While I use & enjoy a lot of Google products, in recent years Google Search has played a pivotal role in making the internet a crappier place.

Google Search Enshittification

For over two decades, Google Search has dominated to the point that for most people, “Google” is searching the internet.

That Google Search is getting worse isn’t a hot take. Around 2019 it pivoted from focusing on user experience towards advertising revenue. While the changes have been incremental, most people remember a time when Google prioritised your results, rather than advertising.

This was compounded by a long-running game of website owners attempting to lure Google into listing their websites at the top of the results through various “SEO hacks” (search engine optimisation exploits), which generally elevated low-quality content over quality content. In a nutshell, people were writing content for machines, rather than humans.

Canadian national treasure Ryan George made this very on-point comedic video titled “What Google Search Is Like Now” in 2022 & it’s only got worse since then:

The reason that Google has been able to ruin its core product so egregiously is that it has held a monopoly in internet search since the 2000s. For many people, Google is the only option, but what if it isn’t?

Looking Beyond www.google.com

While there are other search engines out there, most of them still lag well behind Google when it comes to the quality of the results.

An obvious contender is Bing - Microsoft’s search engine - which is second to Google Search in popularity & powers most of the other “alternative” search engines, like Yahoo, DuckDuckGo & Ecosia. Bing’s website index isn’t as large as Google’s & most people find its results are of lower quality.

So, how can you effectively search for information online? Well…

Wikipedia (free)

Wikipedia is the largest & most comprehensive single source of information in the world. Often, search results either lead to Wikipedia or websites that repackage Wikipedia content with ads.

Putting the Wikipedia app on the home screen of my phone was a game-changer. It’s a clean, direct, stress-free gateway to a monumental trove of information.

You can even set up your browser to use Wikipedia as its search engine - but we use search engines for more than just general knowledge, which brings me to…

Kagi (paid)

Kagi is freaking awesome. It launched in 2022 with a return to pure search results.

The business model behind Kagi is clever & simple. It’s a return to clean, high-quality results funded through user subscriptions. Without advertisers in the mix, Kagi can focus on what’s best for its users.

Before you balk at the thought of paying for your search results, their cheapest plan is USD$5 per month (less if you pay annually).

I highly recommend you try Kagi’s free trial. I found Kagi so useful, I bought the entire UpShift team subscriptions - so they can use a search engine that works for them, not advertisers.

Try Kagi: http://kagi.com/

DuckDuckGo or Ecosia (free)

If you can’t bear to spend a few bucks on removing ads from your search experience, there are a couple of non-Google alternatives that might work for you.

DuckDuckGo & Ecosia are ad-supported & both mostly draw on Bing’s search index. From personal experience, their search results aren’t as high quality as Kagi or Google, but I’m a harsh critic, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

DuckDuckGo is privacy-focused, Ecosia uses ad revenue to plant millions of trees. Both take a far less intrusive approach to how they integrate advertising compared to Google & Bing.

Try DuckDuckGo: https://duckduckgo.com/
Try Ecosia: https://www.ecosia.org/

What About AI Chatbots?

AI Chatbots such as ChatGPT & Claude are currently the biggest threat to Google Search. They have advantages like being able to use natural language & complex questions - but don’t have the same visibility as search engines, often don’t cite their sources & still suffer from AI hallucinations (or “making stuff up”).

Can I Just Have One Search Engine?

If I could only use one search engine it would be Kagi. I’m more than happy to pay a small subscription to use a search engine that is focused on returning the best results to its users, rather than extracting money from advertisers.

Note: All recommendations in this series are independent & unsponsored - I receive no compensation from the mentioned products or services. This content reflects my personal research & experience. You're responsible for evaluating what works for your situation.

Banner Photo by Gabriel Sollmann