from cosmicrookie@lemmy.world to degoogle@lemmy.ml on 10 Jan 09:34
https://lemmy.world/post/41410921
Qwant Vs Kagi Vs Ecosia
I have been using Qwant for some time, but I am not quite happy with it. Both the quality of the search results, and the lack of a paid option to get rid of advertisement are annoying to me.
I used to have Kagi as my main search engine, and liked it quite a lot. I know that a few people have personal issues with the owner, based on some blog post that gets shared every time, but my own reason for not using it currently, is because it is based in the US. I don’t know if I am willing to compromise on that for the moment, but I do feel like I was getting a better experience using that.
I haven’t used Ecosia for some time, and might give it a try, but I am still concerned about the ads. It’s not that I fear that they track my searches, the same way Google did, but I just don’t like ads. I don’t mind paying but as far as I know Ecosia still does not allow for paid plans to avoid the ads.
threaded - newest
I’m team Kagi. Everytime I’m forced to use something else, it’s now painful to me.
I do want to go back to Kagi, but I may have to compromise on me not wanting to support a company based in a country that I can’t support
It wouldn’t surprise me to see them move to another country. They just opened their first office in Belgrade.
Wonderful day! Have you checked out metasearch engines like the following?: SearXNG (…is a free internet metasearch engine which aggregates results from various search services and databases. Users are neither tracked nor profiled…)
I have heard about this, but every time i’ve looked into it, it is a link to github, and I am not very technically versed. I do use Linux, but just have Mint installed and it seems to work. I would want a webbased search engine though, that I can use across all of my devices, without having to host a search engine.
Hosting your own is optional.
-–
Thanks! I’ll try one of the public instances and see how that goes!
Try one out. My default on all devices
SearXNG is cool, but the scrapers don’t work half the time.
Is the a public instance you recommend? Because since Google broke their Api, the main one I used is always rate limited and only returns completely unrelated Bing results (no matter what settings you use or other engines you enable). I started trying other instances on the list, and gave up after about 5 when they all had the same problem, and last I checked they haven’t been able to work around the changes Google made, at least as of a week or 2 ago according the updates on the github issue.
Have you checked out the following issue case:
That’s the exact issue I was talking about, and the last comment I read when I last checked was the one right a one what you linked lol.
I tried 4get before and the catches were extremely 4chan cringe, kind of turned me off it, but I’ll have to try it again if they have a fix.
It’s nice to see the searxng atleast has a possible temp work around that looks like it will be merged soon.
Thanks for the helpful info!
I’m using Qwant and have no complaints so far.
In terms of search results it’s quite accurate and I’m happy.
But time will tell if I stick with it or not, as for now I’m still test driving it.
It sells data to microsoft.
Wait what?!
I guess I need to look for another alternative. 😞
That’s the neat part, there isn’t
search.brave.com
They also use their own Index, so no reliance on Google/Microsoft
ah yes, the bigoted search engine
What am I missing?
The CEO of Brave, Brandon Eich, has anti-gay rights views and donated to getting Prop 8 passed in California (ban on same-sex marriage that was overturned later).
Brave also runs their own ad network. On the browser, they block 3rd party ads and insert their own ads.
@cosmicrookie
Thanks for the post, which prompted a quick search (ddg): #^https://d-shoot.net/kagi.html
The benefit of avoiding the amgaf system is to become aware of alternatives. Try to maintain a list and be prepared to change. Personal search engines: duckduckgo, ecosia, mojeek, startpage, qwant, base-search
Yeah - this is the post that keeps popping up every time someone mentions Kagi.
To me it seems more like a personal issue between the writer, and the owner of Kagi.
For me, I don’t find it quite as suspicious, and have used it with great results some time ago. My main issue is that it is based in the US
Sadly, each have their own issues:
@somerandomperson
Agree, therefore the personal preference to keep using alternatives, changing, being aware of new options.
Together with anonymous proxy, extensions 'muorigin', 'privacybadger', 'ghostery', it is considered that minimal useful data goes to amgaf.
What do you mean by “anonymous proxy”?
@somerandomperson
There various proxy servers, vpn ip addresses that can be used with 'proxychains' configuration
DDG has a no AI alternative. noai.duckduckgo.com
What’s amgaf?
I guessed gafam written in a different order. So amazon, microsoft, google, apple, facebook
Relevant, about Kagi: マリウス.com/doubting-your-favorite-web-search-engine…
@paequ2
Now distracted by the non-Latin url. How to do that?
copy-paste
Sometimes you’ll see the punycode instead of the actual characters though.
That was a good read, thank you. Wonder if anyone ever tried to correct or debunk any of the claims here
(regarding the comments)
i am NOT trying to troll anyone here. I’m just trying to say that there’s not really a good search engine.
@somerandomperson
The days of a honest, simple, efficient search engine, are over.
sadly…
I’ve been using Kagi for a while, but even that isn’t great.
I miss Google from 20 years ago. I could find anything with 3 or fewer words.
I think part of the problem is the size of the internet is a lot bigger and has a lot of “trash”. Nowadays, if you search for images you’re just gonna get a bunch of Pinterest results, no chance to get to the origin of that Pinterest post.
4get.aishiteiru.moe/instances
searx.space
What do you think of Ecosia? Don’t you want to plant a tree?
I used to use Ecosia but lately they’ve been blocking me with Cloudflare.
“Don’t you want to plant a tree?” Guess not.
self-host 4get and get all of them.
except Kagi, I think
Are you not using ad blockers? You mentioned ads on multiple sites that I genuinely never saw any on. Ublock.
I do but still on search results from qwant and Ecosia the top results are always paid results
I’ve never used Qwant or Ecosia, but I’ll wager their ads are as easy to block as the ads in Google search.
I’m interested in GOOD search now, located in Germany, it looks good, but I wanted to do some more research.
GOOD uses Brave for its results, but anonymizing the search, as the others.
Attention, there is a GOOD search and a goodsearch (located in the US), they are diffetent!
Deploy Seax, route it thru gluetun with a VPN. Bam.
I’m a big fan of Kagi. I don’t know about blog post you mentioned. I know the Proton CEO said some pro Trump things that I don’t love.
I’ll be pretty bummed if I find out Kagi is the same.