On iOS a few years ago, I prefered it to FF or Safari.
However, its "tracker protection" is questionable sometimes. They will list Google or Meta as enabled on site "to prevent breakage", but do not give user an option to still disable it.
I've learned that if I absolutely have to use Google for something (which is very rare), appending a curse word with the minus symbol (i.e. "-fuck" or "-shit") completely bypasses the ai mode since its designed to not engage with curse words, and the minus tells the search engine portion to disregard this word in the search results.
It's not perfect, but it makes me feel a little better, y'know?
Do you mean using 2 adblockers? I suggest to not do it because they will be in conflict and actually block less stuff, if you want to block even more stuff i suggest to use a DNS-level tracker/adblocker
What you want is an adblocker and a javascript blocker. It's more work on your part to get certain webpages working, but well worth it for the extra security.
Yeah there was a long period of time when all you have to do is search "Imgur" and you get a ton of gonewild posts (and creepy Russian photos of femme children but we don't talk about the normalisation of softcore CSAM in some areas). Interesting algorithm they have.
Useful except when the solution to some problem is to be found in the responses of an old forum post which reads something like, "how do I fix this fucking shit?"
I don't use Google for a while now because of the ads and garbage they present ahead of real results, but I remember when you used to just get what you searched for and this is close to that. pretty cool.
If you're on Firefox, you could also set a keyword. I haven't used one in a while but IIRC you would then just type !u search terms (replacing the u with whatever you configured).
Wait, what? Why? Are you talking about the same Pinterest as that search-result-clogging, not ever leading to originals, spamming and content-obscuring piece of shit website?
Was with you til the end there. I use the personal blocklist extension, and I got it specifically for pinterest. It's grown to include others, but Pinterest was the beginning.
For me so far, convenience on mobile when looking up information on physical places and business. I get the phone number, address, and hours of operation without clicking a link.
As I'm transitioning to using Ecosia, that's what I find myself going back to Google search for most frequently. I tried switching to clicking links on Ecosia to find a phone number to call, and quickly came to the conclusion the websites are enshittified also, or at least ridiculous to navigate and find useful information. On at least one occasion already Google has had the phone number listed at the top of Search for an organization that just didn't have a phone number provided from themselves anywhere online. (Okay, maybe they had it on their Facebook page, but I'm trying to improve my user experience not soil it).
All public speed tests are nonsense in private use, unfortunately. The ISPs magically find the capacity you've been looking for, but only for that connection.
They installed an app on Android recently and it's just called Google but really it's their AI app. You can uninstall it. Who knows if it'll reinstall itself...
Doesn't matter. The thread is just locked and ignored forever by Google. There are thousands of such issues and complaints across all Google products, and that's how they deal with it.
The only other way that I personally know on how to get around the google AI is when you search something at the end of the search type (-AI) that seems to work well.
Google's core ranking algorithm and traditional results list rely heavily on AI and machine learning models, completely separate from generative summaries or AI overviews.
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Yeah you can't. So you are going to have to use something else. I found that duck duck go allows you to turn AI off.
I use it now. On Firefox.
I realize it's a shit post. I'm just commenting a fyi for people who might want an answer.
For your private browsing tabs: https://noai.duckduckgo.com/
This is how it’s done.
I haven’t googled anything in years.
So what verb do we start using then? Duckling? Ask Jeeving? Yandexing?
Honestly just "searched" is probably fine.
Yeah. In this day and age noone will think you went to a library to look it up.
Just use "search"; we don't want to make a company name the new synonym for search otherwise we are stuck with that company when it gets evil
Googling. That's how you invalidate a trademark.
Thanks. I might just Hoover up your ideas and Xerox them for my Ziploc of tricks.
*I'm not American and would never use any of those words.
Search
Searching.
I use ddg or ddg’d.
I'm actively still using "google" to turn it into a common verb and make Alphabet lose the rights to the word.
Quaking ?
Nah, use it on the DDG browser for extra cool.
I'm trying to not use Google or YouTube starting this month, at least for this month. (i.e. September 2026)
(So far so good. :)
I've switched to kagi.
It's not free, but it's absolutely the best IMO.
When I search something I don't see an AI summary. Not sure if I disabled that or not.
It only triggers if you end the query with a ? or you can turn that off too in the settings https://kagi.com/settings/ai
I wanted to use Ecosia but they won’t let you 100% disable AI, which is fucked for a supposedly green venture for so many reasons.
For 8 searches we burn a tree with our AI.
DuckDuckGo now has their own browser that blows FF out of the water.
Edit: Chromium, don’t bother.
If its chromium then don't bother, let's not forget how Google tried to take over the Internet through chromium browsers
Damn :( I just looked and it is. Back to FF!
I thought the DDG browser was Firefox with some branding and plugins?
On iOS a few years ago, I prefered it to FF or Safari.
However, its "tracker protection" is questionable sometimes. They will list Google or Meta as enabled on site "to prevent breakage", but do not give user an option to still disable it.
I've learned that if I absolutely have to use Google for something (which is very rare), appending a curse word with the minus symbol (i.e. "-fuck" or "-shit") completely bypasses the ai mode since its designed to not engage with curse words, and the minus tells the search engine portion to disregard this word in the search results.
It's not perfect, but it makes me feel a little better, y'know?
Well that won't help me find scat porn at all then!
Bing is better for porn anyways
Bing is good for something?
Mostly only porn, their video search/player for porn sites is far superior to google's
Nah, yandex is the best. Especially if you want to bypass or get paywalled content. It's a Russian search engine
Ok, haven't tried that. Bing is better than Google, yandex might be better I don't know
"naked cheerleaders"
Bing
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=%22naked+cheerleaders%22&first=1
disappointing
DuckDuckGo
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22naked+cheerleaders%22&iar=images&t=h_
disappointing
sex.com
(nsfw)
https://www.sex.com/en/pics?search=%22naked+cheerleaders%22
less disappointing
not bad
(nsfw (kinda))
https://imagex1.sx.cdn.live/images/pinporn/2020/07/28/23387530.jpg?width=620
A fellow man of culture.
Wanna see the whole scene? Bing both actresses names and turn on adblock, maybe double wrap that adblock.
Do you mean using 2 adblockers? I suggest to not do it because they will be in conflict and actually block less stuff, if you want to block even more stuff i suggest to use a DNS-level tracker/adblocker
Just like how 2 condoms is less effective?
Exactly
What you want is an adblocker and a javascript blocker. It's more work on your part to get certain webpages working, but well worth it for the extra security.
Yeah there was a long period of time when all you have to do is search "Imgur" and you get a ton of gonewild posts (and creepy Russian photos of femme children but we don't talk about the normalisation of softcore CSAM in some areas). Interesting algorithm they have.
Zibbity zoop! Gimme dat poop!
Useful except when the solution to some problem is to be found in the responses of an old forum post which reads something like, "how do I fix this fucking shit?"
"When was the fucking war of 1812?"
result: pornhub.com 2007, with actress...
Apparently it doesn't I cuss all I want it responds.
https://udm14.com/ I automatically type "14" in the address bar now and choose it from the dropdown menu.
I don't use Google for a while now because of the ads and garbage they present ahead of real results, but I remember when you used to just get what you searched for and this is close to that. pretty cool.
Reminder https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/
Why not just make it so you search in that as the default instead of typing 14?
I probably should. I have a searXng instance as default, but their results are never as good as udm14, so I got used to just going there.
If you're on Firefox, you could also set a keyword. I haven't used one in a while but IIRC you would then just type
!u search terms(replacing the u with whatever you configured).You can also get to this through the Google search UI, too. It's the "Web" tab.
More like "you can't"
Not only has AI made traditional Googling more difficult, but it's also just clogging up the search results no matter what search engine you choose...
Also, I miss Pinterest.
Wait, what? Why? Are you talking about the same Pinterest as that search-result-clogging, not ever leading to originals, spamming and content-obscuring piece of shit website?
At least the images clogging your search results were real images, not simulacrum…
Here you go:
https://lite.duckduckgo.com/lite
Was with you til the end there. I use the personal blocklist extension, and I got it specifically for pinterest. It's grown to include others, but Pinterest was the beginning.
Switch search engine
For me so far, convenience on mobile when looking up information on physical places and business. I get the phone number, address, and hours of operation without clicking a link.
As I'm transitioning to using Ecosia, that's what I find myself going back to Google search for most frequently. I tried switching to clicking links on Ecosia to find a phone number to call, and quickly came to the conclusion the websites are enshittified also, or at least ridiculous to navigate and find useful information. On at least one occasion already Google has had the phone number listed at the top of Search for an organization that just didn't have a phone number provided from themselves anywhere online. (Okay, maybe they had it on their Facebook page, but I'm trying to improve my user experience not soil it).
Enshittification feedback loop.
Websites don't have to provide relevant information quickly anymore, because Google is doing that for them.
i still use Google for speed testing bc it works better than ookla
is there a good alternative that I'll feel good about using?
All public speed tests are nonsense in private use, unfortunately. The ISPs magically find the capacity you've been looking for, but only for that connection.
I use cloudflare's, haven't heard any reason yet why that's worse than any owned by an ISP
They installed an app on Android recently and it's just called Google but really it's their AI app. You can uninstall it. Who knows if it'll reinstall itself...
Is there a link to this page, so we can all use the "I have the same question" button?
Doesn't matter. The thread is just locked and ignored forever by Google. There are thousands of such issues and complaints across all Google products, and that's how they deal with it.
But I want to see number go up!!!
just put &udm=14 at the end of the url pr make your default search engine :
https://www.google.com/search?q=%25s&udm=14
And then change the url to duckduckgo.com.
udm=webnow. Also,yourall(?) examples get the%smangled by URL format correction, so should be:but change the
%25sto%s.This userscript works for me.
https://tenbluelinks.org/
The only other way that I personally know on how to get around the google AI is when you search something at the end of the search type (-AI) that seems to work well.
The search modifier NOT seems to still work (for now), if you can't use anything else
https://www.google.com/search?q=test+-womp
https://www.googleguide.com/minus_operator.html
Google's core ranking algorithm and traditional results list rely heavily on AI and machine learning models, completely separate from generative summaries or AI overviews.