It is becoming near impossible to find relevant information from search engines. Duckduckgo, SearXNG, Bing, Google, and so many more mainstream engines have a significantly high noise to signal ratio, and it is getting worse.

Here are a collection of the best search engines I know, please add more to the list.

If no more high quality search engines exist, would it be possible to host your own?

EDIT: Some new discoveries. The addon uBlacklist and filters can block super SEO sites from appearing in search.

    • Kayn@dormi.zone
      334·
      5 months ago

      I’m really happy with Kagi. The fact that I can blacklist certain domains from showing up in search results is chef’s kiss.

      Back when I switched from Google to DuckDuckGo, I found myself occasionally using the !g bang to fall back to Google results. So far I haven’t felt the need once in Kagi.

      • Hazzia
        12·
        5 months ago

        This is like the 18th time I’ve seen people on Lemmy say good things about kagi, so I just bit the bullet. I like ecosia but I still end up going back to google for some searches, so I’ll see how kagi does for me.

        • cosmic_slate@dmv.socialEnglish
          91·
          5 months ago

          I’ve been using it for months and maybe popped back over to Google only a handful of times.

          DDG is okay but it’s miserable in comparison. I haven’t tried Ecosia long enough to form a proper opinion but my first impressions weren’t great.

          The only people who actively rail against it seem to be the standard group of Fediverse who are… a bit too online 😉

          • Hazzia
            9·
            5 months ago

            Yeah, since posting that i’ve been searching random niche things I’ve attempted with other search engines (like info on obscure instruments and foreign fashion subcultures) and yeah, Kagi is by and large the most useful I’ve tried. I search for something and it’s not just pages of the most normie websites talking about things semi-adjacent to what I searched for, and not an advert in sight! I think I’m in love.

      • Subverb@lemmy.world
        91·
        5 months ago

        I’m also very happy with kagi. I get search results with no fluff to sort through or scroll past every time I search. It’s such a breath of fresh air.

        Kagi is also doing some interesting things with search and many, many things that let you customize how the results are presented to you.

        Also, intesrtingly, kagi is growing rapidly and as yet they have spent literally zero dollars on advertisements. Purely word of mouth.

      • Atemu@lemmy.ml
        2·
        5 months ago

        I’ve felt the need a couple times but Google results were always worse.

    • MSids@lemmy.world
      144·
      5 months ago

      They are high thinking people will pay $5/mo for search AND being limited to 300 searches/mo. I avoid subscriptions at all cost, so if I were ever to consider paying for search it would need to be a completely forgettable number like .99/mo.

        • MSids@lemmy.world
          162·
          5 months ago

          It’s not lost on me, I get it, don’t pretend like you’re the only one who understands how advertising works on the Internet. That’s the agreement with anything you don’t directly pay for. The fee that Kago is asking for is unreasonable in my opinion.

      • pingveno@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        5 months ago

        Oh yikes, I have to do a lot of searches as part of my job (software developer). I would be through that quota ridiculously quickly. It looks like they have a $10/month tier one up from there with unlimited searches and some extra features, though.

        • CALIGVLA@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          202·
          5 months ago

          Man I sure love Microsoft, they don’t treat me like a product since I pay for all their services and Windows, unlike that filth Linux which is full of data harvesting CIA spyware and ads.

    • TwinTusks@bitforged.spaceEnglish
      4·
      5 months ago

      I only heard of Kagi in lemmy, very intrigued, however as I lived in third-world country, the price plan is unfeasible for me to consider.

      • sunbytes@lemmy.world
        1·
        5 months ago

        You get the first hundred a month for free.

        Maybe you could ration it for when you need high-quality searches?

        • TwinTusks@bitforged.spaceEnglish
          2·
          5 months ago

          You get the first hundred a month for free

          Thats more rational, I thought it was just the first hundred searches were free.

    • cll7793@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      21·
      5 months ago

      Due to how important search is, it is not a stable solution to place the trust of the technology, your data privacy, and fair pricing to a corporation. Kagi so far seems great don’t get me wrong! But enshitification from monetary incentives almost always occur. Open source search is the only stable long term solution.

    • Danterious@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      43·
      5 months ago

      Isn’t there that whole controversy with kagi going on about transphobia homophobia stuff?

      Edit: apparently it was homophobia not transphobia.

      • Kayn@dormi.zone
        151·
        5 months ago

        Kagi has recently started getting part of its search results from Brave’s search index. That’s literally all there is to it.

      • lovesickoyster@lemmy.world
        415·
        5 months ago

        ah, cancel culture at its best, I won’t be part of it. I took one look at these people, and when I see them cry racism over a completely benign website I know I should just ignore them.