Don't tell me caffeine has drawbacks. Don't wanna hear it!

I believe it, but I'm still debating whether something like Kagi is worth paying for. On principle, I strongly feel like it is, but in practice I'm still evaluating. So far, I've played with it a few times and I haven't observed any notable improvements, but I'm trying to keep an open mind. First impression is that it's definitely a little quicker and cleaner to get at the information I'm looking for. And taking a step back, I have to say it's impressive that they can replicate a behemoth like Google's accuracy already. On the other hand, I've felt like Google has gotten so crappy at search recently that maybe I'm simply not going to be satisfied with anyone simply "meeting" them and maybe what I want simply isn't possible, in which case I'm just paying for disappointment.

Same here. Been looking at options like Kagi.

I decided years ago that since everyone wanted my info, I might as well just pick one instead of spreading it around everywhere. So I'm heavily invested in the Google ecosystem across the board.

Here's hope to ladybird, it seems like a recipe for good things but its still like a year out if I recall for a beta release or something

How would kagi help in the bias described in the article? If a person makes a biased search, any search engine will behave the same. The text mentions that even unbiased search engines are susceptible to this.

Don't worry, new research shows all the negatives are made up by big water. You may continue consuming as many <sponsored energy drink> cans as you want. Drink verification can to confirm.

I made the switch to Kagi January last year.

I know it's all just personal experience and everyone can have their own needs, but I was skeptical at first as well.

Almost a year and a half later I've got no complaints.

My searches feel like how Google felt years ago: mainly I never think about it. I search, find what I want and I'm off. It just works as I'd expect without the nonsense ads and AI Google has now.

Worth a free trial. See how it works for you.

I'm a fan of FOSS like everyone else on Lemmy, but I don't think it's a universal solution for everything. Some things are worth paying for and I value an efficient search experience and privacy (Kagi has no personal info on me. I pay with a crypto wallet through a third party) so Kagi is a worthwhile service for me.

I agree with you though, any good search should be good enough to dig up the opinions and bias that is out there somewhere that agrees with your own biases.

I haven’t used Google products or services in a decade!

..but I know everyone I know has…

I switched 3 months ago and have the same experience as you. Got on the $25 tier that has access to all AI assistants/GPT models through their “Kagi Assistant”. So I basically swapped my ChatGPT subscription for the Kagi one which also has the search.

What’s nice is that I can maniacally search for stuff I’m looking into without them being bombarded by ads for it for a month after. Feels refreshing!

Would recommend.

Veritasium (youtube) did a piece on this, can't remember which video it was, might've been the one on his thesis of how to teach STEM topics in videos

I wish they'd offer a way to mitigate bias in the summary article since we can't see if in the actual study requires access to see if the researchers did

Yeah, the way search engines have implemented LLMs have made it much worse.

You can go on google or duckduckgo and search for one thing, click the top link and click back after a few seconds. And the order of results has changed. So the second link you thought might have been correct(and was), is now 5-6 or lower. And the new second link is even worse than the first and usually generative content catered to the first link you clicked(wrongly).

If you've visited almost any website then Google ads are tracking you. Unless you're a masochist running full lockout, noscript, and eliminate the use of cookies.... Google is following you.

This feels truthy to me.

Okay. Shit beyond my control has nothing to do with me not using Google products or services.

Veritasium, the dude that made up science experiments to prove his sponsors are worth buying from.

Researchers found that people often use search engines in ways that unintentionally reinforce their existing beliefs. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that even unbiased search engines can lead users into digital echo chambers—simply because of how people phrase their search queries.

"When people look up information online—whether on Google, ChatGPT or new AI-powered search engines—they often pick search terms that reflect what they already believe (sometimes without even realizing it),” said lead author Eugina Leung, an assistant professor at Tulane’s A. B. Freeman School of Business. “Because today’s search algorithms are designed to give you ‘the most relevant’ answers for whatever term you type, those answers can then reinforce what you thought in the first place. This makes it harder for people to discover broader perspectives.”

For example, people who believe caffeine is healthy might search “benefits of caffeine,” while skeptics might type “caffeine health risks.” Those subtle differences steered them toward drastically different search results, ultimately reinforcing their original beliefs.

The effect persisted even when participants had no intention of confirming a bias. In a few studies, fewer than 10% admitted to deliberately crafting their search to validate what they already thought, yet their search behavior still aligned closely with their beliefs.

The researchers tested several ways to encourage users to broaden their views. Simply prompting users to consider alternative perspectives or perform more searches had little effect. However, one approach worked consistently: changing the algorithm.

When search tools were programmed to return a broader range of results—regardless of how narrow the query was—people were more likely to reconsider their beliefs. In one experiment, participants who saw a balanced set of articles about caffeine health effects walked away with more moderate views and were more open to changing their behavior.

Users rated the broader results equally useful and relevant as the narrowly tailored ones. The findings suggest that search platforms could be crucial in combating polarization—if designed to do so. The researchers even found that most people were interested in using a “Search Broadly” feature—a button (conceptualized as doing the opposite of Google’s current “I’m feeling Lucky” button) that would intentionally deliver diverse perspectives on a topic.

Ever since I read about the "online bubble" of google I decided to step out of that. I am in the internet to enrich myself, I need to hear opinions that are different from mine to grow up.

That was a long time ago, among other things what I did was browse without login in, remove cookies after closing the browser and use several search engines not just one.

Now I selfhost a searxng instance.