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Favorite search engine?
(hexbear.net)
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Spreading Linux propaganda since 2020
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I use DDG, but I use the !g (google) bang a lot, either for site: search, or when my query gets complicated enough that DDG will get confused and Google will still actually look for something useful after ignoring half my terms. The bangs are useful in general though; even just !w makes it more useful than Google. (I mean I could set up quick searches in my browser, but nobody has done that since 2008.)
I've been thinking of trying out Kagi, a paid premium search engine. A bunch of people on hackernews say it's good, but what'd really sell me on it is a recommendation from someone who isn't on hackernews.
I use kagi and it’s quite good results wise, certainly less AI mill spam, but the pricing tiers are fucked up. $5 for 300 searches is not enough, i always end up going through them all, then they go to $10 for unlimited which is preposterous like I refuse to pay that for a streaming service let alone search, get the fuck outta here. $5 for 1k searches or $10 unlimited would make a lot more sense to me, or just charging per search.
Once you are capped on the base tier it’s annoying though bc if you have it set as your default engine it gives you buttons for google and bing to run your search so you end up having to click twice.
I don't mind paying for search in theory but Kagi seems way too expensive when DDG works pretty well for me. I've never had any major issues and like you say, the bangs are so good.
Edit. I bought a month of Kagi to see and okay.. I get it... It's pretty fucking good and extremely customisable. I'm going to give it a go for the month and see how I feel.