TL;DR - which privacy-focused search engine do people recommend, preferably one that can also easily be used as a default option in Safari?

I ditched Google in about 2016ish I would guess, and since then have used DDG as my default search engine.

As someone entrenched in the Apple ecosystem, it’s always seemed like a sound choice, as it’s one of the search engines built in to Safari on both iOS and macOS.

After spending a bit more time recently playing around with and updating my Docker containers, I started hosting a Whoogle container, which seemed to work pretty well, but I don’t see many out there talking about it, so not sure how good it actually is. I then tried a SearXNG container, but either had it misconfigured or just wasn’t getting many search results back.

At the moment I’m trying out Startpage, but I know there are potential privacy concerns since they were part-bought in 2019 by a US ad-tech company.

I’m also playing around with different browsers at the moment, flicking between Safari, Firefox and Brave. At which point I stumbled across Brave Search, which seems pretty promising.

So, which search engines do you all recommend?

UPDATE: Probably should’ve done a poll! But latest (if I’ve captured everything correctly) is:

  • DuckDuckGo - 10
  • Qwant / SearXNG / Kagi / Brave - 4
  • Startpage / Ecosia - 2
  • Google - 1

As to my other questions around browsers:

  • Majority seem to use Firefox
  • Some mentions of Brave
  • One mention of Arc
  • Viper_NZ@lemmy.nz
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    1 year ago

    I’ve been using DuckDuckGo for years now and recommend it all the time.

    I get decent, reliable results so haven’t shopped around.

    • ggaaap@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This. Clean, reliable and functional. Although I’ve never wrapped my head around how they make their $$

      • al4s@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        They place ads in the search results.

        If you disable your ad blocker, the first search result will almost always an Amazon ad. I test searched for “Headphones” and it also shows a row of JBL headphones at the top ala google shopping, which is an ad as well.

        Really, they make their money the same way as google, they just don’t track your searches and site visits.

      • Redderthanmisty@lemmygrad.ml
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        1 year ago

        They still run ads, just less profitable ones since they’re less intrusive, aren’t personalised, and most never see them anyway because if youre on DDG in the first place, you’re also likely to be using adblock.

    • EpicFailGuy@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      @Viper_NZ

      @schmurnan

      Been a duckie for years now but I find myself going back to google for things like maps and shopping (that nearby search is a godsend) have you found any privacy mindfull alternatives?

        • Fireplant@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          On Android you can install Organic Maps, but the downside is that you’ll need to download the maps for each area you want to have a map of (which, takes storage)

          OsmAnd+ seems to be a good alternative recommended often, but I just haven’t used it.

          On PC, OpenStreetMaps is your friend

      • Fireplant@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        On Android you can install Organic Maps, but the downside is that you’ll need to download the maps for each area you want to have a map of (which, takes storage)

        OsmAnd+ seems to be a good alternative recommended often, but I just haven’t used it.

        On PC, OpenStreetMaps is your friend

    • Skyline@lemmy.cafe
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      1 year ago

      Do you find DDG to be slower than Bing or Google? A few years ago I thought there was a noticeable delay with DDG, but not with Google.