Many “alternative” search engines are better for privacy, but they are still vulnerable to censorship, because they rely on g**gle and m*crosoft’s indices for their search results. This isn’t a deep-hidden secret either, many of them disclose what search index they use on the “about” page, for example:

There are still search engines that (claim to) maintain their own index. Most surprisingly, br*ve:

  • Funderpants @lemmy.ca
    594·
    10 months ago

    I use Kagi, and while it does use google index, it also uses many other indexes and its own index. I wonder how this impacts censorship.

    https://help.kagi.com/kagi/search-details/search-sources.html

    Edit : Not much detail here but they do comment on it here :

    https://help.kagi.com/kagi/search-details/search-quality.html

    Avoiding Censorship and Bias

    We do our best to avoid censorship and bias. Some results from traditional sources will reflect biases, but they’ll be balanced by results from other sources. Also, we have built product features to help with bias reduction. For example, our “World News” Lens includes articles from respectable media outlets across the globe.

    One of the signals that does influence our ranking is the presence of ads or trackers. We penalize bloated sites regardless of their agendas.

    • balderdash
      941·
      10 months ago

      I like the idea, but I can’t justify $10 a month. Downvote me or whatever, but I’m broke and need to cut as many subscriptions as possible.

      • li10@lemmy.ml
        562·
        10 months ago

        That’s fair.

        You could argue that it’s worth the money to get better results and avoid Google, but with so many companies trying to take $10 a month you have to draw the line somewhere.

      • the_weez@midwest.social
        40·
        10 months ago

        No, I’m with you. $120 a year is too steep for searching for me. I like what they are trying to do but I don’t think the average person will spend that much.

        • BolexForSoup@kbin.social
          11·
          10 months ago

          People spend thousands of dollars a year on coffee which they use less frequently. If you can afford it it absolutely is worth it.

          • the_weez@midwest.social
            0·
            10 months ago

            I absolutely do not spend more than $999.99 a year on coffee and I drink it every day. I’m sure some people do.

            Both of those things are outside of my budget.

            • BolexForSoup@kbin.social
              1·
              10 months ago

              I don’t know how many qualifiers I need in order to avoid responses like this but I feel like it was pretty clear.

              I get a good deal doesn’t make something affordable. The point of my comment is that plenty of people - not necessarily you - can afford to pay for it and it is well worth it at $120/yr.

          • Vex_Detrause@lemmy.ca
            0·
            10 months ago

            I think we got spoiled with Google which is their goal. Undercut competitions then when there’s no competition then enshitificate.

      • Norgur@kbin.social
        162·
        10 months ago

        Why downvote? That’s a fair point. There is a free tier with a few free searches per year (2000 or something). You could sign up and use this budget whenever your search engine of choice fails you.

        • BolexForSoup@kbin.social
          1·
          10 months ago

          Why not? It’s a tool you sometimes use dozens of time in a single day.

          I mean this is the entire problem. You were used to free searches, we all were. But It wasn’t free. We are dealing with the repercussions now. So now you can pay to have a search engine that doesn’t give you those repercussions if you value it. If you don’t then of course $120 a year doesn’t make sense. That means you keep using Google search, or a free competitor like DDG. But to complain about the quality dropping and disregard for privacy or whatever bone you have to pick with Google and then be unwilling to spend $.30 USD a day on a concrete solution? I’m not sure what you want here.

      • Funderpants @lemmy.ca
        10·
        10 months ago

        Yea, I just think I either pay for something like Kagi, or I am subject to something like Google. I’m not sure there is a third way that pays for the servers and talent needed to deliver search results, but my imagination might just be limited.

      • Funderpants @lemmy.ca
        242·
        10 months ago

        Lol, I know how you feel. Not long ago there was suddenly a bunch of chatter about it on Lemmy and I was thinking the same thing, that it had to be marketing. But I’m a curious sort and I was so sick of bad google results so I tried it.

        Now that I have used Kagi I’m convinced it was organic chatter. I really do like it, I think it’s better, and if they offered money for posts I’d take that money because I’m paying $10 a month for a search engine, lol.

      • mac@infosec.pub
        92·
        10 months ago

        I thought this was a possibility at first, then I used it. The lad time is basically instant, the results are always good and it has a bunch of features with AI etc.

      • M137@lemmy.world
        2·
        10 months ago

        Or people just like it? This isn’t hard to understand and has always been a thing. When people find something they really like they will tell other people about it.

        • hardaysknight@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          10 months ago

          That’s possible, but when every comment mentioning it has a 1000 word count, it screams advertisement to me.

      • Funderpants @lemmy.ca
        162·
        10 months ago

        With Kagi I get what I want and sort through way less to no junk. With their lenses I can push reliable sources up and other sources down. I really like it.

        • NuXCOM_90Percent
          133·
          10 months ago

          Yeah. I hope that they provide a way to exclude Brave from the search engines (not optimistic considering the libertarian tech bro tantrum the lead dev threw but…).

          But I think the advantage is really the personalized results over anything else. Sometimes you get some REAL fucked up SEO-heavy results. So you just block that site. And then everything works.

          It DOES make me more than a bit concerned over how much data they have on me (especially as you need to use an access token to use it in an incognito window… where you are searching for the sketchiest shit) but… google already has that so…

            • NuXCOM_90Percent
              112·
              10 months ago

              Companies claim a lot of things. Let’s see how the first legal issue plays out

              • PopOfAfrica@lemmy.world
                6·
                10 months ago

                I will say part of the reason I find them more trustworthy is that their business model hinges on some sort of ounce of privacy. Google’s hinges on exactly the opposite.

                • NuXCOM_90Percent
                  102·
                  10 months ago

                  I strongly encourage reading up on the various VPNs and the like that charge people while still monitoring and tracking everything they do.

      • douglasg14b@lemmy.world
        2·
        10 months ago

        That and kagi does its own indexing unlike startpage, as well as its own page and data analysis for enriched queries and research.

        IMHO they add enough of their own value that you’re not going to get elsewhere that it’s worth paying for.