I have used SearXNG for a while, but I switched to LibreX after the search engine started glitching. Recently, though, LibreX has stopped returning any results. I am currently on Mojeek, but the results aren’t that great.

I have also tried Qwant, but I wasn’t too keen on it. Startpage will be impractical, as I use a VPN and this engine often blocks me because of it. I don’t want to use Brave Search for a number of reasons. MetaGer has too many important features behind its paywall. I’m not sure about DuckDuckGo, but I could use it if there was no other option.

Any suggestions, or am I being too picky?

      • macallik@kbin.social
        0·
        2 years ago

        Not that it is a deal-breaker, but this functionality is also built into Chromium browsers if you right click the address bar and select ‘manage search engines’

  • xHoudek@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    Why are people so against DDG here? Just wondering because I use it and think it’s fine

    • insomniac@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      2 years ago

      I’m not sure this is really a solvable problem but at the end of the day, DuckDuckGo is a for profit corporation. Privacy is more of a marketing angle than something they actually care about. Last year they allowed Microsoft to track mobile users of their “privacy focused” browser which is obviously against their stated purpose for existing. They backtracked after facing backlash but it’s done lasting damage to their reputation. They also got caught by a security researcher, they weren’t at all upfront about it. I think that’s enough to shatter any hope that they are genuine or trustworthy.

    • Squizzy@lemmy.world
      0·
      2 years ago

      I’m here because I’m trying to figure out why dog is giving me curated location based results instead of the actual results, even though I have my region set to all regions.

      So I’m not recommending them because their product has gotten worse.e

    • H2207@lemmy.world
      0·
      2 years ago

      I think they got bought out by Microsoft or something, so naturally people are weary of it now.

      • rizoidEnglish
        0·
        2 years ago

        They use bing results but they most certainly weren’t bought by Microsoft. They have a deal with Microsoft to use their results without tracking. At least to my knowledge. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.

        • Facebones@reddthat.com
          0·
          2 years ago

          They had been contractually obligated to allow certain MS ad cookies/trackers as part of a big money deal, but I believe they were able to get those requirements removed and it’s actually zero trackers now.

    • rizoidEnglish
      01·
      2 years ago

      I’m wondering the same. ddg has been great for me.

    • Spaghetti_Hitchens@kbin.social
      0·
      2 years ago

      I used SearXNG for over a month but found myself routinely returning to Google for either tech problem searches or because it was returning irrelevant results for homonyms.

      I would love to return to it. Do you have any tips for better search results?

      • Devjavu@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        0·
        2 years ago

        You can choose which search engines you actually want to use. SearXNG is a meta search engine, which means it just queries other search engines for their results. Lots of it’s results are some random wikis which most of the time do not help.

      • chayleaf@lemmy.ml
        0·
        2 years ago
        1. Depending on your language, use language codes like :en or :de. Very important if your native language isn’t English.
        2. You can choose the search engine using DDG shebangs like !g (or redirect yourself to Google using !!g
        3. If SearxNG using Google gives you much worse results, it just means Google has that much info about you. Nonetheless, that’s not my experience
  • ses hat@lemmy.ml
    0·
    2 years ago

    Maybe some will dislike , but i use yandex, i don’t know why, but i get good results. I prefer to give them my info and not google

    • Hellfire103@sopuli.xyzOPEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      Definitely not. Never mind “out of the frying pan, into the fire”; for me, this is “out of the lake, into the fire”.

      Using Yandex would involve giving my personal data to Russia. The possibility of my data falling into the wrong hands is the main reason I am looking for a private search engine; I’m certainly not then about to just walk up to the wrong hands and say “here you go”. Not to mention the censorship.

      Besides, I’ve blacklisted the .ru, .su, and .рф, .москва, and .yandex TLDs in NextDNS.

      • ses hat@lemmy.ml
        01·
        2 years ago

        Well i am far far from Russia so i don’t care, it can’t be worst compared to google. I don’t believe too much in the real privacy, one way or another 3 letter agencies will get the info.

          • chief_chef@feddit.nlEnglish
            0·
            2 years ago

            You’re right, I’ve totally read over it. Sorry :) Can’t imagine a VPN is blocking it as I use it all the time, with and without a VPN. Maybe it’s your VPN provider?

            • Ilandar@aussie.zone
              0·
              2 years ago

              I also use StartPage (always with a VPN) and have <1% of my searches blocked. I’m sure there is some logic as to why the occasional search doesn’t get through, but I haven’t been able to work it out.

              • Eager Eagle@lemmy.worldEnglish
                0·
                2 years ago

                Same. Changing servers or even just the query tends to work, but most of the times there’s an option to fill a short “VPN form”, solve a captcha, and it works again. So this tells me they’re mostly interested in blocking automated traffic.

  • T (they/she)@beehaw.org
    0·
    2 years ago

    I tried using SearXNG for a few weeks but I kept needing to chance instances. I’m using DuckDuckGo for now.

  • Lightning66@lemmy.world
    0·
    2 years ago

    I use a self hosted instance of Whoogle. It threw up an error a few days back. Got stuck in Google captcha(probably an IP issue). Now it has reset and it is smooth sailing.

    Yeah, it is simply Google results, but I think it’s fine…

    • quellik@lemmy.ml
      0·
      2 years ago

      Been a happy Kagi user for 6+ months now. No more Pinterest and other blogspam in my searches

    • potatopotato@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      2 years ago

      Aren’t they fundamentally anti privacy? You have to be logged in so they can correlate literally everything you search for or click on with a credit card number and real name…

      • Refurbished Refurbisher@lemmy.sdf.org
        0·
        2 years ago

        Yeah. I don’t think something that requires payment is inherently private. Even when paying for a service with something like Monero, you are still required to log into an account to use it.

      • Byter@lemmy.one
        0·
        2 years ago

        They ask a bit of trust on that, but their FAQ also has an appeal to reason:

        I have privacy concerns over linking my search queries with my credit card. Why should I trust you?

        We do not log search queries. Queries you type are never associated with your account. The simple reason is we don’t have any reason to do so, as it would only be a liability for us. We are in the business of selling search results, not user data.

        (For the record, I use Kagi)

        • DreadPotato@sopuli.xyz
          0·
          2 years ago

          That’s asking for a hell of a lot of trust in them… wouldn’t be the first, or last, time companies lie about these things.

  • H2207@lemmy.world
    0·
    2 years ago

    I’m using Startpage, and I also have a self-hosted Adguard DNS on my network so that helps a bit too.

    • beeb@lemm.ee
      0·
      2 years ago

      I used it for a while but could not find good results for any kind of advanced query. Qwant in comparison is slightly better but still worse than duckduckgo unfortunately. For really niche stuff I still need to revert to Google…

      • orizuru@lemmy.sdf.org
        0·
        2 years ago

        You can get both qwant, duckduckgo, and Google with SearXNG, unless the instance you used had a config to not have them as an option…

        That’s why I just prefer to use my own.

    • Hellfire103@sopuli.xyzOPEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      It stopped returning results. I tried other instances: same problems. However, I think the issue may have been fixed.

      I am currently on an iPhone, and I’m not really in a position to self-host (although I did try to set up a FreedomBox the other day).

      • orizuru@lemmy.sdf.org
        0·
        2 years ago

        Ah fair enough.

        I started by having it on my laptop, and used it only there. Liked it so much that I’m renting a VPS around $5 a month to have it on all my devices.

        But to be fair, I’m also hosting other things on that VPS (SearXNG is very light), so it’s multi-purpose.

          • orizuru@lemmy.sdf.org
            0·
            2 years ago

            Went with linode since it was reasonably priced and popular. But might move if something better comes along.

            I have all the server setup done with ansible, so it’s super easy to reproduce everything in a new machine.

          • chayleaf@lemmy.ml
            0·
            2 years ago

            I recommend Oracle Cloud Always Free - 4 Arm cores, 24GB RAM, 200GB storage. I’ve used it before they sanctioned Russia and it worked fine (but if hardware fails your data will stay but you will be at the bottom of the queue for replacement)

  • Syrup@lemmy.world
    0·
    2 years ago

    Can you tell us why Qwant wasn’t a good choice for you? I heard they work hard on respecting privacy while providing good results… So I am curious about your experience

    • Hellfire103@sopuli.xyzOPEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      The engine occasionally throws up a “Sorry, we’ve detected unusual traffic from your IP address” and then I have to type in my query again after solving the captcha. They’re also based in France, which is bringing in anti-encryption laws and suchlike, so (unless I’m an idiot, which is not unlikely) the risk of something compromising Qwant is rising a bit.

      On top of that, it’s the only privacy-respecting search engine not to achieve an A grade on ToS;DR.

    • Hellfire103@sopuli.xyzOPEnglish
      1·
      2 years ago

      There’s an English version out there, but some essential features are paid, such as enabling moderate safesearch or adding Mojeek as an engine.