I use duckduckgo and sometimes it gives me better answers, but I do feel like SEO optimization has led to a kind of useless noise of search results that is improved by using an LLM to search for the needle of valuable information in that haystack of noise.

It’s not always true, so I still use search engines when I can, but unfortunately I have become increasingly reliant on LLMs as a kind of “efficient search engine” which could probably be solved with better industry practices and regulations to prevent the kind of SEO competition that leads to such useless websites vying for clicks.