Six search engines to try after Google changes

Six search engines now offer different ways to look things up as Google moves to a conversational, AI-driven Search.

At the Google I/O 2026 keynote this week, the company said it is overhauling Search and inviting users to enlist AI agents to automatically notify them if, for example, their favorite band were to go on tour. Elizabeth Reid, leader of the Search organization at Google, called it “the biggest upgrade to our iconic search box since its debut over 25 years ago.”

Users now get the option from the start to use AI mode, and even those who skip it may still see an AI Overview with a chat box for follow-up questions. Once that chat box opens, Google begins to look more like ChatGPT than the search engine that’s been part of daily life for decades.

The reaction was not what Google would have wanted. 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.” Reid described the new Google Search as “AI search through and through.”

Some users are also tired of Google’s dominance, and a U.S. District Court ruled in 2024 that Google had acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in online search. If you want alternatives, there are several places to start, or you can embrace chaos and see where Open Web Engine takes you.

Ad-free and privacy-focused options

Kagi is trying to build an ad-free search engine that can still make money. It costs $5 per month, or $10 for unlimited searches, and it does not include AI overviews.

The service also lets users customize results by filtering certain websites and using “lenses.” For example, its academic lens can be used to find journal articles instead of blog posts. Kagi also has an AI-powered “Quick Answer” feature that summarizes an answer and includes links to its sources, though users do not have to generate those summaries.

DuckDuckGo is free and makes money by selling ads, but it does not collect user data in the form of search, browsing, and purchase history. Instead, it chooses ads based on the topic of the search, so a search for concert tickets might show an ad for SeatGeek.

DuckDuckGo has an interface that is reminiscent of Google, and it can also display an AI-generated answer in search results. Users who do not want that can opt out of AI features in the settings menu.

Startpage is a proxy for Google, which means it acts as a middleman between the user and the tech giant. It strips personal data such as an IP address from the query, sends it to Google via the cloud, and returns the information to the user.

The result is Google without Google knowing who you are, although it is still Google. Startpage also lets users turn off AI features.

Tools that change Google results

The search engine &udm=14 is named for the string of characters it appends to all Google searches. If you add &udm=14 to your Google searches, you get the same Google results without an AI overview, and the service does that automatically instead of making you repeat the step after every search.

The developer has also put the code on GitHub so people can run their own version of &udm=14. For users concerned about privacy, Startpage would be the better choice, but both options basically provide AI-free Google.

Brave offers both a browser and a search engine, and its browser is built atop Chromium, the same open-source base as Google Chrome. That means Chrome extensions can be used within Brave, including a LastPass plug-in.

On the search side, Brave lets users apply third-party “Goggles” to curate results. The options include “News from the Right,” “News from the Left,” “Tech Blogs,” “Hacker News/1k short,” which prioritizes common domains referenced on Y-Combinator’s Hacker News forum while omitting the 1,000 most popular domains, and “No Pinterest.” Brave also allows AI features to be toggled on and off.

Browsers with search built in

Ecosia also offers both a browser and a search engine, and it is built atop Chromium, so Chrome plug-ins should work there too. Its main draw is that it is supposed to be more eco-friendly than other search platforms.

Ecosia makes money from ads and donates about 80% of its income to tree-planting initiatives around the world. It also works with communities involved in local reforestation efforts, publishes monthly financial reports for transparency, and blogs about the actual impact of its efforts.