Someone (average smartphone user) complained to me the other day that there isn’t a clear solution to navigating the web because it’s either ai slop or the results are poor.
And I kinda agree, nowadays you do have to put in some more effort to get what you’re looking for.
And so I told them I’d compile a list of which search engines are best for what purpose.
So far I have:
Startpage: works, but does a poor job of finding product codes and whatnot.
Duckduckgo: gives more general results afaik
Ecosia: works great but relies on bing
I have tried things like qwant ect but haven’t really settled on those.
Any other suggestions?
I’d tell em to use udm14 but it’s still google so I’d rather keep that as a plan B.
I pay for Kagi. The results are good oob and you can downrank/ban websites.
Same here. It’s great easily being able to block those shitty github/stackoverflow scrapers like codegrepper, answeroverflow etc.
and you can downrank/ban websites.
Holy shit, I’ve been wanting that for years. I’ll have to check them out.
Edit: Aaaand they have a built in AI despite calling themselves “human-focussed”. That’s a turnoff. If I’m paying for a search engine, I’d prefer to have a subscription option with the AI stripped out so I’m not subsidizing it for others.
Plus, I’m thinking about it I’m not exactly on board with needing an account with a search engine. That makes it super easy to track you. Meanwhile, using noai.duckduckgo anonymously via a VPN is way more private
you might want to check ublacklist
Yeah, this fits the bill. Thanks!
I’m not exactly on board with needing an account with a search engine. That makes it super easy to track you.
https://help.kagi.com/kagi/privacy/privacy-pass.html
they have a built in AI despite calling themselves “human-focussed”
Because it’s a tool that can serve humans. Not strictly search-related, but their AI-based translation tool is genuinely great and very useful to me.
https://help.kagi.com/kagi/why-kagi/ai-philosophy.html
You don’t have to use built-in AI, it only triggers when you explicitly ask for it and you can completely disable it in the settings.
They also have anti-slop filters, BTW: https://help.kagi.com/kagi/features/slopstop.html
Finally, not sure what models the search summarizer and the translation tool use, but the assistant lets you use open weights model like Kimi, GLM, DeepSeek et al.
You don’t have to use built-in AI
I don’t care. It’s bundled in with even the basic plan, which means you’re paying for it, even if you don’t use it. And no, it’s not magically better to use open models.
I don’t get how this concept is so hard to understand.
- No need to be combative.
- It is better to use open models.
1: I clearly established a boundary and you insisted on pushing it. Learn to take a fucking hint.
2: You know what’s even better? Not using AI at all.
- I see, sorry for mistaking you for a reasonable person.
I feel bad for anyone you’ve ever had a relationship with. You act like an abuser.
Edit: Seriously? You downvoted all of my comments? You just keep getting more petty
In my experience, Kagi doesn’t force AI down your throat. It only triggers an AI summary if you end your query with a “?”, and it does seem to be summarization of the search results.
Also, as per Kagi’s pricing page, there is a higher tier for people who want more AI features as you are suggesting.
All that being said, I use a Searxng instance 😅
I don’t even want the fucking AI summaries. I don’t get how that’s so hard to understand.
The fact the AI is in even the basic plan means you’re paying for it, regardless of whether you use it. I don’t want AI, and I especially don’t want to give money to one.
DDG for everything but especially searches in other countries (using the country toggle).
Google for images and super localized results.
Yandex for reverse image search (yes really).
noai duckduck go
I use qwant mostly
I use Qwant as my daily mostly because it’s European and I can turn of AI.
Kagi. Once you try it you’ll never go back.
I never understood the hype about it. I tried it for a while then my trial expired. I cannot say I miss it. It was okay, nothing that blew my mind
same here, never found anything on kagi which I cannot using any other search engine.
If you only searched without exploring its various options and features, that makes sense. When you start blocking, boosting, and pinning domains; start exploring lenses and everything, it’s benefits become obvious.
That was exactly what I did, but I still found the quality of its searches ultimately no better than a standard Google search with a basic ad blocker purging the sponsors and AI summaries. Not worth half its price, especially when the guy getting the money is as nutty as he is.
Selfhosted SearXNG or ddg noai / startpage when i get rate limited
I have been using Brave Search for a couple of years and have been very satisfied with the results. It uses its own index instead of relying on Bing or Google like most search engines. The summaries are also one of the few cases that I have found AI to be useful for some more obscure questions.
The image results are very poor though, so I still use DuckDuckGo for that.
qwant for basically everything, tineye for reverse image search and google for that 1 out of 100 searches that i cant get an adequate qwant search of
Yandex for reverse image search or piracy content
The noai DDG for everything else.
Unfortunately I have notice for the last couple of months that some simple things I can’t just find the answer and the shit AI suggestion baked in the google search is giving me better results and I don’t think that is the AI that got better.
Kagi for regular searches, DDG for incognito mode because I don’t care to enable Kagi every time I use incognito windows.
I use Kagi for personal devices. I wish there was an open source alternative, but there’s not. So I’m stuck.
For work or other devices, I use Qwant.
Kagi.
I hate that it sounds the same as Italian “caghi” meaning “you shit”
https://noai.duckduckgo.com/ is a decent way of avoiding some ai generated junk.
They should have turn it into the default and remove AI or make it opt-in.
yea true, bet atleast you have the option to opt out…? 🥀
Selfhosted SearXNG for everything.
