1y ago

Search engine without SEO garbage?

Been looking for a search engine that isn't plauged with SEO garbage every time I look for anything. Been using DDG for quite a long time now, and I'm starting to get dissatisfied with results. It seems like more and more results are just companies trying to make their way to the top of the search results instead of anything organic. It's even worse when I look for any kind of service or product.

Looking for as close to 100% organic results as possible.

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I don't think you'll find anything. Search engines locate relevant results by design. The only way they can do that is by interpreting the contents of public-facing webpages. There are some things they can do to combat obvious keyword stuffing, but ultimately, overly SEO'd sites are going to work around it with content that appears relevant but really isn't (think recipe websites with 20 paragraphs and pictures of bullshit nobody cares about and the actual content you want to see at the bottom ... that kind of thing).
- A search engine that used Bayesian filtering could work, with users providing feedback on results. This approach works well for a spam filter (and gamed search results is essentially a form of spam), and as spammers change tactics to try to game it, the bayesian algorithm adapts.

https://kagi.com/ if you haven't heard of it. Has been working well for me. I went from DDG to this.
- Same here.
  
  Same here too
- 1 for kagi. I tried it out with their trial offer and liked it enough to stay with it. Used DDG before that.
- 100% kagi. I only need google if looking for images/video. But otherwise kagi is significantly better than anything I’ve ever used. Worth the $10/mo I pay

SearxNg is a meta search engine. You can combine results from Google, Bing and DDG. The most repeated results will be sorted first eliminating the SEO

so yeah, Google is Google, the very definition of SEO – to the point now they will completely ignore your query to show you “relevant” results
and Bing is Microsoft, ’nuff said – although I hear they seem to be THE choice for porn searches …
people have been claiming DuckDuckGo has become just a frontend for Bing which is why their results have been declining 🤷
ad tech company System1 owns a majority stake of Startpage – apparently they’ve mollified PrivacyTools that it would not impact Startpage’s privacy focused mission
Qwant out of France actually seems to be stepping up as a good netizen, not only focusing on privacy but also investing in privacy initiatives in EU
otherwise you’re stuck bouncing around ~~SearX~~ SearXNG instances – Google and Bing REALLY don’t like meta search engines and will regularly block overactive instances
EDIT: looks like SearX is pretty much dead and had been replaced by SearXNG
- Qwant "The search engine that doesn't know anything about you, …"
  Clicks on link: "Unfortunately we are not yet available in your country."
  🤔
  
  I mean … I suppose that’s marginally better than Google’s frontpage telling me what town I’m in?
  
  I guess any site will have access to the address that is used to access them. The question is what do they do with it. Maybe Qwant has a bot that scans addresses and sends back this message if they are not operating in a specific country. Important thing is that they don't put any cookie in your navigator and don't keep any information after you've left.
  
  Use a VPN
- Qwant claims not to know anything about me, yet I've noticed its results are very much tailored to my location.
  I realize this is just data any site can easily see based on my IP, but still it's one of my pet peeves. If I want to see information tailored to my general location, then I'll add the name of the location in the search field. I really hate how search engines try to be so "smart."
  I'll give you an example of why it bugs me: The first time I ever looked at Tik Tok, I saw nothing but right-wing MAGA content, certainly based on the political climate where I live. I don't like sites trying to determine my interests based on the fact that I'm in [location].
  The only ones that don't seem to tailor results based on my location are SearX instances and Startpage. I have the same misgivings about Startpage, though I use it fairly regularly, and I haven't noticed anything questionable, in spite of the fact that I deeply distrust System1. There's no way they bought into it out of the goodness of their hearts. We may still be in the "bait" stage of a bait-and-switch.
  
  What's most annoying about the "tailored experience" is that they presume to know what you're looking for, even though you directly told them what to show you. They don't give a fuck about relevancy, they're going to show you whatever is going to make them the most money, which usually means corporate ad crap, and outrage news. Plus if they show you shit results then you'll search multiple times and they'll get to show you 4 times the ads.
- These points seem to mirror my experience for the most part. DuckDuckGo has also been going downhill because certain search modifiers don't work anymore. Microsoft raised the price of API queries which in turn made it too expensive for DuckDuckGo to maintain certain ones. I mostly enjoyed it because it gives you access to Bing's search results without the user-hostile UX garbage Microsoft loves to put on all its products. These days I'm using Kagi. It's been about six months now and I'm really enjoying it.
- I'd be curious to understand what Qwant brings extra to the table compared to DDG. Backend is the same, results seem quite similar and it's missing some things like math and conversion quick tools.
- and then there is monocles 👍

Kagi is how I search now. Very, very occasionally search for something on Google in specific circumstances, buy otherwise it's all Kagi. Web has become a lot less noisy for me, and they label each search result with how many ads/trackers the site uses. Definitely have found smaller, "quieter" sites that have given me much better info, that hasn't been paid for.
Especially good for tech-review searches.
- I'm hearing a lot of recommendations for Kagi. Maybe when I can afford another subscription service, but that time isn't right now.
  I'm also not a fan of having all my searches potentially tied to one account, even if they say they respect privacy. Makes me very weary to try it.
  
  $5/month is very steep, and it only includes 300 searches. There's no way Google makes that per month off of advertising to me, and I really don't see how $1/month wouldn't be more than enough to cover their costs.
  
  Just remember that when something is free, you're the product.
- I second this. It's paid, and I've only been using it a week, but I like it.

SearX or yacy are probably the best fit for this if you're looking to avoid manipulated results. Qwant seems pretty good too but I have only been using it for about a month.

Kagi, as others mentioned is good but need to pay. Logical. I used to have SearxNG instance but I tend to use search engines in general less and less so no worth to maintain it, currently using DDG or BraveSearch

metaphor is pretty good. it actually uses llm's as a way to generate links, rather than an unsourced mess of text.
- Interesting, thanks

You need to be more specific about what you mean by "SEO garbage" because every search engine is going to put "SEOed" pages higher up.
- I guess we all know that mean, some page are filled with just a bunch of keyword and no content to just raising it SEO and for visitor traffic.

I use Ecosia which is a reskin of bing that plants trees with your search results. I've never had any issues with low quality results, but maybe we have different ideas of what that means.
- How are they dealing with your privacy? I’m not an extremist on that front but it was such a relief to stop seeing adds about everything I Googled when I switched to DDG.
  
  They don't track you.
  https://www.ecosia.org/privacy
  We only run “context-based” ads, meaning that they are selected as a function of your search term. If you search for “green bank” you likely are interested in green banking ads.
  Google and Bing itself operate very differently. They do what critics call “surveillance-based” advertisements. Before serving you an ad they might look at what you searched for in the past, what emails you wrote, which videos you watched, and what you bought with your credit card. They probably are also taking your search terms in order to influence what banner advertisements to show you in their office products or elsewhere.

swisscows?

43 comments