cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/4448974
I've recently started using a self hosted SearXNG instance but I'm still using the search engines enabled by default (google, duckduckgo and qwant). What search engines do you have enabled or which ones do you feel you've gotten the best results with?
Recently switched to Duck Duck Go and honestly I find the results better than Google. More accurate, less "sponsored" results, ...
Isn't this how all the privacy respecting search engines started?
The issue is the search index.
Afaik, only Brave uses its own search index. (It acquired Tailcat, so there's that.)
I use Duckduckgo, but it uses Bing as its base.
- Searx for piracy stuff. (occasional use)
- Google because kinda used to UI and the direct quick answer without having to look for it in the site
- duckduckgo is the default on Firefox and it's about as good as Google when i use it.
- Yandex is weirdly the best one for image search.(occasional use)
- Bing via the AI because it acts as the best teacher I've ever had. Patient, understanding and adapting to my level ( use a lot recently )
DuckDuckGO for the bangs, with a custom !bang made for my favorite SearXNG instance; on which most of my 'googling' actually happens.
I just define my own bangs. Both Firefox and Google let you set up custom search engines easily. For example I just type
d bag of holdinginto my URL bar and it searched my favourite D&D reference site. Faster, private and I can select whatever search engine I want for regular search.That's good to know! And I'm sure it's beneficial information for those that were unaware of that. However, (unless I'm wrong) the method you described requires you to be deliberate and precise in the placement of your own bang; i.e.
bag of d holdingorbag of holding dwouldn't work. As I often just start typing whatever I want to search/look for and only notice midway/afterwards that I hadn't specified where I would like to search, the built-in 'bangs' in Firefox/Chrome just wouldn't cut it unless I would try to rewire my behavior.I guess that is true. It isn't an issue for the way my brain works. You could type
Home d Spacebut that is a bit more awkward to type.
I've been using kagi for the last few months, I like it but due to the pricing it's changes how I use search.
StartPage. It's Google search results, including calculator, weather, etc., but without sponsored results.
Since I'm using SearXNG, I would only make them lose money and I'd rather not since they actually put that money to good use
