It's not just you: Google search is getting worse. It's more than the annoying new AI box at the top of the results page, which takes a long time to load and tends to spout nonsense. It's also that the overall quality of search results seems to have declined over time, even as promoted results and ads take up more of the user interface.

But despite the search giant's omnipresence, you aren't stuck with Google. There are a number of alternative search engines out there. None are perfect, but each has positives that make them worth considering. Here are five alternatives that will satisfy most people. And remember: You don't need to switch to relying entirely on one of them. In fact, it's probably best to try out a few different options, and even continue use different search engines for different purposes going forward.

DuckDuckGo

Credit: Justin Pot

DuckDuckGo is the longest standing privacy-oriented alternative to Google, and it remains one of the best in terms of features. The service is free, relying on ad revenue, but that ads are based entirely on what you're searching right at this moment—that is, there's no long-term tracking following you between search sessions.

I, a huge nerd, love that you can browse your search results entirely using the keyboard—just type something in the search bar, use the up and down arrow keys to jump to any selection on the results page, and hit "Enter" to open it. Then there are bangs, which allow you to search other sites directly from the DuckDuckGo search bar—for example, typing "!w" at the beginning of a query will launch the search in Wikipedia, bypassing DuckDuckGo entirely. There are over 13,000 of these shortcuts, useful for directly searching everything from Reddit to WolframAlpha.

The service has maintained a good reputation on the privacy front, at least in terms of the search engine itself; there has been some controversy involving the DuckDuckGo browser, which blocks most tracking but specifically not Microsoft's, because of an agreement between the two companies. Some users likewise aren't thrilled about the "Chat" tab, which integrates with OpenAI. Notably, though, AI recommendations don't come through in standard searches on DuckDuckGo.

Kagi

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Kagi is a paid search engine with no ads whatsover. The subscription model, the theory goes, allows it to offer quality search results without any temptation on the part of the developers to water them down with ads. The engine has earned praise from the likes of Cory Doctorow and 404 Media's Jason Koebler, which isn't too shabby.

One feature people love is the ability to block matches from URLs you don't like from ever showing up in your search results, which is useful if you notice a particular website is consistently trash. There's also a tool for searching podcasts, which I haven't seen anywhere else. The main downside is that you have to pay. Plans start at $5/month, though that only gives you 300 searches. Unlimited search starts at $10/month. You can try the service for yourself and decide whether it's worth paying for—there's a free version, but it's limited to 100 total searches total.

There has been a bit of controversy around the company that's worth noting, mostly related to how the it is run, the around $2 million of investment money it recently took on after bragging about bootstrapping. Also, the CEO is being annoying about any criticism the company receives. That aside, the search engine itself seems to work well, so give it a shot if you're willing to pony up.

Brave

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Brave Search is the search engine from the team behind the Brave browser, which is famous for coming with built-in ad blocking. It sets itself apart from DuckDuckGo by having its own search index, built from scratch (DuckDuckGo combines its own index with data from Bing and numerous other companies).

Brave also offers a Goggles feature, which allows you to use custom filters that boost or downgrade outlets based on factors like topic and political persuasion. I found some of this overly simplistic—most websites are not uniformly one thing—but you can check the code to see what's being factored into any Goggle, so it's all very transparent at least. There's also a built-in AI engine that's opt-in—just press up after typing your search query to enable the feature for a specific search. The main shortcoming, in my opinion, is that there's no maps feature whatsoever.

Brave's reputation is decent, though the CEO has a controversial history and the company has been accused of selling copyrighted data to train AI, so take all of that into account.

Ecosia

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Ecosia is a free, ad-supported search engine that donates all of its profits toward climate action. They are very transparent about this—you can read through the financial reports yourself. The search itself is powered by Bing, and works fairly well.

Perplexity.ai

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Perplexity is completely different beast. Instead of putting AI generated text at the top of results, it pretty much only offers AI generated text, with links serving as citations for all of the points made. You can ask a question and then a followup, which can be useful to refine your results, and clicking the citation gives you a few interesting links. I find that Perplexity seems to be better at spotting and understanding satire and jokes than Google's AI bot, though obviously you should test it out for yourself and see what comes back.

Obviously anyone who is concerned about AI shouldn't use Perplexity, and there are no doubt going to be privacy concerns for this browser in the long term—it has raised $165 million in venture capital, which isn't something that happens unless investors are expecting a massive return, and we all know where that kind of thing generally leads. For now, though, it's an interesting tool that doesn't have any ads, and it can be useful for some queries.

Or, use Google differently

If you don't want to give up on Google's search results but hate what the service has become, there are a few options. Startpage is a privacy-oriented service that uses Google's search index to deliver results without the tracking. There's also UDM14.com, a simple site that re-directs you to Google's web view. Both are URLs worth keeping bookmarking for those times when you still feel compelled to Google.

There are a lot of productivity applications out there, and FocusedOS tries to combine several of them. The application, which is available for all Apple devices, can block distracting apps and websites, dim the entire screen except for the window you're currently looking at, and play ambient sounds. The idea is that you'll be able to turn all of these features on with the press of a button, work, then turn it all off again when you're done.

To get started, simply download the application and decide which features you want to enable. The first tab, "Behavior," lets you dim all windows except the currently active one—this is similar to the application HazeOver ($4.99). You can also limit the number of apps that can show up on the screen and add some custom text to the menu bar. Finally, there's a feature that can hide icons on the menu bar, which is similar to the application Bartender ($22). You can also hide wallpaper or even go so far as to disable the wifi entirely. Note that none of these features are offered on the iPhone or iPad version of the application (mostly because they wouldn't make sense there).

Credit: Justin Pot

On the "Ambience" tab, you can choose between a variety of background sounds—that means you won't need a dedicated background sound application.

Credit: Justin Pot

There are also tools for blocking distracting apps and websites. You can choose which apps to block or only allow specific applications to open. Websites are a little simpler: There are pre-built categories you can add, or you can add URLs yourself.

Credit: Justin Pot

Finally, if this isn't enough, you can trigger any Apple Shortcut when you turn the focus mode on or off. You could use this to turn off notifications, start a timer, or anything else you can imagine.

The free version only allows you to create one "environment," meaning you configure everything the way you like it and that's how the application works. The paid version, which costs $20 per year, allows you to make multiple environments, meaning you could configure things differently for different tasks. The paid version also allows you to sync your current environment between your Mac, iPhone, and iPad, unlocks more ambient sounds, and allows you to run a shortcut when starting an environment.

I don't think this combination of tools is going to be right for everyone. If you're constantly toggling a collection of focus-boosting tools every time you need to focus, though, FocusedOS might be exactly what you need. Give the free version a try to find out.

Transcribing isn't fun at all. Good thing it's something AI is actually good at. Aiko is an app for Mac, iPad, and iPhone that users Whisper—open-source technology created by OpenAI—to transcribe audio files. Aiko does not upload the file to the cloud to make the transcription; everything happens on your device. And it works fairly quickly, too: I was able to transcribe a half hour radio drama in just a few minutes.

The application works best on devices with Apple Silicon processors (Intel Macs are technically supported but are extremely slow at transcribing); my 2022 iPhone SE was significantly faster than my 2018 Intel MacBook Pro, which took around three minutes to transcribe 10 seconds of talking. If you have the right hardware, though, this application is just about perfect.

Credit: Justin Pot

To get started, you need to either point the application toward a file or start recording what you want to transcribe. You can add any audio or video file to the application, which will immediately get started on creating a transcription for you. The recording feature is mostly there for quick notes—the software advises you to record things using another application first if at all possible. The mobile version can grab audio from the Voice Memos app, which is a nice touch.

Credit: Justin Pot

The application will show you the text as the transcription happens, meaning you can start reading before the complete transcription is done. The application automatically detects the language being spoken, though you can set a different language in the settings if you prefer. You can even set the application to automatically translate non-English conversation into English, if you want.

It's not a perfect application—there's no way to indicate who is speaking when in the text, for example. It works quickly, though, and is completely free, so it's hard to complain too much. This is going to be a go-to tool for me from now on.

Remember when Dropbox synced your files and that was it? These days Dropbox does a lot more than sync files and it wants to remind you—and upsell you—at every turn. Maestral (which I found via App Addict) is an open source application for Linux and Mac that brings the sync-only experience back. Even better: using this app doesn't count against the three device limit of the free version.

Setting up Maestral couldn't be easier on a Mac. Just download the application, install it, and open it. You will be asked to connect to your Dropbox account via the browser. You will be given a token which you can copy from there and paste back in Maestral.

Credit: Justin Pot/Maestral

After that you will be asked which folder you'd like to store your Dropbox files in. Note that, unlike the default Dropbox application, Maestral can put your files anywhere you want.

Credit: Justin Pot/Maestral

After that you can choose to exclude files and folders from syncing, if you want. Don't worry about this too much—you can always adjust things later.

Credit: Justin Pot/Maestral

After that Maestral will start syncing over your files. You can check the status of the syncing anytime by clicking the menu bar icon. You can also change your local folder and selective sync preference by opening the settings, which also offers bandwidth limits.

Credit: Justin Pot

I've been using this in place of the usual Dropbox client and find that it works very well. It also has a smaller footprint than the default client. Having said that, there are a few things missing. You can't see the sync status of files in Finder, the way you can in Dropbox, and there's no way to right-click files in order to share them—you'll need to use the web version of Dropbox for that. Neither of these are deal-breakers for me, especially given how much lighter Maestral feels compared to the official Dropbox client.

And I haven't even brought up the command-line version of the application, which uses up even fewer system resources and can be used to connect multiple Dropbox accounts to the same computer. You'll have to dig into the command line documentation to figure that out.

The words "social network" imply that such tools will connect you with the people in your life. That's not how these services work anymore.

At this point in the downward spiral of life on the internet, Instagram is mostly jammed with viral videos, none of my friends are active on Facebook, and Twitter—a site I once used to both kindle and maintain friendships—is a husk of what it once was (it's not even called Twitter anymore). At this point, there's basically nowhere I can talk to all my friends at once.

Except for in an email. Here we are, deep into the Web 2.0 era (or possibly in the web 3.0 era, depending on how much you've bought into the blockchain), and the best way to talk to a group of your friends online is a technology that dates back to the 1970s. If social networks are about connecting you to the people in your life, which I would argue they are, email is the only social network still standing.

Things didn't have to be this way. The companies that run social networks could have made different decisions. They could have prioritized actual connection over their endless appetite for dopamine-driving scale. But they didn't, and their platforms are now terrible at doing what they were ostensibly created to do.

Email, meanwhile, still works just fine.

Messaging is a fragmented mess

I host a party once a month. I email a large group of people to let them know that they can stop by. Sometimes a few people respond to it and hit reply-all, causing minor chaos, which is fine; sometimes no one does, which is also fine. Every month a handful of the people I email stop by, and we have a great time. The people who don't stop by tell me that they still like getting the emails.

It's hard to think of another tool I could use to accomplish this as effectively. There was a time, in the early 2010s, when I might have used Facebook, but no one I know under 60 who is still active there. I could hypothetically start a Discord server, but that means building an entire online community that pulls together friends from different parts of my life, which I don't want to do. And even if I did, it would only work if everyone both joined and checked my server regularly. I doubt that would happen.

The same goes for any other messaging service. Most of my friends use some combination of Apple Messages, Signal, Whatsapp, Messenger, and probably other services I don't even know about. There's no simple way to message users of one service from another, meaning there's no simple way to reach everyone at once. There is no one thing that everyone uses except possibly SMS, and SMS is a nightmare way to talk to large groups.

Email has none of these problems. I can send an email to a group of people, regardless of which email provider they use, and it will work. It doesn't matter if my friends use Gmail, Outlook, Proton, or an email server running on a Rapsberry Pi—it all works the same, and I can be reasonably certain that people will actually receive and even read the message. If there's a better tool out there for this I haven't found it (and finding tools and software is literally my job).

Email newsletters are the new blogs

Email isn't just for planning parties. I run a small email newsletter. It more or less serves as a roundup of my articles from various outlets, bundled with a few of my thoughts about life. And a picture of my cat. It's nothing complicated, but I find creating and sending it out rewarding.

There is nothing in my email newsletter that I don't push out to other social networks, including LinkedIn, Facebook, X, and Mastodon. I sometimes even have brief conversations on those platforms after publishing something, which I appreciate. But fr some reason, the best conversations consistently happen in response to my email newsletters. Some of them are with friends I see regularly; some are with people I haven't seen or heard from in a while; some are with people I work with; some are with complete strangers. All are actual conversations, featuring an exchange of ideas and a bit of back-and-forth—a little social engagement, which is more than I can say for my interactions on any actual social network.

Perhaps I wouldn't feel this way if I were an influencer with a massive account on one of those traditional social media platforms. Maybe if I had hundreds of thousands of followers I would get a decent amount of response to anything and everything I published. I'm not sure that I actually want that, though. I also believe that I shouldn't need to build myself into some form of pseudo celebrity in order for my work to inspire a couple of conversations.

With email, I don't have to do that. I am sure there are people with different experiences, and I'm happy for them. Perhaps they will leave me a thoughtful comment down below this article saying as much, but I hope they choose to send me a nice email instead.

Text expansion tools are essential for anyone who finds themselves constantly copying and pasting the same information multiple times every day. Over the years we've recommended TextExpander and aText, but neither is exactly cheap. If you're looking for a free alternative and don't mind messing with configuration files, you should check out Espanso.

This is a free and open source application for Windows, Mac, and Linux that can do pretty much everything those paid apps are capable of, for free. The downside: it takes a little bit more work to set up.

Let's back up a little. Text expansion tools allow you define trigger words that you can type in any application to quickly paste something longer. For example, I could set such an application to replace ":jhp" with "Justin Pot", complete with the link, to make explaining who I am in a professional email just a little bit faster. The best applications let you do this while also offering automation for things like including the current date or even information from other programs.

Espanso is a free text expansion app. To get started, download and install the application. Windows and Mac users will find a system icon, while Linux users need to rely entirely on the command line, which I'm sure won't be a problem for them.

Credit: Justin Pot

Click Open search bar and you can browse the current snippets. There are only a handful by default.

Credit: Justin Pot

This doesn't get useful until you start adding your own snippets, which is the tricky part. I recommend reading the official documentation to really get a feel—consider the following a quick overview.

You can add snippets manually by editing a configuration file, found at C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\espanso on Windows (replace "user" with your actual username) and ~/Library/Application Support/espanso on macOS. In the "match" sub-folder you will find a file called "base.yml". Open this in any text editor to see examples of how you can add your own snippets.

Credit: Justin Pot

The three snippets we saw before are all here. You can edit them, if you like, to get a feel for how things work. I made a few snippets by copying and pasting things to the end of the document. Espanso will reload the configuration file every time you save the file and let you know if something is broken. Note that the number of spaces before each line is important—things won't work if you're not precise.

Like I said: there is going to be some trial and error here. I managed to built a few snippets while playing around. By digging around in the documentation, I managed to get the form-filling pop-up working.

If building your own snippets proves too difficult, maybe you can start with the large hub of pre-built collections. You can, for example, quickly add shortcuts for every emoji, or for special characters. Another set corrects all kinds of common mispelling. This is a great way to get a feel for what the application can do, and you can even open the files to see how they work.

Credit: Justin Pot

Ultimately, though, this is an application you're going to need to work at to get the most out of. I can't recommend reading the documentation enough. It can be a little dense, but you're smart—I know you can figure this out. If not, well, there's always the paid options.

Do you miss the days when a Google search just gave you a list of links, and not a slowly updating box of questionably reliable AI-generated slop? You can return to that earlier, simpler age by tweaking your Chrome settings.

Last week Google started adding AI suggestions to everyone's search results. Some people like these summaries, probably, but for me, they take way too long to load. I'd rather immediately see a list of links than wait for a summary of those links to appear a few seconds later., possibly filled with inaccurate information If you agree, the good news is that Google offers a web search now. The bad news: there's no simple way to make this the default.

At least, there wasn't, until the journalist Ernie Smith at Tedium found a way to force search engines to show you Google's web results.

How to see Google's web results by default

Basically, you need to make a custom search engine in your browser that points to Google's web experience. You can do this by adding https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14 as a search engine. Smith explains this well, but if you aren't interested in all the technical details, just know that URL points your browser specifically at Google's web results panel.

Smith outlined how to do this in Vivaldi, which is great, but I thought I'd show you how to make Web the default in Google's own web browser (and the most popular web browser in the world): Chrome.

1. To get started, open Chrome's settings and head to Search engine > Manage search engines and site search.

Credit: Justin Pot

1. Click the Add button, which you will find below the list of search engines.

Credit: Justin Pot

1. Name the new search engine something like "Google web search". For the shortcut I recommend using just "web", because Chrome will stop you from using the word "Google" (a detail I find hilarious). Finally, and here's the important bit, for the URL us https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14. This will point your query to Google's web search.

Credit: Justin Pot

1. Click Save. You'll see your new search engine in the list—click the three dots next to it and click Make default.

Credit: Justin Pot

You've now made your new search engine the default. Go ahead and try to search for something: You'll only get links. No Quick Answers of AI-generated summaries.

Credit: Justin Pot

Wait, why is my LinkedIn page outranking my personal website? What have I done to deserve that? Never mind: The point is, I'm now only seeing links from the web in my search results.

This workaround doesn't fix Google entirely, granted, but it makes using the search engine a lot better, and faster. (Read Lifehacker's guide to making Google show you the good search results again for more tips.)

Slack users across the web—on Mastodon, on Threads, and on Hackernews—have responded with alarm to an obscure privacy page that outlines the ways in which their Slack conversations, including DMs, are used to train what the Salesforce-owned company calls "Machine Learning" (ML) and "Artificial Intelligence" (AI) systems. The only way to opt out of these features is for the admin of your company's Slack setup to send an email to Slack requesting it be turned off.

The policy, which applies to all Slack instances—not just those that have opted into the Slack AI add-on—states that Slack systems "analyze Customer Data (e.g. messages, content and files) submitted to Slack as well as Other Information (including usage information) as defined in our privacy policy and in your customer agreement."

So, basically, everything you type into Slack is used to train these systems. Slack states that data "will not leak across workspaces" and that there are "technical controls in place to prevent access." Even so, we all know that conversations with AI chatbots are not private, and it's not hard to imagine this going wrong somehow. Given the risk, the company must be offering something extremely compelling in return...right?

What are the benefits of letting Slack use your data to train AI?

The section outlining the potential benefits of Slack feeding all of your conversations into a large language model says this will allow the company to provide improved search results, better autocomplete suggestions, better channel recommendations, and (I wish I was kidding) improved emoji suggestions. If this all sounds useful to you, great! I personally don't think any of these things—except possibly better search—will do much to make Slack more useful for getting work done.

The emoji thing, particularly, is absurd. Slack is literally saying that they need to feed your conversations into an AI system so that they can provide better emoji recommendations. Consider this actual quote, which I promise you is from Slack's website and not The Onion:

Slack might suggest emoji reactions to messages using the content and sentiment of the message, the historic usage of the emoji and the frequency of use of the emoji in the team in various contexts. For instance, if 🎉 is a common reaction to celebratory messages in a particular channel, we will suggest that users react to new, similarly positive messages with 🎉.

I am overcome with awe just thinking about the implications of this incredible technology, and am no longer concerned about any privacy implications whatsoever. AI is truly the future of communication.

How to opt your company out of Slack's AI training

The bad news is that you, as an individual user, cannot opt out of Slack using your conversation history to train its large language model. That can only be done by a Slack admin, which in most cases is going to be someone in the IT department of your company. And there's no button in the settings for opting out—admins need to send an email asking for it to happen.

Here's Slack exact language on the matter:

If you want to exclude your Customer Data from Slack global models, you can opt out. To opt out, please have your org, workspace owners or primary owner contact our Customer Experience team at feedback@slack.com with your workspace/org URL and the subject line ‘Slack global model opt-out request’. We will process your request and respond once the opt-out has been completed.

This smells like a dark pattern—making something annoying to do in order to discourage people from doing it. Hopefully the company makes the opt-out process easier in the wake of the current earful they're getting from customers.

A reminder that Slack DMs aren't private

I'll be honest, I'm a little amused at the prospect of my Slack data being used to improve search and emoji suggestions for my former employers. At previous jobs, I frequently sent DMs to work friends filled with negativity about my manager and the company leadership. I can just picture Slack recommending certain emojis every time a particular CEO is mentioned.

Funny as that idea is, though, the whole situation serves as a good reminder to employees everywhere: Your Slack DMs aren't actually private. Nothing you say on Slack—even in a direct message—is private. Slack uses that information to train tools like this, yes, but the company you work for can also access those private messages pretty easily. I highly recommend using something not controlled by your company if you need to shit talk said company. Might I suggest Signal?

Update: After this article was published, a spokesperson shared with Lifehacker that Slack doesn't develop its own LLMs or other generative models using customer data, and pointed to the company's recently updated privacy principles (which are quoted from extensively above) to better explain how they use customer data and generative AI. 

Most things are faster to do with the keyboard than with the mouse, but not every app is built with the keyboard in mind. That's where where Shortcat comes in. This free Mac application allows you to quickly search for and click things like buttons, links, and fields in applications, all in a few keystrokes. There's a bit of a learning curve, granted, but once you get past that it can speed up almost anything you do on your computer.

Shortcat is triggered with a keyboard shortcut—by default, CMD-Shift-Space. Trigger this shortcut and you'll see a search bar and yellow boxes with two-letter codes for everything in the menu bar and every clickable item in the current window.

Credit: Justin Pot

Search for the thing on the screen—either by typing the two-letter code or by just typing for the thing you're looking for. When you see the thing that you want to "click," simply hit enter—the result will be just as though you'd moved the mouse and clicked that item. You're not limited to clicking: you can double-click by hitting enter twice quickly or right-click by holding Control when you press enter.

Credit: Justin Pot

This works with native Mac applications, which is to be expected, but I was delighted to learn that it also works in web browsers. You can, for example, search for a link you want to open and then hit enter to open it.

Credit: Justin Pot

This works not only in the browser but in Electron apps. It's okay if you don't know what that means—this is relatively obscure stuff—but to oversimplify, Electron apps are basically just websites running in a dedicated browser. Slack works this way, as do a lot of applications at this point.

This is, admittedly, a niche application, but for me it scratches an itch. Keeping your hand on the keyboard is generally better ergonomically, and typically a lot faster, than reaching for the mouse. With Shortcat running I reach for the mouse a lot less, which I really enjoy.

We've talked more than once about the pomodoro technique, which is built around intensely focusing on a task for 25 minutes and taking a five minute break. There's a lot of software out there for the job, but most of them live on only one of your devices.

Not Focus Timer, an indie app that's been around in various forms for eleven years. The current version works on every Apple platform: Mac, iPhone, iPad, Watch, and even Vision Pro. Your settings—including the current timer—sync via iCloud, all without you having to do much of anything other than install the app on various platforms. It's very convenient, but it's not free: The app costs $40 per year for access on all platforms.

Credit: Justin Pot

That's a lot to pay for a timer, granted, but it is really nice having a Pomodoro timer that follows you everywhere. I, for example, like to get up and walk around the house during my breaks—with this application installed I can start my break on my laptop, get up, and get my "back to work" reminder on my phone.

Credit: Justin Pot

Meaningful Things, the Germany-based four-person team behind the application, offers updates constantly—basically any major Apple feature you can think of is offered. There are versions for Apple Watch and Vision Pro. There's a live activity for the iPhone app, meaning you'll see the realtime countdown on your phone's lock screen as soon as you start a session (even if you start that session on your Mac). There are a variety of widgets available for all platforms. There's extensive support for Apple Shortcuts. There's a menu bar icon for the Mac version.

Credit: Justin Pot

I could go on, but basically if you're the kind of person who likes to take advantage of the latest Apple features, this application has you covered. Focus Timer isn't going to be the perfect Pomodoro app for everyone—the price alone means some people aren't going to touch it—but I recommend at least giving the seven-day free trial a shot. It's rare to find something that works across devices this smoothly.