this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023
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Privacy

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I have used SearXNG for a while, but I switched to LibreX after the search engine started glitching. Recently, though, LibreX has stopped returning any results. I am currently on Mojeek, but the results aren't that great.

I have also tried Qwant, but I wasn't too keen on it. Startpage will be impractical, as I use a VPN and this engine often blocks me because of it. I don't want to use Brave Search for a number of reasons. MetaGer has too many important features behind its paywall. I'm not sure about DuckDuckGo, but I could use it if there was no other option.

Any suggestions, or am I being too picky?

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[–] Pantherina@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago

I have to say I used Random Searx a lot, startpage as Backup. And as VPNs are getting mainstream, it gets a pain in the ass. Mullvad Leta sucks too kinda. Now I use duckduckgo alone and actually never need my specially configured SearXNG search providers, although useful.

I have to say, I use a lot of search engines. Using the "Add custom search" Addon on Firefox you can easily add any URL containing a search word to your browser.

I maintain some lists of search engines that need updating.

[–] Templa@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I tried using SearXNG for a few weeks but I kept needing to chance instances. I'm using DuckDuckGo for now.

[–] pacoboyd@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

You can self host for a better experience

[–] H2207@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm using Startpage, and I also have a self-hosted Adguard DNS on my network so that helps a bit too.

[–] Devjavu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I'd say give SearXNG another try. Whats the issue exactly?

[–] Spaghetti_Hitchens@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I used SearXNG for over a month but found myself routinely returning to Google for either tech problem searches or because it was returning irrelevant results for homonyms.

I would love to return to it. Do you have any tips for better search results?

[–] chayleaf@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago
  1. Depending on your language, use language codes like :en or :de. Very important if your native language isn't English.
  2. You can choose the search engine using DDG shebangs like !g (or redirect yourself to Google using !!g
  3. If SearxNG using Google gives you much worse results, it just means Google has that much info about you. Nonetheless, that's not my experience
[–] Devjavu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

You can choose which search engines you actually want to use. SearXNG is a meta search engine, which means it just queries other search engines for their results. Lots of it's results are some random wikis which most of the time do not help.

[–] hobs@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

I use MetaGer as my daily driver and you.com for deeper niche searches

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago

As main search, among others, I use Andisearch, it's an AI search assistant, with own lenguage model and one of the most private search engine. own reader mode for websites in the search results, so you don't need to visit it, you also can watch YouTube and others sandboxed right in the search results, anonymous use, no ads, no tracking, no logs.

https://andisearch.com

Easy add it to your search engine list in your browser https://andisearch.com/?query=%s

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