Fuck AI

SearXNG is a local option and is fairly easy to get a container running for it.

It's not the cleanest, but it will let you search about anything that is searchable if you allow it. (It'll aggregate results from ~244 different search engines so beware. It's a "metasearch" engine.)

It can be a bit slow at times (especially if all the things are turned on), and is a bit like Google in its infancy. However, there aren't ads or promoted results. It's fairly raw, if you are into that kinda thing.

Getting the API working with Python can be a pain at times due to its bot control mechanisms and strict header checks. (I believe they default these features ON if someone accidentally makes their instance public or something like that.)

Kagi, it’s like the old Google..before the enshittification.

As a paid search engine, Kagi actually prioritises doing what users want.

Want AI? It's available. Don't want AI? Turn it off and you'll never see it again.

I'm pretty happy with Kagi which does search, including images (and a personal favorite, GIFs), well. It's meta-search so they capitalize on other indexes.

I too never had luck with DDG - I like their general privacy ethos, but their search sucks. They've gotten a little better as they've shifted away from being 100% Bing, but only baby steps so far.

Brave is much better search, but hate their crypto-bro company ethos. Image search is meh.

Self hosted meta-search options (SearXNG, Whoogle) are good but difficult to set up well.

Kagi, Brave, and DDG all let you disable AI responses in settings. If you're otherwise alright with Brave just turn AI results off (does require you to let them keep a cookie).

"Search" engines will always prioritize their revenue source. If you want a search engine that prioritizes search, you need to DIY or find someone whose revenue source is search, not data/ads.

To my knowledge the only engine getting their income from search is Kagi.

Kagi is one of the better options. It's a subscription, private, and closed source.

SearXNG is an open source search aggregator that you can set up yourself and self host.

Both are on par in my opinion in getting relevant search results, far better than the mainstream engines for sure.

Make your choice wisely.

im on qwant as my main

Over the last few years I've found ddg results work better. To be clear, I don't know that ddg has actually gotten better. But Google's quality has just nose dived to the point it's better.

I'm also trying kagi. It feels so different I'm not hooked yet. But the layout is just different enough it's a bit jarring to skim after decades of training on Google's results.

I'm hopeful though because I hear other people talking about it a good bit. At this point, I don't know if there's another model to trust either.