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Alternatives to Google Search and Google News
Read the web on your own terms, with no feed deciding for you.
Search and news are where one company's choices shape most of what we read. The alternatives here work in different ways. RSS readers such as NetNewsWire and FreshRSS bring you the sites you picked, in the order they published, with no ranking. Kagi is a search engine you pay for, which is how it avoids ads. Kiwix puts Wikipedia and other libraries on your device so you can read them with no connection.
Together they replace the habit of asking one company what is worth reading.
The tools
NetNewsWire
A fast, free RSS reader that brings the sites you choose to you.
Kiwix
Wikipedia and other libraries of knowledge, saved to read with no internet.
FreshRSS
A self-hosted RSS reader that runs on a Raspberry Pi.
Kagi
A paid search engine with no ads and no tracking.
A benchmark review of the biggest tool in this category is on its way, so you can see what these are measured against.
How to choose
Decide whether you want to search, follow or look things up. To follow sites you trust, RSS is the old open method and still the best. To search without ads or tracking, expect to pay or to accept a smaller index. For reference questions, an offline copy of Wikipedia is quicker than you'd expect and works anywhere.
Questions people ask
What is an alternative to Google News?
An RSS reader. NetNewsWire on Apple devices and FreshRSS on a server you run show the sites you subscribe to, with no algorithm choosing for you.
Is there a search engine with no ads?
Kagi sells search by subscription, so it carries no ads. The trade-off is paying for it.
Can I read Wikipedia offline?
Yes. Kiwix downloads Wikipedia and other collections to read with no connection.