• Plopp@lemmy.world
      0·
      4 months ago

      I used to really hate how Google is now, so I switched to DDG. But now since DDG can’t find shit I’m looking for and completely disregards what I enter into the search box, I all of a sudden find Google magical again. It’s like “wow, some of these results are actually relevant!”

      • hydroptic@sopuli.xyz
        0·
        4 months ago

        I’ve found Kagi to be pretty good. Yes, it’s a subscription service but if you can afford a few bucks a month it’s probably worth it.

        The reason why it’s a subscription service is that that way they don’t have to rely on ad views for income, meaning they don’t have an incentive to show you bullshit results just to squeeze money out of you

        • brbposting@sh.itjust.works
          0·
          4 months ago

          A free (donation supported maybe I should say) Google proxy like SearXNG (.site instance here may meet some folks’ needs. Was not dissatisfied with a free Kagi trial.

          Disclaimer

          I’ve posted here before that I suspect Kagi of astroturfing; I cannot prove it. Reflecting on this, even assuming they did “growth hack“ their way to prominence on Lemmy and Hacker News, I’d rather see them win than Alphabet. So, sharing their brand name in my post somewhat tentatively here, cuz fediverse ain’t for ads even when a product itself is aight.

          • hydroptic@sopuli.xyz
            1·
            4 months ago

            I wish I was getting paid for this.

            Apparently people simply don’t like mentions of subscription services because they expect to get everything for free – which is what got us into this fucking mess in the first place. Same with news; people whine about how news quality has gone down and everything is clickbait, and at the same time absolutely refuse to pay for subscriptions because “information should be free.” Fuck anybody who works in news, I guess?

            Using a Google proxy isn’t going to make Google’s results any better. But by all means everybody, keep using Google while complaining about how shit it is and then downvoting anybody who mentions any options.