this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2023
144 points (95.6% liked)

Technology

60058 readers
1679 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

TL;DR - which privacy-focused search engine do people recommend, preferably one that can also easily be used as a default option in Safari?

I ditched Google in about 2016ish I would guess, and since then have used DDG as my default search engine.

As someone entrenched in the Apple ecosystem, it’s always seemed like a sound choice, as it’s one of the search engines built in to Safari on both iOS and macOS.

After spending a bit more time recently playing around with and updating my Docker containers, I started hosting a Whoogle container, which seemed to work pretty well, but I don’t see many out there talking about it, so not sure how good it actually is. I then tried a SearXNG container, but either had it misconfigured or just wasn’t getting many search results back.

At the moment I’m trying out Startpage, but I know there are potential privacy concerns since they were part-bought in 2019 by a US ad-tech company.

I’m also playing around with different browsers at the moment, flicking between Safari, Firefox and Brave. At which point I stumbled across Brave Search, which seems pretty promising.

So, which search engines do you all recommend?

UPDATE: Probably should’ve done a poll! But latest (if I’ve captured everything correctly) is:

  • DuckDuckGo - 10
  • Qwant / SearXNG / Kagi / Brave - 4
  • Startpage / Ecosia - 2
  • Google - 1

As to my other questions around browsers:

  • Majority seem to use Firefox
  • Some mentions of Brave
  • One mention of Arc
(page 2) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Blaze@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] schmurnan@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks, I’ll take a look. I didn’t know about that post.

[–] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I tried ecosia and startpage, the results through both are just 95% garbage. Duck Duck Go seems to be okay.

I use Vivaldi as my browser, includes ad block and various useful, if bulky, features.

[–] Fireplant@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

For search engine, I go with SearXNG, and for web browser, Mull. Or hardened Firefox, on PC.

[–] schmurnan@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you use a self-hosted SearXNG, or one of the other hosted instances?

[–] Fireplant@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Self-hosted under a VPN would be the way to go if you want to be 100% sure.

The problem with public instances is that you can't really know what the owner does with the data. There are safe ones, and malicious ones. I'd just look for one that has a good reputation.

[–] schmurnan@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah I have a self-hosted one but I’m struggling to get results. I posted under another comment on this thread, was just gonna ask for some support troubleshooting.

Completely agree though, self hosting over public instances all day long.

[–] Kodama@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I use Firefox as main browser, but I discovered for my use case google provides the best results without needing to setup every workstation e.g. 2 home PCs, 1 mobile, 2 for work. And that I need to use all main 3 browsers. Also google provide good service with functions to quickly make currency conversions, simple math ekvations etc which even Bing is far behind.

"AI" services will change this but for now it's too slow.

But in general for me, I have given up that fact to try stay private many years back, it's all a dream just like living off grid, 99% of would not survive 4 days.

But the information can be scrambled, ie shift user accounts, services, software etc. It would also provide better competition due to the userbase is moving around... But most of us are too lazy or afraid to lose history, backups, photos etc. Just see how many that can't just delete an old reddit account due to the time spent to reach an level you aren't ready to leave. To lead to famous qoute I follow online

"Don't let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner"

Its all about supporting the services you like and are trying to be an counterweight to the other common commercial services... Meaning we need to found/pay for good services, privacy is a luxary looking on the whole user base.

Companies, I based on an idea, but exist to make someone money and if it's tracks it will make many people money and in the end majority will lead the company to earn money and leave the base idea behind.

[–] Tane@feddit.nl 1 points 1 year ago

I use presearch. Pretty happy with it. Never paid out my rewards, they're just growing

[–] popekingjoe@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Been using Qwant for a few years. Good enough for 90% of searches imo. For whatever's left, I'll use DDG, Google in incognito, or Bing.

[–] zer0nix@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago

privacy focused ... called qwant

Hmm.

[–] HughJanus@lemmy.ml -1 points 1 year ago
load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›