Daily reminder that
- Brave’s CEO donates to homophobic organizations and
- Brave is connected to the BAT pay-to-surf scam
Don’t use Brave.
- Brave is based on Chromium and therefore helps contribute to Google having hegemony over web standards.
Always use a Firefox-based browser, even if you think Mozilla sucks.
At least until Ladybird is ready. I hope they are not under too much pressure to rush things so we get a truly independent web browser.
What about on iOS where it’s all forced WebKit?
Ideally don’t use iOS it’s a walled garden, you don’t really control your device
What about Vanadium?
If it relies on Chromium as a base in any way, it is still beholden to Google’s design decisions.
Yup! It is noted in the highlighted text in red. I’ve had several people respond that they didn’t know about it, and would be making the switch away :)
Never had a good feeling about that one.
It’s a shitty “secure” browser to begin with imho
I’m waiting for Servo (I know it’s not a browser) & LadyBird.
Also reminder that StartPage is majority-owned by American ad company Sytem1
stop promoting brave. oh my god it’s 2025 how good is their propaganda… they were never cool.
I wish Kagi was not American. I was pretty happy with it until America became a thread
Me too. Kagi is the best of them all, including Google.
The only downside? It’s an American company.
Another downside is that is costs $5 a month to use…
How terrible that you have to pay for a product you use
No one wanting to pay for anything is what got us into this mess in the first place
I was thinking about the aspect of privacy. Not only do you need a user, you also have to give them your payment details.
And don’t get me started on their “300 searches a month”-bullshit. If I pay for 300 searches, I want my 300 searches. Regardless of how long it takes me to use it.
You can sign up to Kagi and pay anonymously, they state how to do it in their FAQ’s.
I was thinking about the aspect of privacy. Not only do you need a user, you also have to give them your payment details.
Kagi has established Privacy Pass which perfectly meets the need of balancing paid search with privacy. If you have a better fix I’m sure they’d love to hear about it on their feedback forum.
And don’t get me started on their “300 searches a month”-bullshit. If I pay for 300 searches, I want my 300 searches. Regardless of how long it takes me to use it.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
As a someone who averages >1000 searches/month, I burned through the 300/month tier pretty quickly. They’re kind enough to credit you if you don’t use their service in a given month, which is already uncommon in the subscription business model.
I’m okay with forsaking one avocado toast a month for a search engine that actually works, but if I don’t feel good about where my money goes then I’m signficantly less willing.
I like spending money on the things I use. The status of paying customer is an enviable position (minus the paying part).
Worth noting about Startpage: they’re part of System1, an American advertising/marketing company. Sytem1 claims that privacy is one of the biggest focuses though. Make of that what you will.
Removed by mod
What kind of storage space does it take up, and how good are the results?
Removed by mod
This is exciting, TBH.
I’m going to try it out! Storage space be damned 😂
looks really good, something to rewrite in Rust some day!
They’re basically all compromised in one way or another. 😞
For Search, it is about finding the least bad option and hope that they will become more independent. Mojeek (fully independent but poor quality) or Qwant (building own index, but dependent on Bing)
For now I’ll stick with SearXNG, it’s among the first things I get up and running when I distro hop, but I’m glad there are other non-US options to try.
yeah I wish decentralized search engines were more common
Pretty weak chart to not even include “I care most about porn search”
Not a search engine, but last week I learned of the European Open Websearch project, which builds a new free and open search index. It should already be ready to try out. Hopefully we will see some search engines implementing this soon.
I’ve been happy with DDG for so long. Uuugh.
Honestly I shopped around a lot and tried various services for 7 days each. In the end I came back to DDG because it’s the most useful engine to me. It delivers results I look for and doesn’t get in the way.
As a result I’m not quite satisfied, but it will have to do for now.
It’s a marathon not a sprint. DDG is a big improvement, keep using it till you find something better that works for you
Thanks. This I nice little guide, easy to suss and helps me figure my priorities.
I really wish Kagi wasn’t American. Kagi is such a good product, and I’d be willing to pay for it, but in no universe am I willing to pump more money into silicon valley.
I recommend Ecosia!
Stract is impressive I don’t know what more people don’t know about it
