Piling on to the google alternatives heap: https://searx.space/

You can pick a public instance of searxng and choose which engines it queries by going to the setting cog, then Engines. A few of these public instances I’ve checked out have only google enabled, though, so you really do need to check the settings.

If you want to add a searxng instance as your default engine and your browser doesn’t automatically do it, the URL for that is: https://<searxng_url>/search?q=%s

I have to add this manually for things like ironfox/firefox mobile.

Devil’s advocate: if you do things the legit way, absorb the ads or go for the pay tiers, do you think there’s ever a point the advertisers and platforms say “this is the right amount of ads.” ? Seems like it’s an infinite process of cramming in more garbage. Personally I’m happy to engage in the arms race because it’s not bothersome to me personally, and I’m fine with some “theft” as long as I’m paying back into the creators by whatever their preferred support structure is.

Similar thing applies to music. There are still web radio stations and web broadcasts of good FM stations out there, and what a relief it is to fall back on these, especially i f you’re getting playlist burnout. There’s something to be said for a queue of music that some person has just slapped together for the day that fits whatever the overall feeling of a station is. The original algorithms before the final algorithms took over, I suppose.