this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2024
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Although I hate the Brave browser, the search engine is the most useful of the others. It gives me the most correct results compared to the others, even it sometimes ignores the quality resources.

I wonder your opinion about the search engine. Do you have any negative ones?

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[–] Sunny@slrpnk.net 6 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Kagi user here. This search engine is miles in front of all the other ones I've tried. Even has a toggle for searching for stuff within the fediverse!

[–] JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 5 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

It's fine. Not a fan of the AI garbage generator at the top. For obscure queries Big G still returns the best results and this will not change any time soon.

Something else that won't change: If you're not paying for a service, then that service will be trying to monetize you in some other way and will therefore have an incentive to spy on you.

[–] Interstellar_1@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

You can disable the ai in settings.

[–] pdxfed@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

I use brave as default search on Firefox, and search in incognito by default. On mobile, brave doesn't save the "disable AI" setting so the slop is there for every search, not to mention slowing down the process.

[–] BlazeRunner@lemm.ee 5 points 20 hours ago

My negative picks are:

  • By default it enables sending usage metrics and local search results which they claim to be anonymous.
  • Also unlike other search engines it doesn't have parameters for search query which can be used set your preferences, thus avoiding hustle to configure settings everytime.(in cases like delete cookies when browser closed and incognito mode).
[–] UraniumBlazer@lemm.ee 6 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (2 children)

I really want to switch to brave's search engine from ddg (mainly cuz brave has its own index while ddg uses Bing's). But I have a rlly nice theme on ddg, which makes me feel rlly comfortable. Sure, I can put up user themes/ user scripts whatever for brave search too, but I'm not getting the time to do all that.

[–] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 3 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Switch to searxng, make your theme, and never get locked in again.

[–] UraniumBlazer@lemm.ee 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I never tried searx much. I'll do it now :)

[–] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 1 points 1 hour ago

Just keep in mind SearX isn't around anymore, as it's been replaced by SearXNG.

[–] Sunny@slrpnk.net 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Mind sharing what kinda theme you rocking?

[–] UraniumBlazer@lemm.ee 2 points 6 hours ago

Ooo I have a custom one, which is pitch black and has like pink n gray accents n stuff like that. Looks really sexy on my screen

[–] deadcatbounce@reddthat.com 2 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (2 children)

Can you use the brave search engine from other browsers? (Is it a proxy for any other search engine?)

I'm expecting a negative, but a fella can dream.

Full disclosure: currently using StartPage and reasonably happy. StartPage is a proxy for Google as far as I can tell, although I've seen people say (on Reddit) it refers to Bing too.

[–] Neptr@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 15 hours ago

No, it is not a proxy for another search index/engine.

Yes, you can add Brave search to your other browsers.

[–] sic_semper_tyrannis@lemmy.today 5 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

You can. For instance, look up the Brave Search extension on Firefox. Or you can just set the brave.search link to your home page button on any browser.

[–] deadcatbounce@reddthat.com 5 points 18 hours ago

Oh thank-you. As you have guessed, I haven't done even basic investigation.

I'll try to add it on as a search engine on Firefox to play with.

Thank-you again kind netizen.

[–] codenul@lemmy.ml 1 points 18 hours ago

i was using Brave search until i discovered qwant. Been usjng it for months now and quite like it

[–] M33@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I ditched brave for DuckDuckGo, then DuckDuckGo for Ecosia…

[–] merde@sh.itjust.works 3 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I ditched brave for DuckDuckGo, then DuckDuckGo for Ecosia…

you went back to Bing and Google. Congratulations

[–] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 1 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

DDG uses bing and yandex under the hood, no?

[–] Jolteon@lemmy.zip 3 points 7 hours ago

I thought DDG used Bing under the hood.

[–] B1naryB0t@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 19 hours ago

I use it regularly because it is so far the best free privacy respecting search. But holy shit the lack of features (can't even do boolean search) is insane