I know it’s been getting worse over time, but I could still find what I needed after some digging.
Recently it’s been like 10 minutes of adjusting search terms, still getting completely useless or irrelevant results, and me just giving up afterwards. Other search engines seem just as bad.
True Incognito mode is a myth, it only stops keeping a history in the tab of that browser. Everytime you use a browser to go to any site ever, the browser logs you went there. So does your ISP and the site your connecting to. No matter which mode or browser you use, if you go to Google, then Google knows you went there and logs your searches.
The closest you can come to browsing the web anonymously would be with a mix of dedicated privacy OS like Tails and either a VPN or Tor as a middile man, but that assumes those proxys are not corrupted. Free VPNs make money by selling your “secret browsing” habits.
The internet is nothing more than wires, if you connect your wire to someone elses, every intermediatary knows.
You can use uBlock Origin and other privacy add-ons to block tracking and a VPN to hide your IP address but if you’re logged in to a search engine’s account then everything you search is tied to you no matter what you do.
If you’re logged in a vpn that’s also true of the vpn, and all these measures are not stopping FAANGS
Good VPN providers take certain measures to ensure your anonymity.
A vpn is not a proxy and cannot do anything to protect you beyond changing your exit point. You are not anonymous using a vpn, especially not with any vpn that has servers in a five eyes country.