Privacy @lemmy.ml TribblesBestFriend @startrek.website 2w ago

Startpage or DuckDuckGo

So. I’ve been using startpage for a while and was wondering if it were better over DuckDuckGo ?

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I know it's a controversial take around these parts, but I've fallen in love with Kagi.

If I had to rank search engines by results, in my opinion/experience:

Kagi > Brave > Startpage/Google > DDG/Ecosia/Bing

Kagi/Brave/Startpage/DDG all offer privacy to some degree. I haven't really fucked with SearXNG though I'm sure its awesome.
- I got an article about polar bears as 7th result for the search "Monkey". Great...
  
  I mean sure, if you ignore the first 20 or so relevant links before that, you're right, that one does show up when searching for monkey (proof)
  
  You can add literally any other word to the search and that one result disappears. Even bear monkey. Regardless of the fact that no one searches for just the word monkey, I find Kagi's rankings consistently prioritize more quality and informative content.
  
  Comparing to other search engines, Google is obsessed with the movie The Monkey, Bing really wants you to watch Monkey Baby Bon Bon live what looks like a nightmare life, Brave gives an OK mix of content, still with a The Monkey focus, and Kagi gives you a really solid mix of results across the monkey spectrum for such a vague query (plus one whole link to an article about polar bears).
  
  If the polar bear result specifically bothers you, you can report it to Kagi and I'm sure they'll fix it. I'm still happy with my choice though.
  
  Edit: decided to check DDG as well - I'd written it off in my head as just Bing, but the results were slightly different - the Monkey Bon Bon nightmare fuel was pretty significantly demoted, and for better or worse, DDG was blissfully unaware of the movie The Monkey. Not a bad result overall.
  
  And, 12h later, I checked back and the polar bear result is gone. Either it was a glitch in the matrix or the Kagi team has eyes everywhere.
- I’ve been disappointed by many and don’t trust commercial space.
  
  Dig around and you will find no so pleasant information on DDG and Kagi. I suspect same is true for any business backed search.
  
  I used both and eventually run into negative information, which made me reconsider both. I started with DDG, then Kagi.
  
  It is SearXNG all the way for me now and there are no regrets so far. Other post on it is the best option.
  
  What negative information have you found about Kagi?
  
  Owner is spending all resources into AI neglecting actual search.
  
  There was something else, but I forgot.
- Why it's controversial? Kagi not secure/private enough?
  
  People don't like the idea of paying for stuff they're used to getting for free
  
  Privacy Guides does not include Kagi in their recommendations because an account is required in order to search, despite it being against their privacy policy to log, and despite the fact that they allow "no-log" VPNs, messaging apps, etc. which all require accounts. They're starting to soften to Kagi with their new Privacy Pass feature, however they seem hung up on the fact you need an account to generate private tokens. Accounts can be made with burner emails and paid with crypto.
  
  Kagi leadership has had some controversial opinions on search censorship (they're fairly blanket opposed to it) and other social issue in the past
  
  In addition to search, Kagi offers AI tools, which is a turn-off for a lot of people
  
  To me, none of these things are deal breakers, but some folks are eager for an excuse to complain.

29 comments