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?
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I primarily use DuckDuckGo, and occasionally have to use a !bang to get to the Startpage or Google.
I’ve been enjoying Kagi but it’s not for everyone.
Add a proxy to your browser and you should get through on Startpage.
Been a happy Kagi user for 6+ months now. No more Pinterest and other blogspam in my searches
If SearXNG worked for you, why not use a more stable instance?
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What issues did you have with SearXNG?
You could try to self host it, or even just run it on your local machine.
Shameless plug on how to set it up locally, and how to set up custom filters (to block junk websites and redirect reddit to the old interface).
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).
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.
Who do you like for VPS hosting?
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)
Hetzner.
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.
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…
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.
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I use Brave Search, it’s quite good imo
Brave
Its surprisingly good… I rarely need anything else
Qwant and kagi have been a great pair. Brave search was good, but they had some controversy a bit back.
I use Startpage, it’s based within the EU and a proxy for Google results!
Vpn block…
What?
It was mentioned in OP’s post: Startpage tends to block those coming in from VPNs.
Why wpuld they do that? Unless they want to track you…
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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?
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I’m using nord and ive not faced that issue yet
Google results
which these days are very very bad! especially if you search something tech/programming related.
I tried using SearXNG for a few weeks but I kept needing to chance instances. I’m using DuckDuckGo for now.
You can self host for a better experience
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I don’t like Brave as a company. Brendan Eich is an arsehole, Brave Browser has had (minor, but numerous) controversies, their crypto stuff is off-putting, and now they’re sticking their new AI into everything.
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you could index brave and mojeek results with you’re own search engine
your*
ah yes tankies being dumb
What?
you’re attempts at denying grammar will fail back to back
I’m using https://metager.de/ it’s German and sometimes the results lean towards that but in 99% of cases it doesn’t matter.
There’s an English version out there, but some essential features are paid, such as enabling moderate safesearch or adding Mojeek as an engine.
I have to say I used Random Searx a lot, startpage as Backup. And as VPNs are getting mainstream, it gets a pain in the ass. Mullvad Leta sucks too kinda. Now I use duckduckgo alone and actually never need my specially configured SearXNG search providers, although useful.
I have to say, I use a lot of search engines. Using the “Add custom search” Addon on Firefox you can easily add any URL containing a search word to your browser.
I maintain some lists of search engines that need updating.
I don’t want to use Brave Search for a number of reasons.
Mind sharing? I’m curious because I switched to DDG several days ago, after a good while of using Brave. My reasons were:
- defaulting to Moderate safe search every couple of days
- inability to provide me with good results for simple ‘[word] wiktionary’ queries
- having to block some elements of their result templates manually, using their own browser’s filtering feature (featured snippets, definitions etc)
- poorer search results compared to what they were a year, two ago
Some people here mentioned Kagi and I liked it a lot when I was beta-testing it, but I will only start paying for using it when they introduce full support for Boolean operators, which most likely means never.
I don’t like Brave as a company. Brendan Eich is an arsehole, Brave Browser has had (minor, but numerous) controversies, their crypto stuff is off-putting, and now they’re sticking their new AI into everything.
A random thought
Do we really want search engines ?
Or, do we want AI to tell us the answers to our questions?
We want search engines. GPT-3.5 has a knowledge cutoff in 2021, so I only really use it for software recommendations and text/code formatting.
I am surprised that we wouldn’t prefer better AI.
Search engines today are geared to point us to a site where we then search again for our answer.
I am now just realizing I’d rather get a range of answers.
I wonder if that’s where we end up, a massive “wikipedia” of online nuggets of varying degrees of preferential truthiness….
Considering how often chatGPT gives complete and utter bs answers, I think I’d rather find the info on my own.
Let me go ask chatgbt for the answer, hold on one second.
