If you need to use Google, I’d recommend the &udm=14 trick, as demonstrated on the linked site. It goes straight to a “web only” filter for search results. There are some tricks and tips to set that to your default search option in settings, or you can get a browser extension.
Ya but Google makes a lot more money this way
I just subscribed to Kagi to try it out.
Great! Everyone should try the free tier just to have a look at alternatives. To be honest after a few weeks and several specific searches I’m not ready to do the switch though.
Any way people could just remake ‘old Google’ that solely focuses on search and nothing else?
Part of the issue isn’t just that they added garbage, it’s that sites got better at targeting the algorithm. It’s like recipe websites that started to add stories because the algorithm prioritized that. No one was asking for it, but the algorithm was broken in unexpected ways and exploited.
So, someone could make a new search engine with a different algorithm. If it becomes successful though, it’s only a matter of time before it becomes targeted and manipulated.
Gotcha. I’m not tech-smart so that’s interesting to hear
So, someone could make a new search engine with a different algorithm. If it becomes successful though, it’s only a matter of time before it becomes targeted and manipulated.
I can think of a solution to this. Once your new search engine is starting to get targeted, you find out who is offering these SEO services. Then you hire a gang of thugs to beat the living shit out of them.
I was actually thinking of a real way to fix it, and I think it’s partially solvable. First you add noise and length preferences (short or long) to the search. Then you make those customizable by the user, so everyone can have different settings. If everyone is using different settings, you can only optimize for what is shared. Obviously the issue is of there becomes a “meta” for search settings, then it doesn’t work.
Slight update to this comic, to call out the dangers of Google’s Sponsored Results.
Examples, for those that are not aware of this risk:
- https://www.techradar.com/avoid-google-ad-malware
- https://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/scams-verify/google-ads-scammers-redirect-website-url-different-search/536-4ef6c41d-087e-4db9-a281-86bcf7637c68
- https://krebsonsecurity.com/2024/01/using-google-search-to-find-software-can-be-risky/
- https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2023/01/rogue-sites-causing-trouble-in-google-advert-results
I rarely trust top results from google, since I’m uncertain if I somehow missed the tiny gray text saying that it’s an add.
Yeah, that shit is illegal where I live and search engines do it anyways. Unfortunately not enough lawsuits…
lol google ads never had moderation or need for approval.
I once continuously kept getting porn in my ads disguised as a mobile game (and I was underage at the time). Ads themselves were graphic and included genitals. Reported it every time I saw it, took it at least a week to disappear.
It’s disgusting that Google will happily make money from scammers while completely aware of what’s going on
That’s exactly how you make money in the search engine world - by not knowing what your paying customers do.
That’s big business on the Internet! No morals, no conscience, just churning out profit for the do nothing class.
deleted by creator
It might protect you from a lot of Google’s shit show but it won’t show you good results too.
Kagi is the only usable search engine for me right now. Yes, it’s not free. I needed a whole year to convince myself to pay for searching but I finally did it and it is absolutely worth it. I’m a SE though, so searching stuff is like half my job.
deleted by creator
Well, sure. If it works for you then by all means keep using it.
I’m just recommending a service which I find very useful. I actually first heard about it on Lemmy and I’m grateful for the recommendation so I spread the word in hope of helping someone else.
I thought everyone was overreacting until I used Google on the computers at my college and I realised that DDG had been insulating me from all that horror. Thank goodness I switched when I did.
until bing goes down again
I’ve recently found out about https://search.marginalia.nu and want to start using it.
gemini://gemplex.space/search
What’s this?
a search engine for the gemini network protocol
Gemini is basically an alternative web, so it has its own protocol, own server and browser software, and an own content language (heavily inspired by Markdown).
Everything is built to be much more lightweight, so certainly in the spirit of solarpunk.But big downside is that “the thing you want” is honestly probably not on Gemini at all, because it does not share content with the HTTP web.
That does mean that all the ads and bullshit are gone, too (and cannot be implemented beyond static images, sponsored articles and I guess, ASCII art).
But yeah, at this point, it’s most useful for reading (and writing) blog posts, and having fun with the technology itself. It does have a lovely community for that.I like it, I’m going to look further into that! Thank you!
Use searx: https://searx.github.io/searx/ It provides the expected results and do not track you. You can even host it yourself
Or you can take a look at the list of instances here: https://searx.space/
SearX is not maintained anymore. I recommend a fork it called SearXNG
Thanks !
That’s the neat part, you don’t.
The top results have been useless spam for a decade or more at this point, and the only difference is Google sit there hoovering up the money instead. The money is in the way of search. Any popular search engine will end up the same way.
It’s a shite situation, but until somebody makes a non-profit search engine and filters out spammy results, we’ll continue to Google, scroll down two pages for a reddit link, and carry on.
I’m currently prioritizing DuckDuckGo over Google and others for a better quality of search results. There ain’t much ads to mess your attention, and the results are quite good most of the time.
Maybe if less people sucked the dick of LLMs then it wouldn’t pervade every facet of our lives?
Bro. Use ublock origin. I haven’t seen a sponsored link on google in like 10 years
This started to become noticeable years ago when Google decided to start censoring searches even with SafeSearch off.
I switched to Bing at that time, which was good for a while, but eventually they have started doing the same thing.
I can now no longer find a search engine that actually works to find me all the relevant results. I’ve tried all that I’ve heard of, and none will provide complete results.
The easiest canary in the coal mine for this is NSFW stuff. If I search for a popular character of which I know there’s lots of porn/hentai, with SafeSearch off, and do not get a heavy mix of SFW and NSFW results, I know that search engine is messing with those results, and is also definitely doing it with searches that are not so obvious.
