Qwant is actually pretty decent compared to the competition.
this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2025
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Great! Ecosia works super well, and it feels good to not having to rely on google to find things. Only thing I’d wish for is that they’d have some map service or similar to find restaurants and shop. There is sadly no good replacement for google maps that I’ve found
Ecosia works well enough for me too. The tree planting thing should never be forgotten. The scope of their work is impressive and they're very transparent about their goals and funding. No other search engine comes close to that.
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Organic Maps
Yeah but open street maps does not handle temporary road closures, construction, or temporary one-ways well...
https://nelsonslog.wordpress.com/2024/03/30/openstreetmap-temporary-road-closures/
I don't even know if organic maps respects tags. https://www.reddit.com/r/openstreetmap/comments/vuuecd/how_or_where_can_i_submit_temporary_closed_roads/
It certainly doesn't respect road conditions or road priority. It constantly tries to send me through a 2 meter wide cobblestone and broken up asphalt service road instead of the main residential roads because it "technically" is 50, even with surface marked as bad condition.
I try to contribute to OSM where I can, but i never can trust organic maps to get me somewhere I haven't been before.
open street maps does not handle temporary road closures, construction, or temporary one-ways well
that sadly depends on your region and the amount of volunteers in your area. I remember reading how OSM was more reliable after the 2023 Turkey earthquake for the first responders than Google Maps, because the changes in the terrain were added there much faster.
I don't know about the road conditions during the navigation. it definitely does support this kind of data as I input it myself every now and then, but I don't drive so I haven't had to try out different OSM navigation algorithms to see if they account for it, or anything like that.
I more mean the actual method of doing it isn't straightforward and there is still no fully agreed upon and documented method for construction changes, just a few "you can do it this way" kind of things.
And indeed navigation picking up the OSM updates and using temporary closure tags and road conditions seems to be more miss than hit with organic maps at least. But the UI is 10x more usable than OSMAnd so I use it where possible.
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We will develop a privacy-first search index, which will be used by both Ecosia and Qwant, and unlike proprietary solutions, we are making the index available to others.
Both are great! In my experience Qwant gives better search results, so thats what i use. I even prefer Qwant's results over Google's. But Ecosia is a great option as well because of the tree planting.
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Maybe I'll use Ecosia again
Anything that can displace American tech is good.
So many people are happy here. I can understand why but quick reminder that Qwant is not privacy friendly like they claim to be and that the CEO is a bastard who threatened employees.
As for Ecosia, the only green they have is their name. Great they plant trees but they pushed AI so it's basically like if they are destroying the trees they planted.
There is a search engine with their own index from UK, privacy-friendly, it is called Mojeek. It is not as good as the others but I've been using it for maybe 4 months and it already improved a lot. They need users to give feedback and improve. Give it a try ! 😊
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Any News on when this will go live?
It doesn't mention whether it'll be opensource or not. A proprietary search index that isn't USAian is probably better, but still opensource would be better.
Don't let perfect stand in the way of better I'd say, in the end both companies still need to make a return on investment
True, it's a first step in the right direction :)
Search engines are dying, I doubt they'll have much relevance in ten years or so, unless something radically changes. Walled gardens, SEO, AI spam, and so on.
I wonder where the solution lies. The way the modern internet works is completely hostile to the idea of crawler-based search engines, so I feel like the focus should be on creating an alternative, people-first internet which is completely hostile to brands, corporations and advertisers, ran by communities and individuals, etc.
Far from it, if you're willing to pay for good search check out Kagi. You don't realize how busted search is until you see what it's like when ads aren't the business model.
I've been a paying subscriber to Kagi since 2023. Everything I wrote in my previous comment is still true. I'm glad that it works for you, though.
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Sounds great! I've been happy with Ecosia currently. I tried Qwant, but I have strict privacy settings enabled in my browser and it says it couldn't get a secure connection. I'm sure it's 100% safe, but I just settled for Ecosia for now. Looking forward to trying out their new partnered search engine.
Now if only anyone of them would offer a paid ad-free option. I'd drop Kagi in an instant
Hey! Just coming back real quick to let you know they do use Yandex API which is russian. https://kagifeedback.org/d/5445-reconsider-yandex-integration-due-to-the-geopolitical-status-quo
I know, that's part of the reason why I want to ditch kagi, but I despise ads. Nothing good ever comes from ads.
Perhaps send their support an email about it to see what they say
Pity they aren't on mastodon :/
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