this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2023
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There's a fair bit of skepticism about DDG in here, and I've heard it before, but I feel like a lot of people are being pretty unfair to them. Are there search engines that don't ultimately use Google or Bing? Yes, there are. Are they good? It depends on what you mean by that.
It takes enormous resources to index even "most" of the internet on a rapid, ongoing basis. This is the main reason why Google and Bing overall provide the most thorough results. The only independent search engine I would trust is perhaps Neeva, because it's subscription-based. An engine claiming to be as thorough as Bing or Google that doesn't take money directly from you is up to something.
A lot of what DDG is trying to do with its browser and search-ancillary features is find some way of making money because they have to pay Microsoft for Bing results.
It's worth thinking about what our expectations are for search engines. If they must be free, but also not ad-supported and data-gathering... How can they afford to exist?