Since DuckDuckGo introduced AI search I switched to Qwant. Now they also force you to look at stupid and sponsored AI slop results. As these are both privacy focused sites I am starting to wonder if we will lose real search (i.e. I click on links I think are interesting) Switching to startpage.com for now.
there are a few options. duckduckgo does have an option to turn AI mode off, if that doesn’t work there is marginalia search.
I sense since the invent of AI, search engines have gone to shit. the things you see on duckduckgo and google are obviously corporate sponsored crap there to grab your data.
I’ve recently found marginalia search as an alternative to major search engines, there is no AI search and although a little bit tricky to first use (it is more query/database style than typing out your question), it is a fucking goldmine of quality websites. I (for one thing) was trying to install a gcc-microblaze cross compiler, I was already searching 10 pages of duckduckgo before deciding to go with marginalia, the first fucking website had a bash script to install it. No JS bullshit, I mean for FFS if you have a server you can launch your own selfhosted instance of it.
here’s the site: https://marginalia-search.com/
Try Mojeek. It has an ‘AI summary’ feature which only gets generated/activated if you click/tap on the tab. Otherwise, it’s pure search.
They have this
No turning off needed.
Also startpage have ads iirc, it’s okay search engine if you don’t mind. Sometime i switch to startpage and i find something that google just doesn’t show. I get mixed result from ddg.
You can turn off the AI features on the majority of these. Kagi is another option I’ve been enjoying.
Yes until you delete your cookies… Having AI as default is whats my problem.
DuckDuckGo has a noai subdomain. No cookies required.
Check out my post about Uruky which doesn’t have AI features for the time being. It’s far from mature though so might not be suitable as a daily driver. I’m still evaluating it myself.
Maybe this is a hard take based on where I’m posting it, but DDG’s implementation of the AI doesn’t bother me at all. I even use it occasionally for the casual search where I need a well known response and don’t feel like clicking on a link.
It doesn’t feel forced, it’s completely optional and has better privacy than google and the others.
What I hear every time someone says AI isn’t that bad.
There was stract.com, but this year it seems broken. Which is too bad. it was a guy that ran it in his basement and you got goof old school google style searches that contained relevant info, instead of ad links and promoted product links.
