True, but misses the point. The user interface is basically broken now, and the fact that you can scroll down to something useful doesn’t mean the broken bits don’t matter.
I usually start with DDG, but it just doesn’t have anywhere near as much of the WWW in its index as Google does, so I very often don’t find what I’m looking for and switch back to Google.
If someone has a suggestion for something better than either of them, do tell.
Better is always subjective based on your priorities, search style, and the info you’re after.
For free search, I find the results on Brave (who has their own index) to be roughly on par with Google (and Startpage which primarily sources Google’s index), but extra features like page ranking, disabling AI, etc. make Brave better for the user.
DDG, Ecosia, etc., primarily rely on Bing’s index, which tends to fail me the most frequently.
The only downside of Brave is the cryptobro owners who seem intent on speed running enshittification in everything they do. It works fine for now but I have very little trust in it not tanking long term.
Personally I use Kagi and recommend it if paying for search works with your lifestyle. I tend to find what I’m looking for there fastest and rarely if ever do I have to ! bang my way over to another search engine. It has the most customization and features prioritizing human content over AI slop.
It’s all personal preference though, so what works for one person may be unacceptable for another, and honestly having options/competition is a good thing.
In this case, Gemini actually introduced significant friction to those of us who didn’t ask for and don’t want a fucking AI prompt over our search, especially without a way to disable it.
From my perspective, the introduction of the overview was a UX regression, and this actually restores the UI to what I want in the first place, so I don’t really care that it’s technically broken.
That’s awesome. I have an extension in firefox that does something similar, but I’ve been looking for a way to get similar functionality in Edge on my work computer (not my choice of browser lol, it’s company mandated). Thanks!
If you type it in, the AI won’t do anything, but web page results look fine under that?
True, but misses the point. The user interface is basically broken now, and the fact that you can scroll down to something useful doesn’t mean the broken bits don’t matter.
I always scroll past the AI summaries anyway because I’m not looking for misinformation
… Why? Why not just use something that doesn’t spew misinformation from the get-go?
There’s so many alternative search engines that almost all let you turn off AI - pack your bags and find a new home.
I usually start with DDG, but it just doesn’t have anywhere near as much of the WWW in its index as Google does, so I very often don’t find what I’m looking for and switch back to Google.
If someone has a suggestion for something better than either of them, do tell.
Better is always subjective based on your priorities, search style, and the info you’re after.
For free search, I find the results on Brave (who has their own index) to be roughly on par with Google (and Startpage which primarily sources Google’s index), but extra features like page ranking, disabling AI, etc. make Brave better for the user.
DDG, Ecosia, etc., primarily rely on Bing’s index, which tends to fail me the most frequently.
The only downside of Brave is the cryptobro owners who seem intent on speed running enshittification in everything they do. It works fine for now but I have very little trust in it not tanking long term.
Personally I use Kagi and recommend it if paying for search works with your lifestyle. I tend to find what I’m looking for there fastest and rarely if ever do I have to
!bang my way over to another search engine. It has the most customization and features prioritizing human content over AI slop.It’s all personal preference though, so what works for one person may be unacceptable for another, and honestly having options/competition is a good thing.
Startpage has been serving me pretty well for a few years now.
ETA: Pretty sure they use Google results. Not sure if they include other engines too.
https://www.startpage.com/privacy-please/startpage-articles/enhanced-search-results-on-startpage
https://support.startpage.com/hc/en-us/articles/4522435533844-What-is-the-relationship-between-Startpage-and-your-search-partners-like-Google-and-Microsoft-Bing
Looks like they started mixing in results from Bing a couple of years ago. They’re a bit vague on who if anyone is in the “others” category
I use DDG on my personal machine, but I work at a school and a lot of my students prefer Google despite my attempts to teach them otherwise.
Does Google even give results that aren’t Reddit post or AI? I have not gotten single good thing from it in awhile.
Sometimes. I usually get better results from DuckDuckGo, though.
In this case, Gemini actually introduced significant friction to those of us who didn’t ask for and don’t want a fucking AI prompt over our search, especially without a way to disable it.
From my perspective, the introduction of the overview was a UX regression, and this actually restores the UI to what I want in the first place, so I don’t really care that it’s technically broken.
I have a uBlock filter for you
That’s awesome. I have an extension in firefox that does something similar, but I’ve been looking for a way to get similar functionality in Edge on my work computer (not my choice of browser lol, it’s company mandated). Thanks!