OK, their enshitification has gone too far. Lately, when I search for things it seems like I really have to dig to get past the ads.
Today I googled a specific store near me, knowing that Google would list it in a little panel, with the time when it opens. When I did that, I got several panels of nearby competitor stores (labeled sponsored) and had to scroll down a fair way to find the one I was looking for. Fuck you, Google, I searched for a specific named store.
So I want to move away from Google search and Chrome browser. Suggestions?
Brave is low ads and popular in the gaming community.
Firefox is not Chrome, Safari or Edge and tries harder.
Please note, I stopped using Firefox many years ago, but their reputation has improved. Brave I only know about from my son and his friends. Very popular among techish 20-somethings apparently. But also reviews for low ads are very positive.
Agree. Just because I’m on the internet, doesn’t mean I want to fucking buy something.
I switched to duckduck go and use firefox and have been for a few years now. I do not miss google search or ever refer back to it, except for google books, or patents, etc.
Right. The other day I was searching for technical specifications on something, and all I seemed to get was ad and shopping links. I couldn’t get it to understand that I was looking for info on the item, not the item.
They are an indie search engine with a different business model: You pay to search (imagine that), but in return you are the customer, not the product, and they provide an ad-free search experience with a lot of customizations.
Personally, I hate what Google has become too. These days I mostly use ChatGPT wherever possible and only search if I have to verify something manually (which is about 30-40% of the time). I still use Google over Kagi because I’m cheap, tied into the Google ecosystem (e.g. Maps and Calendar), and I spend time manually curating my uBlacklist to block a bunch of spam sites on Google (Medium, Fandom, Quora, YouTube, Forbes, social media etc.), making it somewhat more usable. But Google will soon neuter adblocking in Chrome, and at that point I’ll probably fully switch to Kagi and their own browser, Orion.
And IMHO only: As a web developer, I would not suggest using Firefox anymore. Mozilla (its parent company) has been mismanaged for quite a while now and the browser sees very low usages these days, which means a lot of websites and web developers don’t bother supporting it anymore. You’ll often run into bugs that you won’t see on webkit-based browsers (Safari) or Chromium-based ones (which include Orion, Brave, Chrome, and others). I think Firefox’s days are numbered, and there are efforts to replace it with other non-profit browsers like Ladybird (not ready yet).
Brave browser automatically blocks most ads, which means you can continue to use Google, since those sponsored sections will be gone. Or, switch to Duck Duck Go to search, or Bing, I guess.
Brave is basically a repackaged Chrome, and is developed by Microsoft, a company that’s just as guilty of enshittification as Google. It’s therefore not a real alternative to Chrome.
Firefox is a genuine alternative. It’s not based on Chrome and is developed by Mozilla, an organization that actively advocates for Internet freedom. They do take funding from Google, but I haven’t seen any evidence of Google exerting influence over Firefox’s development. (Disclosure: I’ve been a volunteer contributor to Mozilla’s software for over 20 years, and am an elector for the Thunderbird Council.)
Minor clarification: Brave isn’t Microsoft. That’s Edge, another Chromium based browser. Brave is its own company with its own optional ads. It doesn’t have the best security record (probably because it’s not from a big tech company) but a lot of people do like it.
There are some (admittedly probably rare) circumstances where also showing competitors might be useful. When I was in Chicago a few months ago I needed to swing by a drugstore to pick up a couple of things I’d forgotten to pack. I’d remembered seeing a Walgreen’s near my hotel but couldn’t remember exactly where it was, so I searched for Walgreen’s in Google Maps. Google showed me all the Walgreen’s in the area, but also highlighted a CVS that was actually closer to where I was at the time and was on my route back to my hotel, whereas going to the Walgreen’s would have required walking a block or two past the hotel. So even though I technically had specifically searched for Walgreen’s, I didn’t actually care which drugstore I went to, and went to the more conveniently located CVS that Google helpfully pointed out instead.
But they could put the named item first, and then list the sponsored.
ETA: Loving the ideas, but a little disappointed in the lack of bitching. I thought we were a bunch of middle-aged and older folks, coming into our right to scream at clouds and complain about how everything was better when we were younger?
Another thing that can help with Google searches when you are searching for an exact search term and don’t want to see related content is to do a Verbatim search (Tools → All results → Verbatim).
Oops – I had confused the two Chrome knock-offs produced by separate misanthropic companies. Go with Edge if you want your user experience gradually degraded in order to maximize profits; go with Brave if you hate gay people, Anthony Fauci, and the environment.
We spoiled rotten internet users need to know(should’ve learned in kindergarten) the world doesn’t turn on our personal needs.
I remember my Daddy bitching about billboards and signs getting in the way of his need to look at scenic beauty.
Or complaining cause all his kids were taking up the phone availability at his house.
He’d roll in his grave if he saw the number of phones and devices in this house, now.