schmurnan

schmurnan , 2 months ago

My 100-search trial expired this week and I was literally planning on subscribing later tonight. This has made me think twice.

But it takes me back to why I tried Kagi in the first place: What else can I use that respects privacy?

I don’t think any of them do completely. DuckDuckGo uses Bing, so is Microsoft; Google is… well, Google; Brave is apparently really shady; I’ve never thought much of the results from Bing directly. Startpage seemed ok but apparently uses Google.

What else?

I also like something to be integrated into the browser. As a Mac user, I can’t add new search engines to Safari (and have actually switched to Orion, but may now switch to Firefox or back to Safari).

schmurnan , 2 months ago

Yeah I had SearXNG running via a Docker container and it was pretty good. I didn’t like having to use a domain name and expose it over the internet though, because Docker is running on my NAS. I guess I could give it another try using Cloudflare tunnels so I don’t have to open anything up.

Or else go back to Startpage.

schmurnan OP , 3 months ago

That wasn’t the OP 😂

schmurnan OP , 3 months ago

The Apple integration is probably the main reason I use Safari I think; the likes of Apple Pay, Touch ID/Face ID all just works. I’d love that ability in Firefox and then I’d probably use it exclusively.

schmurnan OP , 3 months ago

Yeah I know they’re all based on one of three, but they are all subtly different in what they offer.

So whilst there are three main engines, there are definitely more than three choices.

Bottom of the pile for me is Chrome - I don’t use anything Google knowingly/willingly.

schmurnan OP , 3 months ago

Tried it, kinda liked it, but then read a lot of shady stuff about them not being as privacy-focused as they’re made out to be.

I might give Arc a go, not sure how good/popular it is though. But I think anything other than Safari will be a compromise because of the Apple Pay/Touch ID/Face ID integration.

schmurnan OP , 3 months ago

Fair enough 👍🏻

schmurnan OP , 3 months ago

And this, my friend, is exactly what I came here for. Very insightful, informative and measured answer. Thank you for taking the time 👍🏻

schmurnan OP , 3 months ago

I have/had a ProtonMail account, and whilst it was great, I believe it was only end-to-end encrypted when sending emails to other people using ProtonMail…? Or at least that was my understanding at the time.

The apps back then weren’t particularly polished, so I ended up migrating everything back to iCloud.

To be honest, I don’t seem to have any issues with iCloud and everything just works. But that’s the problem with Apple, and how they “get” you.

schmurnan OP , 3 months ago

Sorry, I wasn’t classing Chrome and Chromium as the same thing. I’m a software developer of 20 years so I understand they’re not the same thing. I guess I just took that opportunity to state that I don’t use Google services/products if I can help it.

In work we’re a Windows house, but I’ve managed to get my hands on an M2 MacBook Pro. For now I’m still using Edge but would like to get my iCloud exemption so I can use some of the apps on my personal MBP for work, and I’m wondering whether I should continue using Edge for work and A. N. Other browser for personal (and mirror this on my iPhone); or whether to use profiles, for example, on Safari and split it that way. I might be limited to what I can download on the work machine, but I’d like to synergies everything as much as I can where possible rather than having two completely different Mac experiences with my iPhone sort of thrown in the middle of both.

Which browser do you prefer? I assume a Chromium-based derivative?