this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
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Privacy

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Been using SearXNG for about a year now, and I just can't deal with instances constantly getting blocked by search engines anymore. So I'd like to find something a bit more reliable. I've read that DuckDuckGo has had some controversies in the past, and I wouldn't touch Brave with a 39 and a half foot pole.

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[–] 1984@lemmy.today 19 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

Kagi is the best search engine on the web right now.

They charge for it because they need to get money some other way then selling your data. But it's well worth it.

We have to stop expecting things to be free. They can't be free if you want privacy and quality and no ads.

[–] Bipta@kbin.social 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I've seen it mentioned and you're quite right about expecting to get quality, privacy, and free. It's always a pick two.

But can you explain why Kagi is so good?

[–] exu@feditown.com 1 points 2 years ago

Also a Kagi user here. First thing you'll notice compared to other search engines is no ads at the top.
Comparing between multiple search engines, Kagi consistently delivers relevant results for world wide content, but also for more local searches.
You can further refine your search by up/down ranking sites for yourself or even create customized lenses that search specific (types of) sites if you know where you might find the answer. There are multiple predefined lenses, for example searching only .edu domains, forums or programming language websites.

[–] 1984@lemmy.today -3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I could but you should just try it and see what you think. You can search 100 times for free to check it out.

If you find what you are looking for and even getting new good results you never saw on Google, that's a very good rating. :)

[–] doot@social.bug.expert 2 points 2 years ago

kagi is great, ddg is also improving

[–] Penguincoder@beehaw.org 18 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Definitely give Kagi a try. Reliable, pretty accurate and privacy respecting. For that though you'll need to actually pay for the service.

[–] Bipta@kbin.social 7 points 2 years ago

Can you explain what's so good about it compared to Google besides the privacy aspect? I hear it's "better" a lot.

[–] foo@withachanceof.com 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

+1 for Kagi. I finally decided to drop Google after their bullshit WEI proposal with Chrome recently and it has been great so far. Yes, Kagi is paid, but we all know the saying that "if you're not paying for it, you are the product." That's not the case with Kagi.

[–] shortwavesurfer@monero.town 1 points 2 years ago

Curious, do they accept crypto as payment?

[–] squidsarefriends@feddit.de 16 points 2 years ago

Startpage.com

[–] AccountMaker@slrpnk.net 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This might interest you. Tl;dr, engines recommended besides DDG, Brave and SearX are:

MetaGer, Mojeek, Swisscows, Qwant and YaCy

[–] Gush@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago

Man that website was so useful, thank you for linking it

[–] Im28xwa@lemdro.id 5 points 2 years ago

Between the ones I tried startpage, DDG, and Brave the 1st one gives me the best results, all of them are privacy respecting

[–] eruchitanda@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (3 children)

You can use Farside with a Whoogle instance.

That way you don't have to rely on a single instance.

[–] jrandiny@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

TIL about farside, it looks very useful

[–] Ogygus@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago

How can I set this up on cromite?

I've added farside.link searx instance "main link" (https://farside.link/searx) to "homepage" but it gives me the same searx instance everytime

[–] pectoris@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Startpage.com Other i use are listed on privacytools.io

[–] filister@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Maybe you should give Qwant a try

[–] InterSynth@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 years ago

Qwant just shows Bing results, like most alternative search engines.

[–] frap129@lemmy.maples.dev 1 points 2 years ago

I selfhost SearXNG and route it's traffic through a VPN. I rarely get blocked by search engines, and when I do I just change the VPN server. You lose the benefit of your data being intermixed with everyone elses on a shared instance, but you still get the other privacy improvements from SearXNG

Do you have the ability to run your own Whoogle instance?

[–] jrandiny@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Mullvad Leta is a good option but it's not convenient because you need to be connected to their VPN

[–] UdeRecife@literature.cafe 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Search (pun) for a SearxNG (read as searching) instance.

It's an open source meta search engine. You can make it even more private if you selfhost it.

[–] nutbutter@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

OP said they want to stop using SearxNG.

Also, selfhosting it makesist less privacy friendly, if you are hosting it only for yourself, as the search engines your instance is contacting can easily determine that all those searches are coming from a same IP. Sp, even if it is preventing the telemetry collection, a detailed profile can be made on the person hosting it. Butiff multiple people are using it, profiling becomes difficult. Same is the case with using self-hosted VPNs. They are good against censorship and for some other things, but not for privacy.

[–] UdeRecife@literature.cafe 6 points 2 years ago

Oh, thank you for correcting me! It's right there and I didn't see it. My bad.

You raise good points. I confess I hadn't thought about it like that. So, not only you corrected me, you also enlightened me. I'm today's lucky 10000!

Saying 'what kind of an idiot doesn't know about the Yellowstone supervolcano'; is so much more boring than telling someone about the Yellowstone supervolcano for the first time.