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Which search engine do you use for what? (thelemmy.club)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/privacy@programming.dev
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Someone (average smartphone user) complained to me the other day that there isn't a clear solution to navigating the web because it's either ai slop or the results are poor.

And I kinda agree, nowadays you do have to put in some more effort to get what you're looking for.

And so I told them I'd compile a list of which search engines are best for what purpose.

So far I have:

Startpage: works, but does a poor job of finding product codes and whatnot.

Duckduckgo: gives more general results afaik

Ecosia: works great but relies on bing

I have tried things like qwant ect but haven't really settled on those.

Any other suggestions?

I'd tell em to use udm14 but it's still google so I'd rather keep that as a plan B.

OQB @FreddiesLantern@leminal.space

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[–] 1 point 2 months ago (2 children)

They don't do free trials and you can't "test out" the search without paying. The dev said it's because they're really small and don't want to collect more data than necessary to fight off abuse. So you do have to trust and pay that 5$ to try them out.

But once you do it's a cakewalk to verify that theyre not just a bing frontend or whatever it is that you're worried.

At the end of the day they're a company and you can't verify anything 100%. If you're this paranoid then maybe it's not for you.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Just because I'm not willing to accept "trust me bro" doesn't make me "paranoid", it makes me not gullible. If you're willing to trust them without proof, why not believe Google's marketing about being safe?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    Well I think it's a balancing act. Ultimately, can you prove to me that something like DuckDuckGo or Kagi aren't ran secretly by NSA as a sort of honeypot? So it's the same with Uruky. They are a company and I doubt anyone can prove to you that they're not for example behind your back selling your data to some broker. You just have to feel their vibes and finally take their word for it.

    If you can't trust then stick with open source and self-host, that is the only way. Read the interview that I linked to, that got me to try them out.

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