r/searchengines

With the Google I/O announcement receiving backlash over shoving AI into ours, what is the alternative way to say "Just google it"?

I’ve been reading through a lot of posts here about search engines, and I’m trying to get a better frame of reference from people who actually care about this topic.

What search engine do you currently use daily, and what does it do well enough that keeps you using it?

+ I always see post/comments on good searches but what does that really look like to you, is it minimal bias on results , is it accuracy of the results or does it really come down to finding niche content you otherwise wouldn't find on other engines. Also if a site like that exist how segregated would the ads need to be if you want to keep the service running. Or would you prefer a pay per search model

Also, what does your current search engine not have that you wish it did? For example: better exact-match results, stronger search operators, less SEO spam, less ad pressure, better privacy, its own index, better discovery of smaller websites, better Reddit/forum results, better image/video search, cleaner UI, etc.

More broadly, what do you currently hate about the search engine ecosystem?

And if you believe there was a “golden age” of search engines, when was it? What made that era feel better, more accurate, or more useful compared to now?

I’m asking because I see a lot of good points scattered across different posts here, and I thought it would be useful to consolidate people’s opinions in one place. I’m also trying to get inspired by what people think search should actually be, instead of just accepting the current Google/Bing/DDG/4get/Brave/Kagi/etc. landscape as-is.

Not trying to start a brand war. I’m more interested in what features, tradeoffs, and design choices actually matter to serious search users.

Disclaimer: I am not a certified tech nerd. I'm just absolutely frustrated with AI being forced into everything and trying to find an alternative.

A while ago I ditched google and chrome due to the enshittyfication via AI summaries. Switched to Vivaldi as default browser but can't find a reliable search engine that's anti-ai and not just "you can switch it off (we may or may not still generate an AI response that just isn't displayed to you)".

I'm using Ecosia currently and I've heard it used to be without any AI bullshit but apparently folded because now there's an AI chatbot option (which, in my opinion, contradicts their objective of not destroying the environment). AI results are the next tab in search results (where I would usually expect images which has lead to me almost clicking it by mistake).

I tried Mojeek for a while but either I don't know how to use it or it's just not too good at it's job. Image search is basically useless. Additionally it flags any searches in ukrainian as error 403 - Forbidden ("Your network appears to be sending automated queries so we can't process your search at this time") (no it's not that it doesn't work for non-English at all, searches in Polish are fine)(I usually use English on the web anyway, but forgive me for wanting to look up a recipe for a traditional dish from my home).

For now, I use Ecosia on my phone and Ecosia or Mojeek on laptop.

Are there any anti-AI search engines?

I've spent HOURS to find any single ethical search engine that doesn't either have AI or is affiliated to google/microsoft/etc and genuinely there doesn't seem to be one. They're all plagued by horrible bs: startpage, ecosia, duckduckgo, yandex, presearch (what were they thinking with the doppelganger feature?!) and the list goes on...

So at this point does it even matter which search engine I use? What if I just keep resorting to Google without an account and block all ads and AI with extensions? Would that stop counting as boycotting?

Something I’ve noticed working better lately for negative Page 1 results:

Instead of publishing tons of rushed content, it seems more effective to build stronger topical relevance around the brand/entity itself. Once enough related assets, mentions, and structured context exist, the negative result often starts losing visibility over time.

One interesting thing to check is Google’s Natural Language API demo. If you run a negative article through it, the “Entities” section shows which topics/context Google associates with that page. That can be useful for understanding why it ranks the way it does and what surrounding topics may matter algorithmically.

Curious if anyone else here has tested similar approaches or seen different results.

i'm not the most tech savvy person and get viruses very often. the most annoying virus i ever got was a few years ago when i got a really sticky virus that changed my search engine to duckduckgo. it took MONTHS including some safemode bootup shenangigans to figure out how to get rid of it, but i literally couldnt find anything else that the virus was doing aside from changing my search engine and not letting me set it back to google, at least on a surface/task manager level.

i've avoided duckduckgo ever since, thinking that it was something that is somehow worse than google for privacy and collecting your data, but now that i'm looking for anti-ai alternative search engines every post i see has that supposed 'virus' site as a top tier recommendation! is there any reason aside from "iTs BeTtEr ThAn GoOgLe" as to why people use it, or any ideas as to what the everloving hell that virus was doing with duckduckgo if it is safe to use???

Hi, I created a website and before it launched I added a second language (spanish) and then realized that that was unnecessary since google can just translate it and didnt think anything about it until about a week after I published it and it had a /en in all my english pages. I found that to be annoying so I went back and deleted the spanish pages so that the /en was removed from the site but ever since I did that, if you try to google my website it pops up with a 404 error because all of the links take you to a link with a /en (even though what appears on the google searches doesnt show the /en - it just automatically does it)

does any one know how to help with that so that google can take them to my current site (without the /en)? Or help direct me to a post/page that could? Also Im completely new to all of this so if you could speak to me like Im 5 id really appreciate it haha

I was manually using searches like:

site.com "username"

to find public Instagram posts/reels indexed by Google, and eventually decided to turn it into a small side project:

https://instascout.dev/

The idea is simple:
enter an Instagram username and the app surfaces publicly indexed Instagram URLs from search engines in a cleaner way.

Current experiments:

• reel/post discovery
• cached search results
• indexed URL filtering
• archived/deleted public URLs
• improving search quality

Tech stack:

• Lovable for rapid MVP
• serverless backend
• search-engine-based indexing approach