Google executives acknowledged this month they need to do a better job surfacing user-generated content after the recent Reddit blackouts.
Google executives acknowledged this month they need to do a better job surfacing user-generated content after the recent Reddit blackouts.
I’ve started using DDG as defacto since the last 3 months. Use Google search only for sports updates because they’ve good widgets for those.
I gave an effort to DDG for months and I really wanted to like that but it hasn’t been that good for me. Image search especially is really subpar, but also in general searches a lot of times I had to resort to using !g after messing around trying to actually find what I wanted.
I don’t like Google but I have to admit that their principle product is above the competition right now. I hope it’ll change but honestly, with adblock if Google search is the only service I’m using from them and it’s working out I’m kinda okay with that.
If they start plastering their results with even more ads tho, I’ll definetly jump ship in a heartbeat.
You might want to give Searx a shot. It’s a FOSS, self-hosted (with several public instances) search engine that can pull results from several other search providers while stripping ads/tracking/personal data.
I’ve been using DDG for a few years now. Occasionally when I can’t get the results I need there I try a !g search to see if Google will give better results. They never do. I have no idea where this “DDG search results are bad” argument comes from.
Personal experience, and having a much better experience after switching to Startpage
Try Brave search… It’s so underrated. They have made big improvements in the last few months. As a long time Googler I use brave about 98% of the time now and have it set as my default. I never did like DDG but brave actually gives quality relevant results.