this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2024
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Supposedly there's a paid one that is good. I haven't tried. The thing is Google is completely enshittified. They don't have to care about you or the sites you search. So my theory is Bing is better because they are hungrier and anything that takes away market share from Google is good—but I'm fully aware that Microsoft was just as shitty as Google and will be again if they get back on top.
Everything else I know of is either just an alternate front end for one of them or an aggregator of both. So you're right, there's precious little alternative to Google. But it's almost bad enough I'm ready for the return of web rings of good sites vouching for each other.
I assume you're talking about kagi. I pay for their $5/month subscription and it's great
Serious question. Can you spell out for me the exact advantages you feel they provide? I have a free account, but every time I try them out I feel like their answers are honestly a little bit worse than Ecosia.
I find Kagi results a little bit better than Google's (for most things). I like that certain categories of results are put in their own sections (listicles, forums) so they're easy to ignore if you want. I like that I can prioritize, deprioritize, block, or pin results from certain domains. I like that I can quickly switch "lenses" to one of the predefined or custom lenses.
Ok I don’t think I’m doing it right then. Is there a tutorial?
If you think Microsoft is in the business of innovation and healthy competition, you're wrong.
https://www.wired.com/2011/02/bing-copies-google
This is funny, but it was also 13 years ago. A lot can change in that time. I don't personally use Bing though, so I don't have firsthand experience either way.
A lot can change in 13 years, but a company that starts off morally evil does not magically get better as time goes on. If anything, they're worse - we just don't have the luxury of knowing exactly how yet.
He didn't say they weren't evil. Only that because they are behind they are trying harder than Google (which is also evil).
All I'm trying to say is that they're not necessarily doing the same thing now that they were back then. They'd have a strong motivator to be better than google nowadays instead of just copying their results because google's results suck now.
If that was what you took from my post, give it another read. I'm not pro MS. I'm pro not feeding Google. And Bing is fine.
I feel like this is similar to arguing that Exxon is bad so it's better to buy gas from BP.
Both are shitty options.
Thankfully there are other options because you just nailed the two places I refuse to ever get gas from when there is any other option. If there was a good third option I'd take it here, but while Google commands so much market share and a new competitor would probably siphon users from Bing (and it's not enough users) I don't think a real alternative will come. I'm intrigued by kagi, though.