I will be honest, say there’s a new law that says on every device, users have the initial choice to select between any search engine, they’ll probably choose google anyways because most of these people have grown up that way.
Make a better alternative and people will come. Ddg is ok but it still is basically a reskinned Bing and Bing itself isn’t that good. Other search engines aren’t as polished yet either
Not many people want to (or can) shell out 10 $/month for a search engine. I’m not saying it’s pointless, I’m simply saying that few people would do it.
That’s why I self-host SearXNG. And have enabled several other “underdog” search engines like Mojeek and Marginalia. On my devices I’m using Redirect Web for Safari to send any search request to Ecosia (configured in my Safaris) to my SearXNG instance. Works great for me!
Those same people probably have no problem paying more than that for YouTube Premium for an ad-free experience. Truth is, ad-supported search will always go to shit because it’s in direct competition with its own product. It’s the same reason YouTube with ads keeps getting worse.
Because according to their perception “search” has less value than “watch”, which may make sense if one seldom really uses a search engine (i.e., they just use the same 3-4 websites).
I don’t know why you’re being downvoted, you’re right. The value prop is different for different people. But I use search a lot more than I use YouTube, so I pay for the former and not the latter. I think that over time, people will get more used to the idea of paying for search. Not everyone, but plenty of people who want the premium experience it offers. I know I could never go back.
People here loves to downvote for every little shit they disagree with… And they say Reddit is toxic…
Anyway, I don’t care. I just disable “show score” in settings and let the kids play.
Back to the topic, I don’t use youtube at all, I don’t like watching videos. I think Kagi is a great idea, but honestly 10 €/month is a lot of money for me at the moment, so I’m just self-hosting SearXNG and call it a day.
Well, I just vaguely remember the times before dynamic search engines came along, when it was all just manually compiled lists of websites. It might be nice to have some of those again, not to fully replace dynamic search engines but as an addition to it. I guess those awesome… lists on GitHub for some programming topics are like it.
I switched from DuckDuckGo to Startpage and it has been much better. Problem is, Startpage is just a reskin of google without the AI crap and fewer ads so there is no real escape.
It has been proven to work, and the idea is not to make people choose others it is to encourage competition. How would you get your better product in front of most people if not for it being a requirement to be showcased. There are so mamy people using default everything on anything they have ever bought
I will be honest, say there’s a new law that says on every device, users have the initial choice to select between any search engine, they’ll probably choose google anyways because most of these people have grown up that way.
Make a better alternative and people will come. Ddg is ok but it still is basically a reskinned Bing and Bing itself isn’t that good. Other search engines aren’t as polished yet either
I’m happy with Kagi. I feel like it is equal to Google in it’s prime.
Not many people want to (or can) shell out 10 $/month for a search engine. I’m not saying it’s pointless, I’m simply saying that few people would do it.
That’s why I self-host SearXNG. And have enabled several other “underdog” search engines like Mojeek and Marginalia. On my devices I’m using Redirect Web for Safari to send any search request to Ecosia (configured in my Safaris) to my SearXNG instance. Works great for me!
Sam . Mine is hosted on my RPi. Not ideal, I know, but at least it strips out tracking bits from the upstream engines.
Those same people probably have no problem paying more than that for YouTube Premium for an ad-free experience. Truth is, ad-supported search will always go to shit because it’s in direct competition with its own product. It’s the same reason YouTube with ads keeps getting worse.
Because according to their perception “search” has less value than “watch”, which may make sense if one seldom really uses a search engine (i.e., they just use the same 3-4 websites).
I don’t know why you’re being downvoted, you’re right. The value prop is different for different people. But I use search a lot more than I use YouTube, so I pay for the former and not the latter. I think that over time, people will get more used to the idea of paying for search. Not everyone, but plenty of people who want the premium experience it offers. I know I could never go back.
People here loves to downvote for every little shit they disagree with… And they say Reddit is toxic… Anyway, I don’t care. I just disable “show score” in settings and let the kids play.
Back to the topic, I don’t use youtube at all, I don’t like watching videos. I think Kagi is a great idea, but honestly 10 €/month is a lot of money for me at the moment, so I’m just self-hosting SearXNG and call it a day.
Luckily Google is working tirelessly on making their own search product worse every year.
It honestly might already be worse
You think it is bad now? Just wait for the new and enshittified Google Search 2026.
Dunno how long you’ve been online, but you should’ve seen searching before Google came along… it’s still better now.
But, there was not much tracking back then…
Well, I just vaguely remember the times before dynamic search engines came along, when it was all just manually compiled lists of websites. It might be nice to have some of those again, not to fully replace dynamic search engines but as an addition to it. I guess those awesome… lists on GitHub for some programming topics are like it.
I switched from DuckDuckGo to Startpage and it has been much better. Problem is, Startpage is just a reskin of google without the AI crap and fewer ads so there is no real escape.
Some people are just starting to get their first iPhones and Macs TODAY. We’re not all old farts on the internet as much as we’d like to think so.
It has been proven to work, and the idea is not to make people choose others it is to encourage competition. How would you get your better product in front of most people if not for it being a requirement to be showcased. There are so mamy people using default everything on anything they have ever bought