Because of Trisquel 7, I have abandoned Google for DuckDuckGo, its default search.
I am a member!
Unlike Google, it doesn't collect your data, and it is mostly open source. And even better, DuckDuckGo is rapidly growing! https://duckduckgo.com/traffic.html
The bigger they grow the closer they will be in semblance and behaviour. I can still remember how Google used to be an underdog search engine "do no evil" against giants such as Altavista and Lycos -- just like DDG now.
If David has a chance to be the next Goliath, so why not?
Searx is the way to go ;-)..
Searx is a free metasearch engine, available under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3, with the aim of protecting the privacy of its users.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searx
--searx may not offer you as personalised results as Google, but it doesn't generate a profile about you
--searx doesn't care about what you search for, never shares anything with a third party, and it can't be used to compromise you
--searx is free software, the code is 100% open and you can help to make it better.
ex :
https://searx.laquadrature.net/
Choose other searx instances in the : List of public Searx instances
https://github.com/asciimoo/searx/wiki/Searx-instances
+1 for Searx. Great tool! (but I like DDG as well :-) )
I have used ecosia but i didn't saw that was free software.
I am a member!
Good point, but I still want to make DuckDuckGo my main search engine, because if growth continues at the current rate, at least it will serve as a competitor to Google in the future, which will provide an opportunity for more public interest/funding in personal privacy/open source.
I admit that I am using DDG and startpage, but I hate the fact that they are proprietary.
I used Searx for some time, but I found many of the searches to be insufficient.
I think I'll give it at try again, though.
Are there good tips on how to enhance searches?
One can add more search engines in >Preferences>Engine
Usually setting a cookie can improve to keep these selected preferences
https://searx.laquadrature.net/preferences
Duckgo & Searx (Quadrature du net) both provide searching via Tor
searx :
http://searchb5a7tmimez.onion/
DuckDuckGo :
http://3g2upl4pq6kufc4m.onion/
Here's a screenshot of AltaVista's site in February 1999.
https://digital.com/about/altavista/
AltaVista was not created to take the internet by storm, or tap into a booming commercial opportunity that its developers had spotted. In fact, AltaVista was essentially a test case for one of Digital’s supercomputers, the AlphaServer 8400 TurboLaser. With its 64-bit processor, it could search very large databases very quickly. A search engine was an obvious demonstration of its might.
Before everything else, there was the WWW Virtual Library, started by Tim Berners-Lee.
Interesting ;-)
wasn't using a keyboard in those days ..
Some here below (& dead links too..)
http://www.thesearchenginelist.com/
Here's a brief history of the WWW VirtLib.
The WWW Virtual Library (VL) is the oldest catalogue of the Web.
It was started by Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of HTML and of the Web itself, in 1991 at CERN in Geneva.
And here's a NYT article noting the launch of AltaVista's search page on the Web in December 1995.
If you build a better spider, the World Wide Web will beat a path to your door. At least, that is the hope of the Digital Equipment Corporation, which released a high-speed system for finding information on the Internet's rapidly expanding World Wide Web multimedia service on Friday.
A prototype of the new search system, formally called Alta Vista but known popularly as a "super spider," was made available to the Web-browsing public at no charge.