I used google for most of my life, for the past couple months I’ve been using brave search, but I still end up using google often because google images is far better than brave search images. I’m also worried that maybe brave search isn’t the best choice. What would you guys recommend?
SearXNG: https://github.com/searxng/searxng
It enhances and respects privacy,
is open source and self hostable,
and queries multiple configurable search engines (google, bing, brave, duckduckgo, …)You can find a list of public hosted instances here:
https://searx.space/However I prefer to slap an instance randomizer on top, so each of my queries goes through another public SearXNG instance, for more privacy, and mostly, to bypass rate-limiting after frequent queries.
For this I use:
- On Desktop - GimmeASearX:
https://github.com/demostanis/gimmeasearx - On the go - SearX NeoCities:
https://searx.neocities.org/
- On Desktop - GimmeASearX:
I’ve been using Ecosia, it’s basically Google results, but with more privacy, and they invest the revenue in tree-planting projects.
*or Bing depending upon where you are
All of them at once: SearXNG.
It aggregates results from whichever you select.
I self host my own SearXNG instance. I use that.
I use duckduckgo. It is Bing but with more privacy. You could try also searx, swisscows, startpage or qwant
does ddg not have its own search backend anymore?
nope, it was yandex + bing, now bing: https://www.searchenginemap.com/
Google without logging in with ublock is best. No privacy implication, no ads, no ai response.
It may be one of the better solutions, but there are certainly privacy implications
Like what? I mean you don’t save cookies/local storage either, or use private browsing always.
At most google see your search terms, results you click and your ip address. Unless you’re using ipv6 without rotation or with unique prefix there is no identifying information.
If you’re using something like tor, and rotate on every single search, then that would be ideal.
I assume you’re not using tor. That means all your searches can still be linked to you via the network source (ip address, etc.). Google can also use your search patterns to fingerprint you.
Using tor with anything google is a PITA at best.
If you have a generic enough useragent string and using standard ipv4 deployment (shared by many homes and/or rotating, usual isp)/mobile internet/workspace internet it is pretty hard to fingerprint.
I’ve not seen google fingerprinting with canvas or other weird techniques (though these can be defeated in even standard firefox) yet.
Stop using search engines and start using ai. Especially ai that links to sources is much better than weeding out the heavily influenced search results. Using ai is like opening 10 search results finding the relevant sources and comparing them all to bother the information down to a digestible nugget.
