Six search engines worth trying now that Google isn’t really Google anymore | TechCrunch
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AI
Six search engines worth trying now that Google isn’t really Google anymore
Amanda Silberling
12:19 PM PDT · May 21, 2026
Google is about to look really different, and if you’re not a fan of the AI Overviews feature, then you’re not going to like what’s coming.
At the Google I/O 2026 keynote this week, the company announced that it is overhauling Search to embrace a conversational, AI-driven approach, even inviting users to enlist AI agents to automatically notify them if, for example, their favorite band were to go on tour.
"This is the biggest upgrade to our iconic search box since its debut over 25 years ago," said Elizabeth Reid, leader of the Search organization at Google.
Now, when you search on Google, you’re given the option from the start to use AI mode. Even if you opt not to use AI mode, you might get a search result with an AI Overview, which will now include a chat box for you to ask follow-up questions. Once you open the chat box, Google begins to look more like ChatGPT than the search engine that’s ingrained itself into our lives for decades.
This announcement didn’t elicit the reaction that Google would’ve hoped for. Instead, many users see this as yet another example of a tech company squeezing AI agents and chatbots into everything it can, making it impossible to navigate the internet without encountering a chatbot. Especially after the rocky rollout of Google’s AI Overviews — remember when Google told people to stare into the sun? — users are not eager for another adjustment.
Image Credits: Google
On Google’s video announcing the Search updates, one commenter wrote, "this is the best advertisement for letting people know it’s time to get a different search engine."
They make a good point. The new Google Search, which Reid describes as "AI search through and through," is sure to alienate users. Generative AI aside, some users have also grown weary of Google for its sheer dominance — a U.S. District Court ruled in 2024 that Google had acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in online search.
If you’re curious about alternative search engines, you’re in the right place. Here are some places to start (or, embrace chaos and see where Open Web Engine takes you).
Kagi
Before we were annoyed by Google’s AI Overview, we were annoyed by ads. Ads are non-negotiable for Google — that’s how Google Search makes money. But if a search engine were to operate without ads, could it still make money?
That’s what Kagi is trying to accomplish. For $5 per month — or $10 for unlimited searches — you can access an ad-free search engine without AI overviews.
Kagi isn’t just ad-free Google. The search engine also lets users customize their search experience by letting them filter certain websites and refine search results with "lenses." If you’re in school, for example, you can use Kagi’s academic lens to find journal articles about a topic, rather than blog posts.
If you find Google’s AI Overviews useful from time to time, then you can use Kagi’s AI-powered "Quick Answer" feature to summarize an answer to your search and include links to its sources. But if you don’t want these AI summaries, guess what? You don’t have to generate them.
DuckDuckGo
Maybe you don’t want to pay to search stuff online. That’s understandable. DuckDuckGo offers a free search engine that makes money by selling ads, but unlike Google, it doesn’t collect user data in the form of search, browsing, and purchase history. Instead DuckDuckGo chooses what ads to serve based on the topic of your search — so if you search for concert tickets, you might see an ad for SeatGeek.
Like many alternative search engines, DuckDuckGo has an interface that’s reminiscent of Google — and like Google, it can display an AI-generated answer to a question in your search results. But if that bothers you, DuckDuckGo allows you to completely opt out of AI features in the settings menu.
Startpage
While DuckDuckGo has its own separate search index from Google, Startpage is a proxy for Google.
This means that Startpage acts as a middleman between you and the tech giant. When you search for something on Startpage, the company strips personal data like your IP address from your query, sends it to Google via the cloud, and returns the information to you....