Now that we already know we are pretty much at the hands of one pupeteer, what options are there?
I already read about Kagi (apologies if mispelled) but I like to write as a hobby and 300 searches per month go fast.
What other options are there?
Edit:
For those who may be arriving now:
Kagi seems to be a good option for an alternative search engine; it is a paid service, for which I don’t have the €€€ right now. Many speak very well about it.
SearXNG is a thing as well, to my understanding a decentralized search system. Worth the try, in my opinion. If it’s something that is decentralized, it is worthy to support and divulge.
There is mojeek.com, supposedly not very good but any option that goes against the monopoly is worth the try! I’m going to try this one.
You should try Ecosia if you want to support reforestation efforts. Read somewhere in the thread it is part of the Bing ecosystem.
Yep is a thing as well. Somewhere in the thread, a lemmy points they use the search results for AI trainning. So… That is that.
And it seems there is a search engine by the name of dogpile.com.
Startpage is another search engine (portal?) suggested by another user. I’ve used it before and like it. Read somewhere it somehow piped a standard google search but removed tracking and ads.
and I just remembered Presearch.com. This is a really shady one (crypto warning!) that I suspect is a fork/collab with Brave Browser. I’ve used it, they have reward-per-search reward system (or had) where they give you crypto for every search. Good results, some that don’t come up neither on DDG nor Google.
p.p.s
Should I start categorizing these from “shady” to “worthy”?
p.p.s 2
Does anyone remember StumbleUpon? I know it was never a search engine to begin with but it was the best source of good internet content I ever got acquainted to.
I would suggest you to install a local instance of a LLM (mistral or llama3 for example) to widen your source of information. Go straight to Wikipedia instead of “googling” it if you don’t already.
Anyway, I didn’t know about kagi so I might take my own advice and give it a try.
That was one of the most out of the blue comments I have ever read. It sounded so… unreal. Something out of a sitcom. Then I read “sugartits” is the name of the lemmy you were replying to. That’s was really top mark. Kudos for you.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !technology@lemmy.world
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Okay.
Now that we already know we are pretty much at the hands of one pupeteer, what options are there?
I already read about Kagi (apologies if mispelled) but I like to write as a hobby and 300 searches per month go fast.
What other options are there?
Edit:
For those who may be arriving now:
p.p.s Should I start categorizing these from “shady” to “worthy”?
p.p.s 2 Does anyone remember StumbleUpon? I know it was never a search engine to begin with but it was the best source of good internet content I ever got acquainted to.
Can we get something like that back?
That’s a nice hobby
I would suggest you to install a local instance of a LLM (mistral or llama3 for example) to widen your source of information. Go straight to Wikipedia instead of “googling” it if you don’t already.
Anyway, I didn’t know about kagi so I might take my own advice and give it a try.
How big are they, and what do I need to use them well?
Most of 7b-8b models run just fine in 4bits quant and won’t use more than 4 or 5 GB of VRAM.
The only important metric is the amount of VRAM as the model must be loaded in VRAM for fast inference.
You could use CPU and RAM but it is really painfully slow.
If you got an Apple Silicon Mac it could be even simpler.
Just pay the extra for unlimited searches. It’s not much money, especially if it’s a tool for work.
It’s a hobby as it is.
If I ever manage to sell enough copies of it to be able to pay for a Kagi subscription, I’ll do it and make it public knowledge.
Listen sugartits, some of us don’t have much money. So if it’s not much money we still don’t have it
(Mostly i just wanted to point out your username by using it in a comment)
That was one of the most out of the blue comments I have ever read. It sounded so… unreal. Something out of a sitcom. Then I read “sugartits” is the name of the lemmy you were replying to. That’s was really top mark. Kudos for you.
You should add startpage.com to your list
Done!
I jumped back on ecosia. It’s nice there, but I’m sure there are issues that a non tech person like me may not know about
Read somewhere on the thread Ecosia is part of Bing ecosystem.
It is. That or it was very coincidentally down for the exact amount of time as DDG.
brave search is pretty good: https://search.brave.com/