It's not just you: Google searches are getting worse. It's not just that annoying new AI box at the top of the results page that takes a long time to load and tends to be gibberish. Additionally, the overall quality of search results appears to have declined over time, even as promoted results and ads take up more of the user interface.
Despite the search giant's ubiquity, you're not locked into Google. There are many alternative search engines. None are perfect, but each has merit worth considering. Here are five options that will suit most people's needs. Remember: You don't need to switch to relying solely on one or the other. In fact, it's better to try a few different options or even continue using different search engines for different purposes.
Duck Go
DuckDuckGo is the oldest privacy-oriented Google alternative, and it remains one of the best in terms of functionality. The service is free and relies on ad revenue, but the ads are based entirely on what you're searching for at that moment, meaning you won't be tracked over time between search sessions.
I, a huge nerd, love that you can browse search results entirely using your keyboard - just type something into the search bar, use the up and down arrow keys to jump to any selection on the results page, and press "Enter" Open it. And then there's Bang, which allows you to search other sites directly from the DuckDuckGo search bar - for example, typing "!w" at the beginning of a query will launch a search in Wikipedia, bypassing DuckDuckGo entirely. There are over 13,000 of these shortcuts, allowing you to directly search everything from Reddit to WolframAlpha.
The service maintains a good reputation for privacy, at least when it comes to the search engine itself; there has been some controversy involving the DuckDuckGo browser, which blocks most tracking due to an agreement between the two companies, but Specifically, tracking by Microsoft is not blocked. Some users are also not interested in the "Chat" tab integrated with OpenAI. But it’s worth noting that AI suggestions don’t show up in DuckDuckGo’s standard searches.
kaji
Kagi is a paid search engine without any advertising. In theory, the subscription model allows it to provide high-quality search results without developers being tempted by advertising. The engine has won praise from the likes of Cory Doctorow and 404 Media's Jason Koebler, which is not bad.
One feature that people like is the ability to prevent matches in URLs that you don't like from appearing in search results, which can be useful if you find that a particular site is consistently spammy. There's also a tool for searching for podcasts, which I haven't seen elsewhere. The main disadvantage is that you have to pay. Plans start at $5/month, but only offer 300 searches. Unlimited searches start at $10/month. You can try the service for yourself and decide whether it's worth paying for - there's a free version, but it's limited to 100 total searches.
There's been some notable controversy surrounding the company, mostly related to the way it operates, and the company recently received about $2 million in investment funding after boasting about being self-reliant. Additionally, the CEO chafes at any criticism the company receives. Other than that, the search engine itself seems to work well, so if you're willing to pay, give it a try.
brave
Brave Search is a search engine developed by the team behind the Brave browser, which is famous for its built-in ad blocking feature. It differs from DuckDuckGo by having its own search index built from the ground up (DuckDuckGo combines its own index with data from Bing and many other companies).
Brave also offers a Goggles feature that allows you to use custom filters to promote or demote media based on factors such as topic and political persuasion. I find some of this to be overly simplistic - most websites are not the same thing - but you can inspect the code to see what's included in any Goggle, so at least everything is very transparent. There's also an optional built-in artificial intelligence engine - the ability to enable specific searches by simply pressing after entering a search query. The main drawback, in my opinion, is the lack of any map functionality.
Brave has a good reputation, despite the CEO's controversial history and the company being accused of selling copyrighted data to train artificial intelligence, so take all that into account.
ecosystem
Ecosia is a free, ad-supported search engine that donates all profits to climate action. They are very transparent about it - you can read the financial reports yourself. The search itself is powered by Bing and works well.
confused.ai
Confusion is a completely different beast. Rather than placing AI-generated text at the top of the results, it serves almost exclusively AI-generated text and provides links as citations for all points. You can ask a question and then follow up, which is useful for refining your results, and clicking on the citation will give you some interesting links. I found that Perplexity seemed better at spotting and understanding sarcasm and jokes than Google's AI bot, although obviously you should test it yourself to see what comes back.
Clearly, anyone who cares about AI shouldn't be using Perplexity, and there will undoubtedly be privacy issues with the browser in the long run - it has raised $165 million in venture capital, and unless investors are willing This won't happen. Expect big rewards, and we all know where this sort of thing usually leads. But for now, it's an interesting tool, doesn't have any ads, and may be useful for certain queries.
Or, use Google differently
If you don't want to give up on Google's search results, but hate the current state of the service, there are a few options. Startpage is a privacy-oriented service that uses Google's search index to serve results without tracking. There's also UDM14.com, a simple website that redirects you to Google's web view. Both URLs are worth keeping as bookmarks for when you still need to Google them.
