Whats the best search engine that looks similar to google
Im getting so sick and tired of Google rn. Reddit has become a better place to search for questions than Google has. I need a new search engine :(
No, I don't want Kagi either, I dont wanna to pay a subscription for a search engine just to get what I want. I tried all the others, Ecosia, Duckduckgo, etc... But they usually fall flat cus they just don't have some of the quirks that Google has that I like, specifically when it comes to image search.
I want a browser I can easily adjust to, which is why I want it to function/look like google. Yes, I did try searching for it, but I'm not getting anything reliable (how typical)
Also, if anyone can recommend me a browser better than Opera GX that's JUST as customizable as GX is, that'd be great too.
*Please don't bully me over using GX. Everyone keeps yapping about it being Chinese Spyware or something or other, but the level of customization I can do with it is a total godsend. I don't know any other browsers that let me have interactive wallpapers or keyboard sounds, let alone the silly screen filters! I like having complete personalization over my stuff, its fun for me.
Tbh... DDG in my opinion gives me way too much porn when it comes to image searching. And sure I could just turn on safe search, but I dont wanna do that and fear it may hide some images that aren't porn that I'd maybe wanna see
that-how? duckduckgo gives you more porn than other search engines? what are you searching for?
are you searching terms on the edge or something?
I don't have safe search on, use it. search function daily and I've never had an accidental porn return, or at least so rarely that I can't remember it happening.
How often has that happened though? That is, how often have you toggled the safe search to see if you still see the results you want?
You'd really be better off if you left safe search on and only turned it off when you haven't seen what you're expecting to see.
That is, unless your subconscious is really hoping for something salacious, you haven't caught onto that and you're having to find other justifications why you don't want to turn it on. You might want to look inward a bit there. (I'll save you the counter-analysis and say that occasionally I'm curious enough to turn it off and see what's there. Often to disappointment. Usually though, it stays on "moderate".)
No, I don't want Kagi either, I dont wanna to pay a subscription for a search engine just to get what I want.
Well
I tried all the others, Ecosia, Duckduckgo, etc... But they usually fall flat cus they just don't have some of the quirks that Google has that I like, specifically when it comes to image search.
Why does everything gotta be subscription based tho!
I just dont really wanna buy into that kinda stuff, even if it is good. Soon my ability to use the internet (not wifi) is gonna be subscription based :(
Internet access is already subscription-based. I agree with your sentiment. I hate subscription based pricing. But for me, all the other search engines had become so annoying that I was constantly displeased throughout the day, instead of enjoying my time online. So I tried Kagi, and it was good enough to keep.
DDG (Try their AI chat!) + Firefox ESR has been my combo. I find DDG does a poor job with local community or very recent results. I often need to switch to google for that. So I'm curious what people have to say. Before the war, I would have suggested Yandex but now I'm not so sure.
Firefox ESR is very customisable with the extensions. But I'm not aware of a solution to have interactive wallpapers. (You could probably make one if you're a tinkerer.)
There's mechvibes for system wise keyboard sounds (but you can't do better than just having a good keyboard)
I'm sure there's a Firefox extension for filters, but most browsers focus on actually being good browsers over random gimmicks so you might be out of luck. Value your privacy and your data
Have you tried Bing? I’ve been using Bing for over a decade now as my default search engine and while people give it crap, I’ve only had to go to Google a handful of times over this span of time and even then, I can’t remember a time that Google had what I was looking for either.
Bing is customizable so you can get rid of some of the fluff that comes with searches that you don’t want that bloats your results. Like you can get rid of the colorful background, the trending news sections, the Copilot LLM results, etc.
One plus that Bing Image search has had over Google for many years now is the ability to let you see the full screen image without doing any funky stuff. Like when you just want to load the jpg/png in the browser without the Google/Bing banner surrounding it…Bing Image search lets you do that with the click of a button. Google removed this feature years ago which was so shitty.
It’s not perfect, not like old Google perfect, but that combined with an adblocker like uBlock Origin and my PiHole works for me to remove from sponsored results (not all, unfortunately).
It has its own set of trackers too. I’m no fan of Microsoft and know this, but we’re at the bottom of the barrel with decent search engines anymore.
I like Bing for the other perks like trending news, Bing Rewards (no joke, I have cashed in for over $400 worth of free stuff from a PC VR headset to fast food gift cards just from doing daily searches), and I use Copilot from time to time as a quick ChatGPT alternative (using ChatGPT, but doesn’t require an account to use so good for a quick Incognito session if needed) and also nice with the history under your account. I prefer to use Copilot in Bing than the Windows app since I don’t want that crap installed to my computer and would rather keep it to the browser.
You may also check into extensions for whatever browser you end up going with. There are a few extensions that can help customize your search results like easily removing a website from the results, for example.