51
Help me pick a search engine (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 weeks ago by cosmicrookie@lemmy.world to c/degoogle@lemmy.ml
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Qwant Vs Kagi Vs Ecosia

I have been using Qwant for some time, but I am not quite happy with it. Both the quality of the search results, and the lack of a paid option to get rid of advertisement are annoying to me.

I used to have Kagi as my main search engine, and liked it quite a lot. I know that a few people have personal issues with the owner, based on some blog post that gets shared every time, but my own reason for not using it currently, is because it is based in the US. I don't know if I am willing to compromise on that for the moment, but I do feel like I was getting a better experience using that.

I haven't used Ecosia for some time, and might give it a try, but I am still concerned about the ads. It's not that I fear that they track my searches, the same way Google did, but I just don't like ads. I don't mind paying but as far as I know Ecosia still does not allow for paid plans to avoid the ads.

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[-] artwork@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago

Wonderful day! Have you checked out metasearch engines like the following?: SearXNG (...is a free internet metasearch engine which aggregates results from various search services and databases. Users are neither tracked nor profiled...)

SearXNG is a fork of the well-known searx metasearch engine which was inspired by the Seeks project. It provides basic privacy by mixing your queries with searches on other platforms without storing search data.
Source

[-] petrichornetrainfall@piefed.social 3 points 2 weeks ago

Is the a public instance you recommend? Because since Google broke their Api, the main one I used is always rate limited and only returns completely unrelated Bing results (no matter what settings you use or other engines you enable). I started trying other instances on the list, and gave up after about 5 when they all had the same problem, and last I checked they haven't been able to work around the changes Google made, at least as of a week or 2 ago according the updates on the github issue.

[-] artwork@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

Have you checked out the following issue case:

- FYI, I spun up an instance of 4get since I needed an alternative. It has worked flawlessly with all included search engine sources, including Google.
- Thanks, 4get is also good...
- I was using it for the last couple of days and I didn't get any captcha.
Source

[-] petrichornetrainfall@piefed.social 2 points 2 weeks ago

That's the exact issue I was talking about, and the last comment I read when I last checked was the one right a one what you linked lol.

I tried 4get before and the catches were extremely 4chan cringe, kind of turned me off it, but I'll have to try it again if they have a fix.

It's nice to see the searxng atleast has a possible temp work around that looks like it will be merged soon.

Thanks for the helpful info!

[-] cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

I have heard about this, but every time i've looked into it, it is a link to github, and I am not very technically versed. I do use Linux, but just have Mint installed and it seems to work. I would want a webbased search engine though, that I can use across all of my devices, without having to host a search engine.

[-] artwork@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago

Hosting your own is optional.

SearXNG can be added to your browser’s search bar; moreover, it can be set as the default search engine.
Source

---

This website shows the SearXNG public instances. It is updated every 24 hours, except the response times which are updated every 3 hours....
Public instances listed here may yield less accurate results as they have much higher traffic and consequently have a higher chance of being blocked by search providers such as Google, Qwant, Bing, Startpage, etc. Hosting your own instance or using an instance that isn't listed here may give you a more consistent search experience.
Source

[-] cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

Thanks! I'll try one of the public instances and see how that goes!

[-] url@feddit.fr 1 points 2 weeks ago

Try one out. My default on all devices

[-] somerandomperson@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 weeks ago

SearXNG is cool, but the scrapers don't work half the time.

this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2026
51 points (100.0% liked)

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