For some time I've been bothered by Google's meddling in search results. It thinks it knows what I'm searching for better than I do and frequently displays results for synonyms of my search terms or for similarly spelled words. The workaround has been "to" "quote" "all" "my" "search" "terms". This is annoying, but I've lived with it.

In a new twist, Google now cuts off most of my searches at 3-4 results and fills the rest of the page with "similar searches". Which are utterly useless. And I'm not the only one bothered by it. That thread provides a solution: verbatim mode. Which also happens to solve my above problem, "removing" "the" "need" "for" "quotes". Unfortunately, there's no way to toggle verbatim mode permanently, so I have to manually select it on every search. Which takes 3 clicks. Which add up quickly, as I do tens of searches per day.

So, here I am, in need of advice on which search engine to switch to. What I'm looking for specifically is one that searches for precisely what I type, no substitutions of any kind, but provides the same "Did you mean..." suggestions as Google.

On a side note, does anyone else find it amusing that the "search for what I typed" option of a search engine is hidden under 2 layers of menus, and cannot be set as default?

1 decade ago*

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If you have problems with that sh!t then use Bing

1 decade ago
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+9001

1 decade ago
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1 decade ago
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+1

1 decade ago
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yeah

1 decade ago
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Currently testing that one out. Unfortunately, it also does automatic spelling correction and I can find no way to turn that off.

1 decade ago
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+1 too

1 decade ago
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Deleted

This comment was deleted 7 months ago.

1 decade ago
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+100

1 decade ago
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^So much this

1 decade ago
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+1 for privacy!

1 decade ago
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https://startpage.com

One of the nicest search engines I've seen. Very similar to Google from back in the day, but with a strong focus on privacy. It searches for what you tell it to search for as long as you get any results at all (if there are no results and part of your query is quoted, then it tries again without the quotes).

1 decade ago
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This is the next thing I'll try if Ducky doesn't work out.

1 decade ago
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Duck Duck Go.

1 decade ago
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Gizoogle.

Okay, I lied. But it is hilarious.
1 decade ago
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Hilarious indeed! Bookmarked! Thanks for that.

1 decade ago
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If only they had also managed to snag the bling.com domain name...

1 decade ago
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What's "Google"?

1 decade ago
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I could be wrong but I believe 'google' is an old old wooden ship that was used during the civil war era.

1 decade ago
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I would be surprised if the OP was concerned about the vertabim of an old wooden ship, but nice try.

1 decade ago
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I actually use Yahoo search for specific results and Google for a spread. Yahoo doesn't turn up all that many results (Compared to Google), but it is surprisingly accurate. If you are looking for a specific picture, for example, Yahoo will win out. If you try to describe it in the search, Google will just hit you with some unrelated spread and Yahoo will show you only pictures that fit your keywords. I am not a fan of Yahoo in general, but the search engine is good to use, once in a while..

I tend to shy away from most small search engines because they don't have enough being fed into them. I still desire the ability to search pretty much any site out there, but I get the need to sometimes target results. The smaller search engines just lack the overall results, to make someone like me happy.

1 decade ago
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Turn automatic updates to your search plugins off and edit the search string, adding the following to the end.

&tbs=li:1

It searches with verbatim on.

1 decade ago
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1 decade ago
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hi I'm chrome and i have this

1 decade ago
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Just a suggestion, but maybe searching for an addon for your browser that will set verbatim mode automatically? I think there are addons for firefox and opera, and I think there is a way to manipulate Chrome to get the same effect. I personally (I've done a lot of sleuthing) feel that Google is the best search engine, which is why I recommend trying to find an addon first before switching to another search engine.

1 decade ago
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i hate the "similar search results" so much...

1 decade ago
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Bing it like Hawaii Five-0

1 decade ago
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Baidu

1 decade ago
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1 decade ago
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There is also WolframAlpha.

1 decade ago
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Yahoo, Altavista or Bing :D

1 decade ago
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Clicky.

Just type what you want into the "Any of these words" box and hit search.

1 decade ago
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1 decade ago
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lol

1 decade ago
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Closed 1 decade ago by Vercinger.