Octopus Overlords

I usually jump back and forth between various search engines depending on what I'm looking for. I've found that Bing is better for images, but bad for everything else, for instance. And I use Duck Duck Go most of the time these days.

I've just about given up on Google. Their algorithm has made them useless. The search engine keyword optimization by sites turns it into a manipulation contest. The hundreds of AI written sites with meaningless articles that say absolutely nothing that get boosted above real results. And the way Google takes any search that mentions a particular item into page after page of retailer links for that item - even if you're asking about something only peripherally related to it. Like if you're looking for 'how to mount a lamp to a desk', you'll get mostly results for lamp, desk, and lamp mount retailers. Completely and totally useless, and a lot of it is because Google is more interested in using your search results to advertise to you than they are in giving you useful information.

While I'm sure that this will turn into a discussion about data privacy soon enough, I'm more interested in a discussion about which engines give you the most meaningful results these days.

I'm curious to see where this goes. I find google to be increasingly bad as well, especially when in the way back when, it nailed my request "on the first page" every time. I'm not sure if the Internet is filled with so much more junk and Google can't wade through it or if it somehow makes more money by not being able to figure out what's up anymore. Either way, it's usefulness to me has gone down over the years and continues to do so. I've been debating other engines for a long long time but inertia is a powerful force.

LordMortis wrote: ↑Fri Dec 15, 2023 4:18 pm I'm not sure if the Internet is filled with so much more junk and Google can't wade through it or if it somehow makes more money by not being able to figure out what's up anymore.

Yes.

https://duckduckgo.com/
https://www.startpage.com/

i haven't validated the effectiveness of
https://www.ecosia.org/
yet

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Fri Dec 15, 2023 4:11 pm I've found that Bing is better for images, but bad for everything else, for instance. And I use Duck Duck Go most of the time these days.

You realize the irony of this statement, since DuckDuckGo uses Bing search API, right?

gilraen wrote: ↑Fri Dec 15, 2023 5:34 pm

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Fri Dec 15, 2023 4:11 pm I've found that Bing is better for images, but bad for everything else, for instance. And I use Duck Duck Go most of the time these days.

You realize the irony of this statement, since DuckDuckGo uses Bing search API, right?

I am aware, but they do give different results. Not wildly different, but I usually have better luck with Bing. Maybe it's just because Bing knows who I am (thanks, MS.)

I use DDG on my gaming/recreation machine because its results are good enough and I appreciate the privacy. I use Google on my work laptop because it's still the standard, and I need to use the same tools my clients use. My work searches are mostly for formal titles and names for individuals and companies and technologies -- and sometimes products; today I changed "xacto knife" to "X-Acto," yet Google isn't overwhelming me with sales pitches for cutting tools. There's just not much to advertise based on the kind of info I search for.

In the next couple of years AI is going to change search radically. You'll ask your computer a natural-language question and it will reply with a conversational answer, including links if you want to dig deeper or check its work. Most people won't bother.

IMO, searX AKA searXNG is the best way to do web searches, for the reasons Luke Smith explains below:

Avoid paywalls? That alone makes me consider it.

Does it give better results, or just better privacy?

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2023 12:24 pm Does it give better results, or just better privacy?

Both, since searX/searXNG is a free and open-source metasearch engine. Meaning it privately gathers results from a variety of other search engines, e.g. for web searches: Bing, Brave, Duckduckgo, Google, Mojeek, Presearch, Qwant, Startpage etc.