I haven't used Google search in years, think I'll survive.
Because the line must go up in perpetuity I just bet we'll hear about this ai crap spitting out product placement answers in a few years
this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2025
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DeGoogle Yourself
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What search engine do you use?
I use Kagi as my daily driver. If I have too choose a free search engine, I would use Qwant, Startpage or Ecosia.
I've heard good things about Kagi but I don't know that I want to pay for it. Is it a big upgrade on Ecosia?
My motto is: If it's free, you pay with your data. And I really have trust in Kagi.
Ecosia, Startpage, Qwant, DDG doesn't feel very different to me and they all are doing an okayish job. But everything's better than google.
Kagi lets you try it for a while before asking you to pay for it, fyi
I use kagi, it’s the closest thing to the old timey google before it sucked.
I used ddg and searxng for a long time, but if you use them long enough you’ll find they’re not great at certain searches and I got tired of the hassle. Search engines are one of those things i just want to work and not fiddle with.
I've been using qwant for about a year now with good success but lately it's started blocking me for not being human and despite successfully passing their human test. Not sure what's up with that. Might have to switch to something else.
Startpage has been decent for me. I find results and move on with life as a search engine should be.
I accidentally used the googs on a system last week and holy hell was it awful. The results looked so weird and unhelpful and then I noticed the default SE on the browser and fixed it straight away.
Just start running SearXNG in the background.
Just 4get it
just add a swearword anywhere in your search and Google's AI gets offended. i never thought the overt sanitisation of the internet would actually be helpful, but here we are
you can also add -noai to the end of your search
well thats much less fucking fun
will be patched for sure
Do they want to make it useless? I can run a LLM on my own computer, no need for spying google.
It doesnt effect me.
I haven't used google search since windows 95.
I switch between Qwant, Startpage, Ecosia, ghosterysearch, mojeek and searxng.deliberate.world
The nearest I get to ai manipulation is when I use Gumtree.
ai is absolutely shit
an example:
I have been looking for a phone to install linux.
I settled on the Oneplus Nord N10 5G
so I searched Gumtree.
Nord N10 5G: is changed to: road nw10 5g, WTF
oneplus Nord N10 5G: is changed to: oneplus nord 110 5g, WTF
Gumtree boosts customer engagement by a third with Phrasee AI.
customer engagement, they got to be fucking joking.
https://lovelymobile.news/gumtree-boosts-customer-engagement-by-a-third-with-phrasee-ai
it seems like they want me to type mobile phone in the search box, and spend 10 hours looking at every fucking phone for sale in the entire UK, until i find the one i want.
proper customer engagement, I wont play that game.
so Gumtree can fuck off