I live in a country which uses a language I don’t speak but Google defaults to regional results in spite of my language being set to English. All other engines give me really poor results (not that Google was giving good ones, the image search has really gone to shit since they started populating it with AI stuff).

    • Fubarberry
      link
      fedilink
      131 year ago

      Honestly the search bangs are the killer duckduckgo feature. I started using it because I was upset with Google hiding search results, but it’s being able to easily search any search engine that keeps me using it.

      • Rentlar
        link
        fedilink
        41 year ago

        Bangs are amazing and I use it about 3x as often as I use the normal search on DuckDuckGo.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        21 year ago

        Yeah, but I almost always end up using the !g bang anyway. And its so stuck in my fingers that I sometimes mistakenly write !g wen searchphrase when I want to search on wikipedia. Im cursed.

        • Fubarberry
          link
          fedilink
          21 year ago

          Honestly I’ve found that duckduckgo/Bing’s results are usually enough, and usually only fallback to Google results if I fail to get anything useful or if it’s a very technical query.

        • Fubarberry
          link
          fedilink
          English
          61 year ago

          Search bangs let you search using any search engine from duckduckgo. So you can type “!g” before your search to search Google. “!w” for wikipedia, “!a” to search Amazon, etc. They have a page on duckduckgo that lets you search all the different search bangs, most every website with a search is included and has multiple search bangs that work. If you don’t remember any of the shortened commands, you can usually safely fall back on a longer one (ie if you don’t remember !a for Amazon you could do !amazon).

    • silly lil jesterOP
      link
      fedilink
      61 year ago

      The dealbreaker for me with DDG is they use Apple maps as default and don’t let you change it.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      31 year ago

      Yeah im like 99% happy with DuckDuckGo, except for images. The image results are always awful I find, so I just have to open up google images when I need an image. Dont think I can avoid that, but yeah

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      5
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I switched to DuckDuckGo a while ago and haven’t regretted it at all. I honestly barely notice the difference. Realistically I should switch to firefox next but I’m pretty ingrainded in google chrome admittedly.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        11 year ago

        I made the jump a ways back, and it’s only on rare occasions that I find I need to open Brave or Chrome (whichever is installed on my machine at the time) for website compatibility.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      41 year ago

      DuckDuckGo 99% of the time, Google Startpage if I’m having trouble finding something.

      *Note: Startpage uses Google as their source of search result.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        11 year ago

        Same. The heavy bias towards Microsoft-centric top hits (thanks, Bing) usually mean when I’m searching for a non-Windows tech answer I go right to !g, but otherwise it’s my default.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      11 year ago

      I’ve been trying to switch to duckduckgo but I really struggle with the results. I appreciate the privacy angle but I just can’t seem to find what I want about 80% of the time. It’s like it just ignores parts of my query…

  • thatonedude1210
    link
    fedilink
    141 year ago

    Big fan of DuckDuckGo and Startpage. Brave Search is also a fine choice, as well.

    • Peetabix
      link
      fedilink
      21 year ago

      Been using Duck Duck Go too for a while. Not heard of Startpage before.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      21 year ago

      I use duckduckgo with Google as a backup for when what I’m searching for is too specific. I’ve had to use Google less and less lately though

    • MrSangrief
      link
      fedilink
      11 year ago

      Used Duckduckgo for a while, got myself into a spiral of search engine exploration and at some point settled on Startpage for a while…but I just missed the maturity in functionality of Duckduckgo. It just always felt like I was making a usability/productivity sacrifice. So I returned and am still happy … for now :p

  • fratermus
    link
    fedilink
    131 year ago

    Duckduckgo by default, adding !g bang syntax to use google if DDG isn’t helping.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      11 year ago

      How did I not know about bangs til now, I’ve been using DDG for years! I’ve just been relying on the @ codes in the Firefox search bar, which are super limited. Thanks for the tip!

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    101 year ago

    Brave. It’s interesting getting completely different results than from any of the big players. And the results from Brave are often better.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      51 year ago

      I use the Brave browser on my phone. The searches are good, but I mainly like that I can watch YouTube without adds, and make the video windowed and even turn off the phone screen while it plays.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      31 year ago

      Glad to see someone representing Ecosia in the thread! I was kind of hoping it’d be more popular

      I also use “Tab for a Cause” as well and love both. It’s nice to feel even just a tiny bit better about my searches

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    101 year ago

    Nothing compares to DuckDuckGo with bangs, which let you change over to any other search engine with two or three characters. I usually use !g (Google), !w (Wikipedia) and !aw (ArchWiki).

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      41 year ago

      I had no idea they had this feature. Thank you, I don’t think I’ll use anything ever again unless I absolutely have to now.

    • Captain Minnette
      link
      fedilink
      31 year ago

      I didn’t know DDG introduced that feature. That’s sick honestly. They even have bangs for my more obscure wikis.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    91 year ago

    Bing, actually. I think it has greatly improved. Mostly. Plus the new Bing and AI stuff has been great. Much better than google

    • TheSaneWriter
      link
      fedilink
      61 year ago

      I also use Bing. I like the AI features and the rewards program. The results are meh in terms of quality, but at this point honestly so are Google’s.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        41 year ago

        The rewards and AI are really the only selling parts. I guess it’s the cost of allowing them your data.

    • nii236
      link
      fedilink
      51 year ago

      Wow, are we going to see the downfall of Google in our lifetimes?!

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      11 year ago

      The AI part really is what makes Bing great. I noticed that I save so much time by asking programming related question to Bing chat instead of going through a bunch of semi related results. And normal search results are also often fine.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    91 year ago

    I use Qwant and find it gives me better results than Google most of the time. It claims to be private and such, so I’m happy with it.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      3
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Thank you for reminding me about Qwant! I will set it as my default to try it out again. I remember that I did not find it too impressive a few years back. Felt like the exact same results as Bing, even though it supposedly has its own index.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      1
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Metasearch engines are the way to go, I wish more people hosted their instances so folks wouldn’t run into rate limits so often

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    91 year ago

    DuckDuckGo. I’ve become reliant on the bangs. Regular search not giving me what I want? Just add !g. Want to find a word? !wt. Look up an album? !rym. Just want to search something on YouTube quickly? !yt

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    91 year ago

    I used DuckDuckGo as my default and it works out for me most of the time. Though, were it tends to fall apart is with image searching. When I can’t find what I’m looking for I’ll go to Google and find it pretty quickly.

  • comicallycluttered
    link
    fedilink
    91 year ago

    I mix and match.

    DuckDuckGo is my main one, but I often find myself just using bangs and either throwing in !brave or !g before some searches because sometimes the results aren’t as relevant as I’d like.

    I obviously don’t like Google, but if I need super quick results, they’re typically better for me, though they’ve honestly become ridiculously terrible over the last couple of years.

    Not just because of promoted content, but because they don’t even seem to care about syntax anymore.

    If I put quotes around a search term, Google seems to ignore it. Why? Who knows.

    As much as I have… let’s say mixed feelings about Brave, I find myself using !brave more and more on DDG. More relevant results, at least in my looooong experience of using DDG as my primary.

    Startpage doesn’t like me because VPN or whatever, otherwise I’d use it more.

    I sometimes use a SearxNG instance as well, but that’s only if I’m really struggling to find something.