Honestly, I thought the same! I primarily use DDG, but when that doesn’t cut it, I go use my Kagi free trial of 100 searches. It’s lasted me months at this point, which is a testament to DDG and Kagi tbh. DDG for getting me there 99% of the time, and Kagi for delivering on the rest, with the bonus of being customizable and privacy focused. When the trial runs out, I will likely purchase the lowest tier so I can mix it in more bc the result quality is truly higher and it actually LISTENS to my quotes and + & - terms. You may not do as many searches as you think, and for throwaway searches, DDG is probs good enough.
Im a dev & my entire job is googling shit basically, so it’s worth it for me to get quality results without dealing with the bullshit AI SEO wasteland
Honestly, I thought the same! I primarily use DDG, but when that doesn’t cut it, I go use my Kagi free trial of 100 searches. It’s lasted me months at this point, which is a testament to DDG and Kagi tbh. DDG for getting me there 99% of the time, and Kagi for delivering on the rest, with the bonus of being customizable and privacy focused. When the trial runs out, I will likely purchase the lowest tier so I can mix it in more bc the result quality is truly higher and it actually LISTENS to my quotes and + & - terms. You may not do as many searches as you think, and for throwaway searches, DDG is probs good enough.
Im a dev & my entire job is googling shit basically, so it’s worth it for me to get quality results without dealing with the bullshit AI SEO wasteland