

Ask HN: What is an alternative to Google? Really. - inodeman

Seriously, I am inclined to stop using Gooogle just because of their "Net neutrality" posture. I want to find alternatives, I know about Bing, Yahoo, but want to find out what people are using besides Goooogle 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-green/breaking-google-goes-evil_b_676021.html
======
johnfn
I have tried DuckDuckGo, Blekko and Bing, all for about a month each.

I recommend Bing.

The thing that you almost forget after using Google forever is that they can
always pull up relevant links to what you want, even from ancient forum posts
if it's a really esoteric issue that only 5 people have ever had.

DuckDuckGo is decent, but it's no where near Google in that capability. Blekko
not even close to DDG. (I have been using Blekko for my default search engine
for a week or two now, but I almost always have to revert back to Google,
except for really obvious results that I could probably pull up without a
search engine entirely. I feel bad saying it, but it really isn't that good.
Hopefully they keep working on it, though. )

Bing, on the other hand, was almost neck and neck with Google; it was only
very occasionally that I would revert back to Google, and I used Bing for
perhaps a month. I theorize that this is because Bing has millions (billions?)
of Microsoft dollars behind it, way more than any other competing search
engine.

I think I'm going to go back to DDG for a bit. I only used it a few months
ago; I'm interested to see if it's gotten better.

~~~
epi0Bauqu
We now use Bing and BOSS so that if you're looking for obscure stuff that Bing
has, you will find it in DDG. Please give me your feedback if you try it
again.

~~~
johnfn
I just switched my search to DDG a few hours ago. This might be preliminary,
but I don't think I'm going to switch back. The jump in quality in the last
few months since I last used it is immense! I love all the programmer friendly
features too (scraping from stackoverflow, etc). Really nice job.

~~~
mahmud
Add to Firefox:

[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/search/?q=duckduckg...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/search/?q=duckduckgo&cat=all)

------
mattculbreth
Well you gotta try DuckDuckGo: <http://duckduckgo.com/?t=mattc58>

I've switched to it for most of my ad hoc searching. Occasionally I use Google
still for some things.

I also though have 4 separate google accounts for email, which I can't really
get away from. Well I guess I could but I probably won't for a while.

~~~
jackowayed
Seconding this. DDG is awesome. The zero-click info is often very nice, I love
the keyboard shortcuts (though there's a google keyboard shortcuts
experiment), and !bang[1] is really awesome. There's a bunch of other
occasionally-useful goodies[2]. It'll do disambiguation if you search
something with many meanings (eg. Ruby). Infinite pagination.

I switched a month or 2 ago, and I've been very happy. And if I search for
something and don't like the results, I hit / (the keyboard shortcut to select
the text of the search box), hit right-arrow (to get my cursor to the end of
the search box), add a "!g" to the end, and hit enter. And then I usually find
that google's results are just as bad :)

1: <http://duckduckgo.com/bang.html>

2: <http://duckduckgo.com/goodies.html>

~~~
mmmmax
!bang is the most useful search feature since I'm Feeling Lucky. I submitted
this exact feature to Google years ago, and DuckDuckGo's implementation of it
caused me to switch search engines.

~~~
epi0Bauqu
Thx! Note that we've had I'm Feeling Ducky through !bang for a while
(!+space+sarch), but the last few days I've made it even easier.

You can now do /+search, e.g. /slashdot or whatever. Also all the !bang
commands now will take you right to the site if you don't follow them with a
search, e.g. !a takes you to amazon.

~~~
mmmmax
Nice work, as usual, Gabriel.

------
tremendo
Search: DuckDuckGo works well, only occasionally do I revert to Google for
general searches.

Image search: ? Devilfinder can be useful, sometimes, but mostly gives NSFW
results.

Voice: ? Voxox is such a bloated piece of software, but also offers Fax (when
will it die? please?)

Mail: oh there are plenty of alternatives, none half as good. Then again, I'm
a proud mutt user ;)

Calendar: Airset? Nah, only desktop apps compare.

Reader: I guess I'll go back to my Sage Firefox plugin.

Browser: Opera or Firefox. But to run Webkit on Linux what? Midori? that
crashes every other page load.

~~~
jackolas
Arora. <http://code.google.com/p/arora/>

~~~
tremendo
Thanks, I had tried to install Arora before but couldn't find a package for
Ubuntu (Hardy at the time). I just installed it, and crashed it too :(

------
jchonphoenix
Bing is actually a very nice search engine. It occasionally outperforms google
in certain aspects of search, and has some extremely useful features that
google doesn't have, although you'll have to dig around the site to find these
(such as farecast, and the visual search).

I still recommend google for things such as technological search. For the
majority of tail queries google still does better.

DuckDuckGo on the other hand is a nice search engine. However, it is
objectively not as good at finding results as the other too. You can use
statistical measures with RMSE and human rated errors to measure the accuracy
of the machine learning and results pages that turn up in a search engine.
DuckDuckGo is not even on the radar for google or microsoft because its core
product--search--isn't even on the same level as the other two.

------
will_critchlow
Try the English version of Yandex (<http://www.yandex.com/>) - the Russian
search engine. They just released it one day fully functioning. It's not a
complete alternative, but it's interesting and worth a try...

~~~
mmphosis
Yandex is popular and also Baidu (<http://www.baidu.com/>) - the Chinese
search engine, no english version, but the search appears to work well
regardless of language. You may see evidence of these two search engines
crawling in your web server logs.

~~~
smallblacksun
If you have moral objections to Google, you don't want to be using Baidu.

------
othermaciej
I've been using Bing for search on both desktop and my iPhone, ever since it
became an option in Safari. It's actually pretty good. At first I would flip
back to Google pretty often when I doubted the quality of the Bing results,
but the Google results were rarely better (subjectively) and were sometimes
worse in such cases.

------
prakash
It's been almost a year since I switched to DuckDuckGo
([http://www.cloudknow.com/2010/04/duckduckgo-as-my-primary-
se...](http://www.cloudknow.com/2010/04/duckduckgo-as-my-primary-search-
engine/))

Heck, if Gabriel started charging users for the service, I would gladly pay
him.

~~~
jmg
What makes it worth paying for?

~~~
prakash
Privacy for one. <http://duckduckgo.com/privacy.html>

------
calebamsden
I think people aren't looking at the bigger picture here... In 5 years the
internet is going to look incredibly different than it does today - regardless
of Google's, Verizon's or the FCC's position on "Net Neutrality".

Whether it's IBM's laser/light data transfer technology
([http://www.pcworld.com/article/202018/intel_turns_to_light_t...](http://www.pcworld.com/article/202018/intel_turns_to_light_to_transfer_data_inside_pcs.html))
or something we haven't even seen yet, the power of innovation will make the
net neutrality argument (almost) irrelevant.

You should choose the product that best fits your needs. Also, do you really
think Microsoft is less 'evil' than Google? I'm driven crazy every day by
Microsoft products and their business practices!

~~~
techiferous
"Also, do you really think Microsoft is less 'evil' than Google?"

Both Microsoft and Google are too big to be given a blanket judgment of "evil"
or "good". There are so many people, projects, locations, etc. involved that
it's probably more constructive to talk about specific products or policies
that you do/don't like.

For example, here in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Microsoft has opened their New
England Research & Development Center. They've opened up their private office
space to tons of public tech meetings (JavaScript meetups, web design meetups,
startup-related events, Ignite Boston, etc. etc.). They offer great facilities
and even provide food. As a result, they're really enabling the startup and
tech community here. Google also has an office here in Cambridge, but I can't
think of anything that they're doing here to help startups.

So is Microsoft good and Google evil because of this? It's just one glimpse of
two vast empires...

------
zephyrfalcon
Many people in this thread recommend Bing, which may be a good search
engine... However, the reason you are switching is not to find a better search
engine, but to make a political statement. In that light, recommending a
Microsoft search engine seems a bit odd. I don't want to go all Slashdot
"Micro$oft sux" here, but... if one thinks Google is evil because of this net
neutrality thing, then what is Microsoft, whose track record is about ten
times worse?

~~~
piotrSikora
Could you elaborate a bit more on "Microsoft's track record"? Most people
complain on Microsoft just to complain, without any valid reasons...

~~~
_delirium
In Ye Olde 1990s (and some early 2000s), they were somewhat notorious for
trying to exclude competitors from retail stores and OEMs, e.g. by pricing
Windows in a way such that anyone who sold non-Windows machines was penalized
(somewhat similar to the stuff Intel got accused of doing in the AMD
settlement). Vaguely in the same class as the net-neutrality issue, of trying
to control the distribution channels rather than just competing on a level
playing field.

~~~
RagingPanda
...and nothing has changed in a decade+, right?

------
tome
Bing is fine for search most of the time, and the odd time when it isn't I
revert to Google. The thing I don't have a replacement for is Google Calendar
which is great. But: I don't like Google knowing exactly what I'm doing every
day!

~~~
tjpick
not exactly sure about calendars specific features but you probably wouldn't
have too hard a time running your own calendaring server

~~~
tome
I'm happy to run the server but I don't know what software to use.

~~~
tjpick
<http://www.davical.org/> maybe an option, but getting a web based front-end
may be a problem, if you need that.

~~~
tome
Unfortunately the "web based front-end" part of Google Calendar is the whole
reason I use it.

~~~
tjpick
you may have luck with phpicalendar.

------
run4yourlives
If you use the search engine, but no other feature including clicking on their
ads, you are actually costing them money, are you not?

That said you should probably search for inconsequential things rather than
not use them at all.

------
3pt14159
Blekko has been awesome for me when Google fails. The reason I use them is
that DuckDuckGo and Google have a very large overlap in the result set, while
Blekko does not, so it is a perfect site to go to when Google is being hit by
too much SEO spam.

------
wenbert
IMHO, I am more concerned about Google Apps. If they decide to do something
"evil" on it, then I am dead.

Google Search on the other hand; I can use Bing or other alternatives easily
without actual loss.

------
SecretAgentMan
I've seen a lot of responses recommending Bing. What is Microsoft's stance on
net neutrality? Aren't they the company that tried to prevent other web
browsers from being installed on their OS back in 98?

Don't get me wrong, my business is enmeshed with google now and I'm looking
for alternatives, but if the problem is with Google's political stance on net
neutrality wouldn't all these recommendations be incomplete without including
a statement on the company's political stance with regards to net neutrality?

------
easyfrag
Search is one thing but what I'm uncomfortable with is how much of my personal
stuff is stored on Google, stuff like mail, rss feeds (and the current
read/unread state), calendars, docs, etc. I was a bit uncomfortable before and
the Buzz fiasco and the recent uproar over Net Neutrality hasn't exactly eased
my mind.

I would like to run my own servers for the above functionality but don't want
the overhead of managing machines and backups. I could be interested in a
package of products that runs the software in the cloud and configured to use
my own domain name and stores data on my own S3/dropbox. In a perfect world it
would be easy to switch providers for the various layers. I'm sure this is
technically feasible today but I'm talking about an easy to use setup, ease of
use being totally subjective of course.

I wouldn't necessarily object to using Google for one of the above layers or
services, I just don't like one company having all of it.

------
jacquesm
I've been trying to wean myself of the google habit but I find myself
returning to them over and over again. So far nobody seems to do search as
good as they do.

Maybe the only way to get rid of google is to accept that you won't be finding
things as easily any more. But that would automatically give everybody a
competitive advantage over you.

------
jeromec
I'm curious to see the quality of Blekko search which is supposed to be
launching soon...

[http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/19/techcrunch-review-the-
blekk...](http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/19/techcrunch-review-the-blekko-
search-engine-prepares-to-launch/)

~~~
daredevildave
It didn't take me long to get into the beta after following them on twitter.

So far seems pretty nice, though I haven't used it that much.

------
Pistos2
I have been using DuckDuckGo as my default search engine for a few months now,
after having given it a second chance. At this rate, I find the result sets
good enough that I only turn to Google for maybe 1 in 40 searches.

The number one reason to use DDG: The developer is friendly and accessible. I
don't expect you could get a personal response to a feature request or comment
from Bing or Google.

Mailwise, I recently set up my own mail server, so that has let me begin
phasing my GMail account out. As far as spam control goes, Bogofilter has
served me extremely well for years.

------
tfinniga
This doesn't exactly answer your question, but this Bing-based live search is
pretty awesome: <http://www.istartedsomething.com/livesearch/>

~~~
inodeman
this looks very nice, is it getting results just from Bing? Would be nice to
get results from different search engines. Thanks

------
jinushaun
Search is easy. Just use Bing. It's good enough and better in many respects.
The bigger problem is finding replacing Gmail, Docs, Reader, GCal, Maps,
Analytics, YouTube, Finance, Picasa, Android, etc. My life is tied to Google.
Search is tiny compared to the other invaluable services I use.

Even if I find replacements for all these services online, there is also the
desktop and mobile integration question. MS talks a lot about "cloud
computing" but I've yet to see it from them. With Google, however, I am able
to access all my data across multiple devices.

------
kragen
I did an experiment on this last year. Both Y!S and ask.com (of all things)
came out as reasonable alternatives. Bing didn't. Things may have changed by
now.

<http://canonical.org/~kragen/search-comparison-2009.html>

------
nuttendorfer
Have been using DDG for more general info and Google if I need to look
something up (Errors, movie quotes etc)

------
pathik
This seems more and more like the Quit Facebook movement, and will inevitably
fail in the end. There is no real alternative to Google. DDG and Blekko are
nice for a change but can definitely not replace it. And for me, Google >
Bing.

------
noonespecial
I like Bing myself. i don't use it much yet, but when i do, it seems to work
pretty well.

So far, Bing is kind of like the lifeboat on the good ship Google. I don't use
it on a daily basis, but I'm sure glad its there.

------
mmphosis
<http://gigablast.com/>

------
drinian
If you're going to switch search engines, you should start blocking out Google
advertising and analytics services as well; AdBlockPlus and an /etc/hosts
killfile are good places to start.

------
samratjp
Honestly, the biggest thing that stopped me from using Bing was the interface
and the left navigation bar. The subtle thing prevented me from transitioning
from Google.

------
jrussbowman
while there's not a solution for plain web search yet, unscatter.com has a
great interface for finding the most recent information about topics. Web
search is actually the next large piece I will be adding. It is primarily
powered by Bing because of their API limits, ie: none. For web specifically
the real advantage will be the tab based user interface I am working on

------
Setsuna
I'm seeing quite a lot of discussion like this. What is the probability that
Google notices the trend and changes their behavior?

------
buzz27
i've been using duckduckgoose for 6 months due to google's evil. but, now, it
is because duckduckgoose is so good!

~~~
nollidge
I think you mean duckduckgo.

~~~
markstahler
<http://duckduckgo.com/faq.html> \- What's with the name?

------
dreur
and any other good webmail alternative to gmail? HN Startup anyone?

~~~
tmart
well there is zoho

~~~
da5e
Zoho Writer's docs are available offline as well as online which Google Docs
aren't at the current time. And Zoho Creator is awesomely handy.

~~~
da5e
In addition, Zoho mail is ad-free and has offline capability using, oops,
Gears.

------
rgrieselhuber
I like DDG and Blekko as alternatives.

------
Jacob_W
Go with Microsoft. They're huge, and with their Office software going online,
they're your best bet. Plus, Bing is excellent.

------
inodeman
All these links are awesome, any more?

------
mmphosis
<http://mamma.com/>

------
mmphosis
<http://lycos.com/>

------
mmphosis
<http://altavista.com/>

~~~
da5e
Ah, nostalgia. But also I did a couple of searches on there and it appears
more up-to-date than Yandex at least.

------
dennisgorelik
That's a mistake to stop using your favorite tool just because you politically
disagree with the company. BTW, "Net neutrality" by itself is not necessarily
a good thing. Enforcing "Net neutrality" requires government regulation, and
government regulations tend to not end good.

~~~
shadowfox
Hmm. I found this a little confusing.

> That's a mistake to stop using your favorite tool just because you
> politically disagree with the company

Why would you continue to support a company whose policies you no longer
support (if that was the case)?

> "Net neutrality" by itself is not necessarily a good thing

Can you explain a bit here?

> Enforcing "Net neutrality" requires government regulation, and government
> regulations tend to not end good.

Almost any sort of "enforcing" requires government support for it to be legal.
This includes property rights. So I am not sure what is the exact point here

~~~
notahacker
If you're using Google without clicking on their ads you're not exactly
supporting them...

~~~
agentcoops
If you're giving Google data, you're most certainly supporting them.

