@cyrus@rysiek@Mojeek I'll throw in another vote for SearxNG. Been using it as my default for a bit now and an usually happy with the results. StartPage used to be my default now I only use it as a back up option.
@rysiek I am reminded of when, against all feedback and better judgement, phone manufacturers universally decided to stop building headphone jacks and physical buttons.
@rysiek it's entirely within their raison d'etre to offer privacy preserving access to services they don't have themselves. Think of this as a VPN for AI access. I've used other search engines that did this for images and maps, at least as an alternative. If they do it then it avoids you being tempted to access them without privacy protections.
@rysiek their search results were starting to look more and more like google. Last couple of months the results were lousy and commercial. This explains it.
@rysiek I'd be down and like it a lot if they used an open-source uncensored AI for t5his, not the MS's garbage. Well, we'll wait and see how they're gonna deal with the backlash from the community
I've been using either @Mojeek or #StartPage on my browsers. Over the last two years of using #Mojeek it has become noticeably better, but not so much for StartPage...
#DuckDuckGo is already pretty useless without boolean search options, and it also ignores dates. So if you're trying to search for something from 2014, you can't. Nor can you exclude all the stupid amazon or pinterest posts, etc. It's useless junk. And now it's useless junk with a heaping pike of garbage on top.
I feel the question of "what else is there" depends on what you're actually looking for.
If you're just looking to use a large index while minimizing the data you're sending back, then DuckDuckGo still works for that. DuckDuckGo and Qwant use Bing's index, while Startpage uses Google's index, and any of those would work for that purpose.
If you're looking for a independent index for general use, Mojeek probably has the largest index that is not Google, Bing, or Yandex.
Now if you're trying to avoid search engines that are into LLMs, then your options are going to depend on whether the index provider matters.
If only the service you are directly using matters, then you have plenty of options as there's seemingly endless search engines using Google or Bing (especially Bing).
If where the index comes from matters then you're pretty much out of large mainstream indexes and into small independent ones and a major change in search habits.
@rysiek I use Kagi, it's paid (so no ads or user tracking needed). It has optional AI, but it's based on sources (and it will mention those, like Wikipedia does).
@djh the fact that they even consider investing time and effort into this is a huge red flag for me. I am not going to wait until that red flag materializes as something even worse.
@rysiek you don't have to use it if you don't want to. It only works if you tap on the 💬 icon. That doesn't make DuckDuckGo bad or bloated. And to be honest I prefer being able to use GPT without an account rather.
@rysiek there are still plenty of other search engines that suit everyone's needs. Plus, privacy-aware people can now use AI at least anonymously. I haven't had any concerns with DDG and I've been using DDG and Brave Search, they are both good at different things. Hope that this new feature doesn't make people lose trust over DDG.
@MotionToExtendDebate I don't want to "use AI anonymously". I want to not use tools that have this crap integrated in the first place, as a way of very intentionally not supporting the hype.
@berkes I'm doing fine with going through life, thanks. And anything that touches ChatGPT or any other LLM in the context of a search product to me is super sus.
There's ample evidence of LLM chatbots providing completely made up results. I am not going to wait until DDG decides it's "good enough" and integrates it more into their stuff.
@rysiek It's just a desktop browser option to use a bot. Don't use it if you don't want to? It doesn't say it's related to search results, in the reddit link.
@rysiek Hmm.. Well that's crappy then. Having said that, I just tried a quick search and can't reproduce that result. Maybe different search terms. All the search engines are getting crappy one way or another. Back to books maybe!!!
@rysiek leo is the Ai of Brave Brower, and someone earlier posted they partnered with duckduckgo. So it's not confirmed, but everything Ai doesn't need to be on my browser anyway
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