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!”
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
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.
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.
Apparently people simply don’t like mentions of subscription services
That’s true, especially for news it seems. Of course my suspicions didn’t arise from simply seeing mentions, but suspicious patterns. (Again, not to the level of anything provable.)
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.
Proxying it certainly isn’t sustainable (see adblocking & YouTube, or Nitter the Twitter proxy that was crippled). Options are good. Didn’t personally downvote you btw! And I can tell ya, SearXNG image search is inferior to Google’s for my needs… but Kagi’s seemed equivalent. Do believe voting with your wallet for paid search seems a sustainable and sane move. Good on you.
Also I wish the only conceivable options for reducing [suspicions of] astroturfing weren’t all so horrific… like submit your Social Security Number to a third party verification service, and let them try to dig into all your relationships with companies or something before vouching for your online accounts. Even that wouldn’t eliminate the problem though (can pay cash to strangers you meet via encrypted messengers). For now hope the reasonably suspicious amongst us can be regarded as appropriately skeptical.
Simply hating every single paid service for having the gall to charge slightly more than it costs to operate, though, is definitely a little too much :)
If anything makes me suspect astroturfing, it’s the inevitable hostile reactions to mentions of Kagi. At least this time I didn’t end up staying in the negatives or get told that charging money for online services is immoral because reasons. I could swear that Google hires people to specifically spew idiotic bullshit about subscription search services just so people keep using Google
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!”
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
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.
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.
Me too!
That’s true, especially for news it seems. Of course my suspicions didn’t arise from simply seeing mentions, but suspicious patterns. (Again, not to the level of anything provable.)
Proxying it certainly isn’t sustainable (see adblocking & YouTube, or Nitter the Twitter proxy that was crippled). Options are good. Didn’t personally downvote you btw! And I can tell ya, SearXNG image search is inferior to Google’s for my needs… but Kagi’s seemed equivalent. Do believe voting with your wallet for paid search seems a sustainable and sane move. Good on you.
Also I wish the only conceivable options for reducing [suspicions of] astroturfing weren’t all so horrific… like submit your Social Security Number to a third party verification service, and let them try to dig into all your relationships with companies or something before vouching for your online accounts. Even that wouldn’t eliminate the problem though (can pay cash to strangers you meet via encrypted messengers). For now hope the reasonably suspicious amongst us can be regarded as appropriately skeptical.
Simply hating every single paid service for having the gall to charge slightly more than it costs to operate, though, is definitely a little too much :)
If anything makes me suspect astroturfing, it’s the inevitable hostile reactions to mentions of Kagi. At least this time I didn’t end up staying in the negatives or get told that charging money for online services is immoral because reasons. I could swear that Google hires people to specifically spew idiotic bullshit about subscription search services just so people keep using Google
Can’t forget, Googie’s got The Juice
Those sweet sweet search results, now pre-digested for our adhesive pizza needs
All fun and games until Alphabet Adware Co sells enough data on us we’re price discriminated against on every conceivable service!
There is an addon that adds The &udm=14 tag to every search to improve your experience.
Link for firefox.
More about what it does