this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2026
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What are alternative to searching using web search engines? (programming.dev)
submitted 11 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) by cactus_head@programming.dev to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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For most use cases, web search engines are fine. But I am wondering if there are alternative ways to finding information. There is also the enshittification of google and tbh most(free) search engines just give google search result

Obviously, the straight answer is just asking other people, in person or online, in general forums or specialised communities

Libraries are good source too but for those of is that don't have access to physical libraries, there free online public libraries(I will post the links for those that I found below)

Books in general, a lot of them have reference to outside materials.

So, I been experimenting with an AI chat bot(Le chat), partially as life coach of sorts and partially as a fine tuned web search engine. To cut to the chase, its bad. when its not just listing google top results it list tools that are long gone or just makes shit up. I was hoping it to be a fine tuned search engine, cuz with google, if what you want is not in the top 10 websites, your on your own.

So yeah, that all I can think of. Those are all the routes I can think of for finding information and probably all there is but maybe I missed some other routes.

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[–] similideano@piefed.social 12 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

I'm old enough that the first kind of "web search" that I used were manually compiled website directories. Some are still around, maybe try a few and see if you like them. Come to think of it, it's probably still a fun way of exploring websites around a subject. Here's the current incarnation of one of the most prominent ones:

https://curlie.org/

[–] vogi@piefed.social 2 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Thank you for the link, had a conversation the other day talking about what our game plan is when search engines become even more useless. I feel we really go full circle with this one.

Here is an active codeberg repo curating german Amazon alternatives: https://codeberg.org/phranck/Amazon-Alternativen

[–] early_riser@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago

Man, physical web directories! I wasn't "around" for them but it's wild to think the web was that small once. I was born in the mid 80s but didn't even hear the word internet until around 1996.

I do remember webrings though. That was one way to discover new websites before algorithms took over. Not great for research probably but a fun way to explore.