My go to search engine is (please boost for greater exposure):

[yexingtudou@kolektiva.social]

@ctt I started using Startpage as my default recently at my friend's suggestion. Depending on my query I find it to be better or worse than DDG, so I switch between the two as needed. Very occasionally I have to use Google for certain personal queries, though I do use Google at work since I can't change the default on my managed machine

[artnacrea@mastodon.ie]

@ctt DDG with the NoAI option

https://noai.duckduckgo.com/?q=%s&noai

[ahkka@mastodon.social]

@ctt omnisearch! And searxng for images

[skylark13@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@urlyman @ctt I know this was not a request for help so feel free to ignore.

In most browsers (including on mobile) you can set up a custom search engine. If you do that, and use

https: // noai . duckduckgo . com / ?q=%s

(remove the spaces) you will not have to disable the AI, it will always be disabled.

I can also give you the settings to use for suggestions and image search if you're interested (on a desktop browser you can set those for a custom search engine too).

[jeremymallin@autistics.life]

@ctt
Google on desktop, but with the query string that forces it to act like old Google.

[aeoncypher@lgbtqia.space]

@ctt Kagi is the only one I've been able to use that actually works anymore, but you ave to pay for it.

[weddige@gruene.social]

@ctt quant

[crazy2bike@fediworld.de]

@ctt@social.lol

Startpage

[platlas@en.osm.town]

@ctt Switched from DuckDuckGo to Qwant and Ecosia (but mostly Qwant).

[borgqueen@mastodon.uno]

@ctt startpage or searxng selfhosted

[wyatt_h_knott@mastodon.sdf.org]

@ctt noaiduckduckgo

[longspeak@bardicperspiration.club]

@ctt At work, duckduckgo. But I voted Kagi because that's way I use at home.

[savem@mastodon.social]

@ctt qwant

[castaway@fosstodon.org]

@ctt startpage

[javibernal@mas.to]

@ctt I use StartPage

[carlos@social.perceptiveconstructs.com]

@osma @ctt

I'm using Qwant too.
It is temporarily unavailable fairly often for me. Do you see that as well?

[nen@mementomori.social]

@carlos @osma @ctt I do

[urlyman@mastodon.social]

@skylark13 thanks, I already do that on desktop but cannot on iOS 15.x.

And the cookie for dismissing Search Assist on regular DDG frequently expires

@ctt

[me@social.taupehat.com]

@ctt grep

[carlos@social.perceptiveconstructs.com]

@nen @osma @ctt

Yeah, it's enough to require a backup, which is DDG in my case.