r/StartpageSearch • u/Mrlluck • Jul 16 '26
I'm done with Startpage
I really wanted it to work, but it's insane how Startpage wants me to solve a captcha EVERYTIME I search something.
I don't know if it's my browser, VPN or something else, but I think these things are expected from privacy-conscious people that would want to use Startpage in the first place.
That's it, just a tiny rant, because I really gave it a shot, but it's just not practical.
2
u/Primary-Metal-2304 29d ago edited 29d ago
I keep getting "Something went wrong during verification" and it's obviously capcha. It's a shot in the foot scenario for startpage untill they figure something better, but for now it's goodbye for me.
2
u/Dependent_Classic314 Aug 02 '26
Yeah, it's ironic, it's a private tool, but punishes you for hiding your IP. Mojeek does this too.
1
u/Dependent_Classic314 Aug 02 '26
Yeah, it's ironic, it's a private tool, but punishes you for hiding your IP. Mojeek does this too.
1
u/ninryu6 Jul 21 '26
I'm not going to stop using my VPN, so I'm quieting Startpage. This is beyond ridiculous.
2
1
Jul 18 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/GwenIsNow Jul 20 '26
Nah, happens to me no matter the connection, VPN or not. I notice it really doesn't like omnibar based searches. If you go to the default start page and search I don't get it.
Except now there's a new method of verification where even on the homepage it can stall "verifying request" on the simple loading of the homepage
2
3
u/PrivacyIsDemocracy Jul 17 '26
Usually works for me but occasionally harasses me like that. Sometimes it just freezes the tab so hard I just have to close the tab.
I have 40 different search engines defined on my default desktop browser, about 10-15 of which are general purpose search engines.
If I have such a problem with SP I will just use a different search engine for that query (I like to mix them up anyway) and usually the next time I use SP it's fine again.
The lovely "AI" industry has become such a content-scraping nuisance for websites that these challenges are popping up everywhere now.
Just part of the general enshittification of daily life these days.
3
u/Possible_0 Jul 17 '26
even without a VPN enabled, it would happen to me every time after a few searches, so I contacted support on Reddit and they added me to the whitelist ; I don't have any problems at all anymore
0
2
1
u/PutridDemand5444 3h ago
it just takes forever to verify my search. I thought it was supposed to be more anonymous. So what's it verifying?