It’s getting a bit ridiculous out here. I’m using DuckDuckGo but since it aggregates its search from other sources, it’s also gotten bad recently. Is there a search out there that blocks domains that spam AI? Extra points if there’s something like Ublock Origin that filters things based on a community-made list.
Edit: I’m aware of Kagi but it’s pretty expensive and I’m not a fan that they, too, host their own AI tools.
I think the best way to make the Internet less sh*tty is to get away from Google search.
I like the SearX search engine. It gives old-school, relevant search results, not google ranked ones.
https://search.inetol.net/
It’s also spread out over many separate instances, so you can pick the one that best suits your search needs:
https://searx.space/
Oh damn. That was like a proper internet 2.0 kinda experience. A feller could get used to that.
I selfhost it on my laptop, pretty easy, and I always have it just the way I want it. Still pushing shit uphill with the AI crap, but better than any one search engine (it amalgamates many). Relevant to OP I have a large block list enabled, but it’s very much a moving target.
I’ve had good luck as a back up to Duck Duck Go with Mojeek. It’s so old school, it doesn’t always know what you want, but I sometimes want that.
I’ve found Mojeek to be a bit hit and miss; but one thing I really appreciate is that they actually do the indexing and searching themselves (whereas pretty much every other search site uses Bing or Google behind the scenes). So although Mojeek may not be ideal, they are at least making an effort to be independent.