this post was submitted on 27 Apr 2025
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What are your favorite search engine alternatives? Ideally no ads or favored content, and with various useful filters

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

I run SearxNG from home. It's a meta-search engine and searches Google, Yahoo, DDG, Bing, and others and combines the results.

While it still uses Google as one of its sources, it doesn't take any liberties, doesn't "suggest" anything to me, doesnt' have any AI summaries, etc.

[–] lena 16 points 5 days ago

Yep, amazing tool. I use my own instance.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I tried that recently and just clicked on a random instance and was happy with the results. However, I don’t know what search instances are most reliable in terms of giving the most relevant and unbiased results and also being online when I’d want to use it.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I used to run a public instance and I can assure you that if the maintainer doesn't tamper with it (which is very unlikely to happen), the only "bias" you would get is the bias from the upstream engines.

Go to https://searx.space/ and look for the parameters of each public instance. Most of them are "vanilla" ones.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Yeah, I'm not sure about the hosted/public ones and how reliable/performant they may be. Most people I know just run it themselves.

If you ever wanted to get into self-hosting, setting up SearxNG would be a good and pretty easy to get started.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 days ago

Google maps in Android Auto can be infuriatingly wrong because of paid spots.

I once looked for nearest gas station while driving and Google tried to route me to an Exxon 10 miles away even though I knew a Shell station was a mile away. To double check, I eventually found the Shell gas station myself and while stopped in front I again asked Google for the nearest station and it still tried to send me to Exxon. I then searched for Shell gas Stations specifically and it showed it.

So Google has the Shell gas station in its maps but didn't want to route me to it.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago

DDG

Sometimes Searx-ng

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 days ago (1 children)

What are your favorite search engine alternatives? Ideally no ads or favored content, and with various useful filters

There's the obvious suggestions like DuckDuckGo, but if you're used to the (actual) results you get from Google, it's worth checking out Mullvad Leta. This is a search engine that proxies the results of either Brave or Google, so you get their results without them tracking or advertising to you. This is the only way I use Google when doing text searches these days. Sometimes I still have to break it out to do image searches and stuff, as Leta only handles standard text, but it's been handy as a way to divest from Google without giving up the benefits.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago

DDG was so good... Until they switched to Apple Maps. I do't even use maps at all, but this bothered me a lot, as those money could have been spent in funding OSM.

Thus, I switched to SearXNG.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Why is dude bare handed touching my ice cream?

Just like a Google search, I don't even want it now.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The ice cream might be attached to the scoop.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago

The image is from this video. He’s holding onto another cone that has stuck onto the ice cream. I wanted to find a good image that used the long spoon, but it proved too difficult to frame everything properly with that added distance.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

If i use google (i try others first), i always add -reddit in the search field and switch Search tools -> All results -> Verbatim . Also I have it bookmarked to assume my country is Azerbeijan, even tho I'm from EU, because that way it's easier to spot fake results they just mixed in for my location (they use IP location otherwise).

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

its all shopping stuff, which is annoying when troubleshooting, im reparing buddy, not buying

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

I've found Startpage to be a good, easy alternative. I've tried DuckDuckGo and SearxNG, but I think they are more extreme than I need.