So with the recent Bing situation I wanted to take a second look on private search engines and sharing my conclusions of each search engine. Here is my list of private search engines:

Duckduckgo

I really like Duckduckgo, it has all important tools, decent result quality and a great image search function. Instant answers is very useful. My main problems are the reliance on Bing as the index and the choice of Apple Maps as mapping solution. Apart from the situation with the browser and Microsoft tracking Duckduckgo has a pretty clear record and the privacy.

Startpage

Startpage is another great option. Apart from mapping everything is there and, while not as good as Duckduckgo’s, the image search engine good. The results are based on google and on par to better than those of DDG. The main advantages over DDG are European base (Netherlands) and the anonymous view, which basically functions as a quick access VPN, but sadly breaks ad/tracker blockers. Privacy for regular search is equal to DDG, but you have to disable JS to get rid of some telemetry. It is owned by an advertising company

Swisscows

Swisscows is okay. It is also Bing based, but slightly worse than DDG results. It lacks image search filters and mapping, but offers a music search which allows you to listen to ad free music. It also has an anonymous view, but it’s not interactive. Privacy is similar to DDG, but has more telemetry and (temporally) stores your IP. It is from Switzerland, it also has a very strict anti gore/porn policy that sometimes makes normal search terms inaccessible.

Qwant

Qwant used to be very solid French search engine, has dropped in quality. Similar search quality to DDG, image search like Startpage. They use Bing in combination with their own index. Then problems: They share your IP with Microsoft and they replaced their main advantage, openstreetmap based independent mapping service, with AI summary’s that require an account. Worse privacy than all the above.

Ecosia

Very similar to DDG. The main differences are that Ecosia is based in Germany, it plants trees to fight climate change, but also forwards your IP to MS.

Brave

Braves main advantages are being independent, both with the search and the AI, and the goggles that allow you to customize your results. Search results are slightly better than DDG, image search is bad, no mapping is available. Brave has had invaded privacy in the past, but currently the privacy is good as long as you disable statistics. The company itself is a bit concerning and the CEO is homophobic.

SearXNG

SearXNG is self hosted and open source, it uses various search engines as index and has a ton of extra feature like music search, fediverse search and a bunch more. While it has the most features and best privacy of all options, public instances are sometimes slow and the results aren’t really good.

Kagi

Kagi is in principle a decent quality search engine, but it is paid and has some problems that are only getting worse. For those interested read this blogpost.

4get

4get is a open source, self hostable search engine. It acts as a web scraper for various search engines, also supports Soundcloud. It has great privacy and good results, but it lacks mapping and the official instance requires a CAPTCHA per 100 searches

Yep

Yep is an independent search engine. It is private and has good results, but lacks image search tools, video search and mapping.

Presearch

Decentralized independent search. It has good results but lacks image search tools, is sometimes unreliable and has intrusive advertising

A quick fire round of search engine that have decent privacy, but I wouldn’t use due to result quality:

Ekoru Like Ecosia, but for cleaning oceans, Bing based, few features, requires extension.

Whoggle Like SearXNG, but with less features.

Metager Meta search engine with multiple search back ends, mainly Bing (Yahoo), completely powered by renewable energy

Mojeek Independent UK search engine with few additional feature, is supposed to be unbiased

LibreX/LibreY Like Whoggle

AstianGO Slightly modified version of LibreX by the Devs of the Midori Browser

Ghostery German independent search engine, regular web only, offers tracker analysis for websites

Stract Open source, self hostable, independent search engine

Lilo Like Ecosia, but with fewer features and the option to support various projects

YouCare Bing based search, shares your IP with MS, does “good deeds”, some missing features

Giburu Google based proxy search

Gigablast Open source, self hostable, independent search engine

Mwmbl Open source, independent, self hostable search engine. Only web results

Marginalia Open source, independent, self hostable search engine. Only web results, offers filters

That would be my list. I’ll still be sticking with Duckduckgo but I’d reconsider if Startpage improves it image search. Brave will probably never be my default, but it has proven it’s role as a more private backup. Comment if I missed any search engine

Search engines I didn’t include due to horrible privacy Bing/Google/Yandex/Yahoo/You/Baidu

  • dustyData@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    I thought that Kagi would have way more users. That blog was an interesting read. If that is their financial management, they’re doomed to fail. The founder also seems somehow worse than Brave’s. But it does give me a chance to mention something I’ve been thinking about for the past 6 months.

    There’s right now a massive trend towards co-opting in tech. Where startups and corporations use current trends in the tech savvy consumer to push products and services that ultimately actually go against the trend. Privacy, security, federation, climate change, open source. But just like most con men, it’s all performative, not substantial. They are trying to get fast to the wallet, then run for the hills with it. It reminds me of common greenwashing from oil companies, I call it privacywashing. In the end they still get to keep your data, and push anti-consumer tech like blockchain scams and fraudulent AI.

    • governorkeagan@lemdro.id
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      7 months ago

      I saw an extension the other day that let you choose which mapping service you want to use when clicking a link to a map. You could click on a Google Map link but have it open in OpenStreetMap. If I find it again I’ll update here

      Edit: Found it, MapSwap

  • gusgalarnyk@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    I just switched to Kagi because I liked the idea of a paid search engine who’s aim was to remove the internet’s clutter, not use any profile besides the one I create to show me results, and where I could weight certain sites that produce good content.

    Reading the blog post the issues allegedly are:

    1. Privacy is not guaranteed, like with a 3rd party audit
    2. AI usage is growing not shrinking
    3. The business seems to be poorly run and could have a short lifespan

    Is this correct?

    • crazyCat@sh.itjust.works
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      7 months ago

      Yeah that blog post didn’t contain anything damning, just generic level “business could be run a little better”, and “they like AI more” than the blogger dies. Ok, so, and? Whole lotta smoke there without much fire. I still am happy with Kagi from what I read.

      • ElTacoEsMiPastor@lemmy.ml
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        7 months ago

        The fact that much of the project is discussed over Discord should be damning enough…

        Don’t you think is damning that someone’s concern of privacy is handwaved because the data was “volunteered, not collected” ?


        And, as a user, many of the AI features are limited at best and factually incorrect at worst. I would only salvage FastGPT and Quick Answer; they summarize the first 4 or 5 relevant links and contrasting views (even if it bases the whole search on a single Reddit comment from 2017).

        Funnily enough the Universal Summarizer and Discuss Docs are the least reliable.


        All in all, I am conflicted because it seemed like a pristine service and it’s getting clouded with time.

  • ZeroCool@vger.social
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    7 months ago

    Wow that’s quite the thorough list. You’ve included a bunch I’ve never even heard of. I use a combination of public SearXNG instances, DDG, and Leta (Leta acts as a proxy for Google and Brave search results and is only available for Mullvad customers.)

    • starman@programming.dev
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      7 months ago

      What is this? This is a metasearch engine that gets results from other engines, and strips away all of the tracking parameters and Microsoft/globohomo bullshit they add. Most of the other alternatives to Google jack themselves off about being ““privacy respecting”” or whatever the fuck but it always turns out to be a total lie, and I just got fed up with their shit honestly. Alternatives like Searx or YaCy all fucking sucks so I made my own thing.

      Looks promising. Do you know if 4get supports bangs (like in duckduckgo, for example !nixpkgs lemmy searches for Lemmy on Nixpkgs’ website)

      • Alphane Moon@lemmy.ml
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        7 months ago

        Maybe, maybe not.

        Google does have PR considerations to manage.

        Not saying they are better, but it is one constraint on their behaviour that doesn’t apply to system1/privacy one.

        The fact that they are not very open about the acquisition of Startpage also doesn’t inspire confidence.

        • VeryImportantUser@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Google does have PR considerations to manage.

          No. That’s for smaller companies. Google is at the point where they can do whatever the hell they want without having to care about “PR considerations”. They could praise genocide and it’s hard to imagine people would drop Youtube, Google Search, Android or Chrome.

  • zelnix@lemmy.ml
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    7 months ago

    Startpage recently started collecting browser/OS telemetry using JavaScript so if you want to use it you should disable JavaScript on their site

    I would use kagi, but only if they supported monero payments.

  • promitheas@programming.dev
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    7 months ago

    Ill check startpage out! Also an interesting blog post regarding kagi. Ive never used it in the past, but now i definitely wouldnt ever even consider it.

  • glasgitarrewelt@feddit.de
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    7 months ago

    Thanks for the linked blogpost about Kagi! That saved me a lot of money.

    It really changed my mind about it… I want to support a privacy focused search engine, not an AI-loving mess without focus on their core product.

    I will have a look at MetaGer next. Although I am sad that there is still no good original search engine with it’s own results… Still all depending on Google and Microsoft.

  • Andromxda 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇹🇼@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    7 months ago

    4get

    requires a CAPTCHA per 100 searches

    The software itself doesn’t require any Captcha, it’s just the specific instance you chose that has this requirement. There are many other instances (like e.g. 4get.ch) that don’t have a Captcha at all. You can find the entire instance list at https://4get.cynic.moe/instances. It also shows you whether an instance has the captcha enabled or not.

  • sturlabragason@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Can someone link me the Brave privacy violation? I’m a current Brave browser and search user and prefer to stay informed.

  • biribiri11@lemmy.ml
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    7 months ago

    I used to be a Kagi subscriber because I believed in their image for Orion. Their strong views on privacy, imo, directly conflict with their action to keep the product closed source “because it’d slow them down”, so I ended up unsubscribing. Good to see I unsubbed just in time.