this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2023
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SEO has made it incredibly hard to find answers without getting spammed by news and blog sites. Places like ask Lemmy help democratize answers through upvotes and downvotes so the quality is higher.

Do you know of any hidden gems for search engines or Q&A sites that contain highly relevant answers without much noise?

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

You may not like it, but Bing chat, it will cite its sources so even if it hallucinates something you can fact check

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I agree, since the heavy SEO push has come about, Bing chat works the best. SEO has ruined search engines, it’s a little like Taco Bell using sand as a filler.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

As a former taco bell employee, I am compelled to request that you remove any mention of the refried beans secret ingredient

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Taco Bell using sand as a filler.

I'm sorry, what?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Taco Bell adds Silica, also known as Silicon Dioxide. Silicon Dioxide is the most abundant mineral found in the Earth's crust. Silica is found most common as sand or quartz.

Silica is used in the production of glass, fiber optics, porcelain, stoneware, and concrete.

Silica is also commonly added in the production of foods where it is used to absorb water. In Taco Bell's case they use Silica to reduce moisture and keep the meat from clumping together.

Silicon an essential trace element commonly found in the form of Silica helps to guard against Alzheimer's disease, Osteoporosis, and Dementia.

Silicon is also needed for proper bone, cartilage, and tissue health. A deficiency of Silicon can lead to weak bones, tendonitis, bone decalcification, and cardiovascular disease.

Foods rich in Silica/Silicon are Dark Green Leafy Vegetables, Fruits, Nuts, Seeds, and Berries.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

LMAO.

Bing only works with Edge AFAIK?

I have heard it is like malware to get rid of macOS lol, I actually installed it, but never uninstalled it because I formatted my Mac for an unrelated case.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Reddit, believe it or not.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Search engine plus Reddit, believe it or not.

FTFY.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

This is the only reason I still use reddit, hopefully some day there's a better alternative.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

In areas where I have expertise, reddit has shown itself to be incredibly uninformed. The stupidest answer usually receives the not upvotes. I would not trust a single answer from that site.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

But only if you're logged in with res, darkmode, Java script enabled, ad blocker turned off, recent credit card info ...

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Site:somesite.com queries can help.

I started using Kagi a while back. It’s a paid search engine but is pretty solid

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Kagi looks interesting, i was hoping someone would move into the market to try to make a real search engine again

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That is wild! I can’t believe they made us have to pay for information now.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

they always did, with google you paid with your privacy and attention to ads. in the pre-google days you paid your ISP and/or aol

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But now we have to pay all 3 ways lol. I love the idea though. I’ve already signed up!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Read their privacy policy, you’re paying two ways, same as it ever was

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Consumer reports.org

A search engine both indexes the internet then curates "relevance".

  • Mostly if I am looking for info, I'll go to Wikipedia or lemmy.
  • If I am looking for info about a purchase, consumer reports,
  • if I am looking for social media, lemmy.
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

It's a paid service, but in the UK, which.co.uk is absolutely priceless

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Kagi surfaces the best results for me for sure. Usually the first link is so good I don't even need its "Quick Answer" AI

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I'm using it now!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't think ChatGPT fits there, sometimes it just gives you some good practice or very general answers that won't be specific for your current setup (being an OS, or ROM or whatever).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

With Bing at least majority of the time I can get there with some back and forth.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

ChatGPT is my go to now for any question as long as it's not about current events. 99% of my questions are like "how do I ..."

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Perplexity.ai has largely replaced Google and Bing for me. It searches the Internet (including reddit), asks for clarification if necessary, then summarises it all with sources cited. The free tier currently gives 5x gpt4 copilot searches per rolling 4 hours. Like most ai chat, it's less of a search engine, and more an 'answer' engine.

As for q and a, reddit, though you'll have to filter the funny / misleading comments out. Quora is just weird, I don't like the vibe there.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

The chatgpt answers don’t cut it for me, these companies all made this fucking problem in the first place and now they want us to buy their tech-hype bullshit to fix it. Fuck them, same thing that caused Reddit to do what it’s done.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Startpage.com I am trying (again). I prefer the Google results without the privacy hit.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I've been using Qwant and am happy with it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm self hosting searXNG and it's the best search I've used. Will have to give the gpt bots a try from the looks of this thread

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I'm using metager and I'm quite satisfied with it. https://metager.org/

It's a meta search engine run by a nonprofit. If you want to know more: https://metager.org/about

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I personally use brave search, it has worked very well in the 6ish months I've used it. Not only for privacy but the results are solid and I've noticed improvements from feedback in the community. If it has enough data it does have an AI generated summary as well which I've found to be very useful for precise questions.