’t too keen on it. Startpage will be impractical, as I use a VPN and this engine often blocks me because of it. I don’t want to use Brave Search for a number of reasons. MetaGer has too many important features behind its paywall. I’m not sure about DuckDuckGo, but I could use it if there was no other option.

Any suggestions, or am I being too picky?

  • xHoudek@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Why are people so against DDG here? Just wondering because I use it and think it’s fine

    • insomniac@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I’m not sure this is really a solvable problem but at the end of the day, DuckDuckGo is a for profit corporation. Privacy is more of a marketing angle than something they actually care about. Last year they allowed Microsoft to track mobile users of their “privacy focused” browser which is obviously against their stated purpose for existing. They backtracked after facing backlash but it’s done lasting damage to their reputation. They also got caught by a security researcher, they weren’t at all upfront about it. I think that’s enough to shatter any hope that they are genuine or trustworthy.

    • H2207@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I think they got bought out by Microsoft or something, so naturally people are weary of it now.

      • rizoid@midwest.social
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        1 year ago

        They use bing results but they most certainly weren’t bought by Microsoft. They have a deal with Microsoft to use their results without tracking. At least to my knowledge. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.

        • Facebones@reddthat.com
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          1 year ago

          They had been contractually obligated to allow certain MS ad cookies/trackers as part of a big money deal, but I believe they were able to get those requirements removed and it’s actually zero trackers now.

  • glacier
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    1 year ago

    I primarily use DuckDuckGo, and occasionally have to use a !bang to get to the Startpage or Google.

      • macallik@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Not that it is a deal-breaker, but this functionality is also built into Chromium browsers if you right click the address bar and select ‘manage search engines’

    • Hellfire103@sopuli.xyzOP
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      1 year ago

      It stopped returning results. I tried other instances: same problems. However, I think the issue may have been fixed.

      I am currently on an iPhone, and I’m not really in a position to self-host (although I did try to set up a FreedomBox the other day).

      • orizuru@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        Ah fair enough.

        I started by having it on my laptop, and used it only there. Liked it so much that I’m renting a VPS around $5 a month to have it on all my devices.

        But to be fair, I’m also hosting other things on that VPS (SearXNG is very light), so it’s multi-purpose.

          • chayleaf@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            I recommend Oracle Cloud Always Free - 4 Arm cores, 24GB RAM, 200GB storage. I’ve used it before they sanctioned Russia and it worked fine (but if hardware fails your data will stay but you will be at the bottom of the queue for replacement)

          • orizuru@lemmy.sdf.org
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            1 year ago

            Went with linode since it was reasonably priced and popular. But might move if something better comes along.

            I have all the server setup done with ansible, so it’s super easy to reproduce everything in a new machine.

    • beeb@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I used it for a while but could not find good results for any kind of advanced query. Qwant in comparison is slightly better but still worse than duckduckgo unfortunately. For really niche stuff I still need to revert to Google…

      • orizuru@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        You can get both qwant, duckduckgo, and Google with SearXNG, unless the instance you used had a config to not have them as an option…

        That’s why I just prefer to use my own.

  • Syrup@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Can you tell us why Qwant wasn’t a good choice for you? I heard they work hard on respecting privacy while providing good results… So I am curious about your experience

    • Hellfire103@sopuli.xyzOP
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      1 year ago

      The engine occasionally throws up a “Sorry, we’ve detected unusual traffic from your IP address” and then I have to type in my query again after solving the captcha. They’re also based in France, which is bringing in anti-encryption laws and suchlike, so (unless I’m an idiot, which is not unlikely) the risk of something compromising Qwant is rising a bit.

      On top of that, it’s the only privacy-respecting search engine not to achieve an A grade on ToS;DR.

  • Lightning66@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I use a self hosted instance of Whoogle. It threw up an error a few days back. Got stuck in Google captcha(probably an IP issue). Now it has reset and it is smooth sailing.

    Yeah, it is simply Google results, but I think it’s fine…

  • utopianrevolt@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    some here won’t like the idea of a premium, private search engine but Kagi is one of the best tech discoveries I’ve made in a long time. I pay $5/month for 300 searches and always seem to hit the limit at the very end of my month, never payed the 1.5 cents per search after that.

      • Sendbeer@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        You can sign up for a trial with 100 searches.

        As for what is good, searches tend to pull up relevant info that is not buried under a bunch of seo shit. You can block, downgrade, and upgrade domains (I have blocked Pinterest from all my search results for instance). It’s just a very good experience. And long term I feel more confident in their user experience since their profit motivation is not tied to serving you up ads.

        My biggest complaint is the 300 searches a month seems a little low.

        But give the 100 free searches a shot. I have been very happy with them.

    • Hellfire103@sopuli.xyzOP
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      1 year ago

      We want search engines. GPT-3.5 has a knowledge cutoff in 2021, so I only really use it for software recommendations and text/code formatting.

      • PuppyOSAndCoffee@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        I am surprised that we wouldn’t prefer better AI.

        Search engines today are geared to point us to a site where we then search again for our answer.

        I am now just realizing I’d rather get a range of answers.

        I wonder if that’s where we end up, a massive “wikipedia” of online nuggets of varying degrees of preferential truthiness….

      • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Edge has integrated source citing for gpt4. It’s really nice for not keeping open a ton of tabs but logging them all in one place when researching something.

  • Caravaggio@feddit.nl
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    1 year ago

    I don’t want to use Brave Search for a number of reasons.

    Mind sharing? I’m curious because I switched to DDG several days ago, after a good while of using Brave. My reasons were:

    • defaulting to Moderate safe search every couple of days
    • inability to provide me with good results for simple ‘[word] wiktionary’ queries
    • having to block some elements of their result templates manually, using their own browser’s filtering feature (featured snippets, definitions etc)
    • poorer search results compared to what they were a year, two ago

    Some people here mentioned Kagi and I liked it a lot when I was beta-testing it, but I will only start paying for using it when they introduce full support for Boolean operators, which most likely means never.

    • Hellfire103@sopuli.xyzOP
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      1 year ago

      I don’t like Brave as a company. Brendan Eich is an arsehole, Brave Browser has had (minor, but numerous) controversies, their crypto stuff is off-putting, and now they’re sticking their new AI into everything.

  • Pantherina@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    I have to say I used Random Searx a lot, startpage as Backup. And as VPNs are getting mainstream, it gets a pain in the ass. Mullvad Leta sucks too kinda. Now I use duckduckgo alone and actually never need my specially configured SearXNG search providers, although useful.

    I have to say, I use a lot of search engines. Using the “Add custom search” Addon on Firefox you can easily add any URL containing a search word to your browser.

    I maintain some lists of search engines that need updating.