It is becoming near impossible to find relevant information from search engines. Duckduckgo, SearXNG, Bing, Google, and so many more mainstream engines have a significantly high noise to signal ratio, and it is getting worse.

Here are a collection of the best search engines I know, please add more to the list.

If no more high quality search engines exist, would it be possible to host your own?

EDIT: Some new discoveries. The addon uBlacklist and filters can block super SEO sites from appearing in search.

  • Immersive_Matthew
    315·
    10 months ago

    I switched to ChatGPT and find it superior to the mess Google and others have made of their search engines. I could never go back to a regular search after using AI.

      • Immersive_Matthew
        21·
        10 months ago

        I have not found that to be the case at all. While not perfect, it is miles above Google Search and has not more errors than the misinformation any search will yield. It is a significant business advantage as well and those who are not embracing are missing out.

        • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
          52·
          10 months ago

          These models can invent a source. Their only incentive is to have a convincing conversation with you. They are unconcerned with the truth.

          • ThenThreeMore@startrek.websiteEnglish
            12·
            10 months ago

            What I mean is I use it to get the links to those sources. Like when you use Wikipedia as a jumping off point. I don’t think we’re at the point yet where we have the problem Wikipedia sometimes has that the sources used sometimes themselves just cite Wikipedia.

            • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
              31·
              10 months ago

              The links to Wikipedia are actual citations to real sources. LLMs basically just generate something that looks like the link to a credible source which might support what it’s said. It doesn’t care if its “source” actually supports what it says.

              • ThenThreeMore@startrek.websiteEnglish
                22·
                10 months ago

                The links to Wikipedia are actual citations to real sources

                I read an interesting article a few years ago about the Wikipedia source problem. It did a dive into how sources that seem legitimate on Wikipedia can and up citing sources that are less so. They were able to trace back the citations to Wikipedia itself. So no, they’re not always real sources.

                LLMs basically just generate something that looks like the link to a credible source which might support what it’s said. It doesn’t care if its “source” actually supports what it says.

                Which is why you read the page it has linked for you as a source. Unless you’re trying to say it full on generates a page for you.

      • Tinister@kbin.social
        24·
        10 months ago

        It’s okay for things that are pretty low-stakes. If you ask for cooking or cleaning advice and it hallucinates you’re still at square zero regardless.

        • zero_gravitas@aussie.zoneEnglish
          7·
          10 months ago

          If you ask for cooking or cleaning advice and it hallucinates you’re still at square zero regardless.

          Unless it tells you to mix bleach and ammonia 😆

    • cll7793@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      10 months ago

      I found the original GPT-4 to be great at technical search questions! Though unfortunately the quality has been getting worse ever since.

      • Immersive_Matthew
        1·
        10 months ago

        I use ChatGPT 4+ extensively for coding and it has only gotten better over the course of the pastyear for me. I am really surprised how smart it is actually, and of course how silly and delusional it can be at times too which is always so weird but even that has improved. Its intelligence has different quirks than a human for sure.