this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2023
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Google search isn't useless. It's getting worse but still Google is the best search. For a lot of general searches, Duckduckgo and Kagi have been sufficient for me. "What year did WW2 end" "what is the population of Crimea" "north Korean famine 1990s"
But for example I had a picture of a specific motor an employee sent me that I had to find a replacement for online. It's a niche motor we use for a large air compressor. All I had was some model / serial numbers. I tried plugging in different variations of the numbers and "motor" into both Duckduckgo and Kagi with no luck.
On Google, the first result was a PDF of a Honda motor guide that had every single niche Honda motor and I was able to find the model name of the exact motor I needed, which allowed me to find a viable replacement on Ebay.
It hurts me to say it, but the other web searches still haven't reached total parity with Google. I use Duckduckgo as my primary and then when it doesn't find me what I need, I go to Google.
I would use Kagi but after it couldn't find me the engine, I stopped paying my monthly subscription. Until then I was happy with it, but if I'm paying for a service and it isn't any better than the free options..
That's why you can add !g to your search query when you didn't find anything on Brave or DDG
Thanks for the tip, that sounds more convenient than opening Google in a new tab
You could use a SearX instance. It includes google's results.
For what it's worth I'm not saying that - it's just a common argument I've seen online lately in these spaces. I don't actually know if it's true because I don't use Google Search.
You can use Startpage to do a Google search by proxy. Startpage passes your search query to Google and returns the results to you without having to use Google directly.