What are the best search engines

[boredhere74]

I'm so sick of the main ones not having anything but useless adds for clicks. Are there any that can be accessed that are any better?

[Maxmars]

I'm so sick of the main ones not having anything but useless adds for clicks. Are there any that can be accessed that are any better?

You might want to try Startpage.  At least that is my most frequently flown.  But no search engine that is "indexed" by a big name is ever going to deprive you of their "value added" offerings, nor will they fail to control result rankings and "curation" (which means link obfuscation and/or removal.)

There are several others that aren't ad-ridden, maybe some other members can help out...

[DontTreadOnMe]

I'm so sick of the main ones not having anything but useless adds for clicks. Are there any that can be accessed that are any better?

I use Brave if I want to do some actual searching.  And Bing for trivial searching.

I also would love to find a search engine that is more like search engine of a decade or so ago.

[OneStepBack]

I stopped using duckduckgo last year when it came to light that they were selling user data to Microsoft.  When they were confronted the CEO said they had never offered anonymity.   I use startpage now as its very privacy focussed and has come a long way in the last couple of years.

Edit to Add:

You can turn sponsored links off in startpage's settings

[pianopraze]

Only us Startpage in Firefox and Brave browser has good search built in.

[quintessentone]

I'm so sick of the main ones not having anything but useless adds for clicks. Are there any that can be accessed that are any better?

I just downloaded the app 'Perplexity' for free, although there is a Pro version, and it does not have any annoying ads. I like that they give the details but then provide a summary as well as showing all sources.

For instance, I typed in George Knapp and this it gives quite a lot of information about him including related information, however, follow-up questions are reserved for the Pro version.

Summary after the details: "So in summary, Knapp is a highly decorated investigative journalist who spent over two decades as the chief reporter for a major Las Vegas TV station, earning top honors like Peabody, Murrow, and Emmy awards for his hard-hitting journalism across various topics before becoming renowned for his UFO reporting."