With no ad blocker, for any query I run, ads fill the whole screen when I search. I have to scroll down to see the first normal result.
Let me block tabloids, hate sites and click farms natively and I'm sold.
> Searx is a free internet metasearch engine which aggregates results from more than 70 search services. Users are neither tracked nor profiled. > Additionally, searx can be used over Tor for online anonymity.
> Get started with searx by using one of the Searx-instances. If you don’t trust anyone, you can set up your own, see Installation.
There was something magical about diving into a hierarchy of arbitrary classification and finding links to new sites you never knew existed.
Nowadays I never discover new gems on Google. Only Pinterest/Quora/fake-Instagram junk.
But yeah, Google has become grocery store checkout-line tabloids.
Even with it, I have just a huge variety of workaround I use to find anything remotely valuable. Usually adding reddit, wiki, HN, SO, examine, and all sort of other specificity filters.
If you’re shopping, looking at health issues, comparing things, it’s worthless.
If you’re looking for anything scientific it’s worse than worthless, it often links to a full page of pop sci articles that are just... wrong. Google scholar of course works well.
If you’re searching for news it’s basically entirely mainstream, entirely based on the last news cycle, and entirely homogenous.
And of course the Wikipedia links have gotten harder to click. Keyboard nav still purposely is weird. AMP pages break UX.
It’s funny because if I didn’t know so many tips and tricks I’d basically not “know” anything. I’d buy poor products at high prices, I’d believe the latest pop science, I’d only know one or maybe two mainstream opinions on news, etc.
That the worlds number one information finding service seems to have rolled over to a variety of bad incentives is a bit horrifying.