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Thank HN: for helping me get traction with DuckDuckGo and Traction book – AMA

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Re: Thank HN: for helping me get traction with DuckDuckGo and Traction book – AMA

#41

Post by [deleted] »

epi0Bauqu wrote: post #35
JoshTriplett wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't mind sharing, how much do you get through those affiliate programs compared to advertising? Also, would you consider providing some kind of paid model in addition to ads? I use DDG dozens of times per day as my primary search engine; I would happily pay for it. I realize that model doesn't scale to the entire world, as only a fraction of people will pay, but do you have some way for people who like what…

We haven't disclosed it, but advertising is the bulk. The problem with paid is three-fold. We're a for-profit company so don't want to come off as taking donations like a non-profit. Second, we don't want to collect personal information. So we could do something like bitcoin but that isn't exactly low-friction :). Third, it is promoting that it exists. We have a hard problem getting the word out about anything not on…

[deleted]

Re: Thank HN: for helping me get traction with DuckDuckGo and Traction book – AMA

#42

Post by rahiel »

I love DDG's bangs and instant answers. Do you have any statistics on their usage? Like counts of how many times a bang or an instant answer was used?

And will Dax play a bigger role in the future, in branding to give more personality? It wasn't easy finding the name of the duck I see daily. (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=name+of+the+duckduckgo+duck)

Re: Thank HN: for helping me get traction with DuckDuckGo and Traction book – AMA

#44

Post by epi0Bauqu »

JupiterMoon wrote: post #43

Is there any chance that you guys could implement a feature like your major competitor's "scholar" search for searching academic articles?

We've had a lot of requests for that, but it is not on our immediate roadmap yet. If there is a good source out there (vertical search engine), it could be incorporated via DuckDuckHack (http://duckduckhack.com) -- that would be the best bet.

Re: Thank HN: for helping me get traction with DuckDuckGo and Traction book – AMA

#45

Post by lmedinas »

Gabriel, thank you for DDG I have been using and promoting for years.

In terms of mobile any plans for the future you can reveal? How do you feel about Siri, Google Now and Cortana is it something you think DDG can do or can be used as a backend/source ?

Re: Thank HN: for helping me get traction with DuckDuckGo and Traction book – AMA

#46

Post by JoshTriplett »

epi0Bauqu wrote: post #35
JoshTriplett wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't mind sharing, how much do you get through those affiliate programs compared to advertising? Also, would you consider providing some kind of paid model in addition to ads? I use DDG dozens of times per day as my primary search engine; I would happily pay for it. I realize that model doesn't scale to the entire world, as only a fraction of people will pay, but do you have some way for people who like what…

We haven't disclosed it, but advertising is the bulk. The problem with paid is three-fold. We're a for-profit company so don't want to come off as taking donations like a non-profit. Second, we don't want to collect personal information. So we could do something like bitcoin but that isn't exactly low-friction :). Third, it is promoting that it exists. We have a hard problem getting the word out about anything not on…

Regarding personal information, I have no problem providing payment information, as long as that isn't tied to accounts/searches/etc. (A separate service, similar to Patreon, seems ideal.) But I do realize that the number of people willing to pay you may not justify the work needed to set something up.

I do understand your concern about not wanting to appear to take donations, though. I just wish I had some way to pay you for your service that doesn't involve viewing or clicking on ads.

Re: Thank HN: for helping me get traction with DuckDuckGo and Traction book – AMA

#47

Post by epi0Bauqu »

rahiel wrote: post #42

I love DDG's bangs and instant answers. Do you have any statistics on their usage? Like counts of how many times a bang or an instant answer was used? And will Dax play a bigger role in the future, in branding to give more personality? It wasn't easy finding the name of the duck I see daily. ( https://duckduckgo.com/?q=name+of+the+duckduckgo+duck )

Thanks! We are working on something that could tell the platform (duck.co) how much each instant answer is being used. Now each answer has a page (at http://duck.co/ia). Bangs are a bit different but we're working on open sourcing that too.

Dax, yes! We're going through internal branding strategy right now and your comment is very welcome in that context.

Re: Thank HN: for helping me get traction with DuckDuckGo and Traction book – AMA

#48

Post by JupiterMoon »

epi0Bauqu wrote: post #6
mackwic wrote: post #5

As a user, I am always a bit afraid that DuckDuckGo might be gone one day. How do you keep the DuckDuckGo afloat ?

DuckDuckGo is actually profitable! It is a myth you need to track people to make money in Web search. Most of the money is still made without tracking people by showing you ads based on your keyword, i.e. type in car and get a car ad. These ads are lucrative because people have buying intent. All that tracking is for the rest of the Internet without this search intent, and that's why you're tracked across the Interne…

I think that the fact that DDG has a no tracking policy allows users to turn their ad blocking off, this might contribute something towards profitability...

Re: Thank HN: for helping me get traction with DuckDuckGo and Traction book – AMA

#49

Post by epi0Bauqu »

lmedinas wrote: post #45

Gabriel, thank you for DDG I have been using and promoting for years. In terms of mobile any plans for the future you can reveal? How do you feel about Siri, Google Now and Cortana is it something you think DDG can do or can be used as a backend/source ?

Thank you! We're of course very focused on making the best mobile experience we can. We think our instant answers can be a big part of that since answers are even better on mobile where space is limited and browsing sites is slower. How to exactly showcase them is a bit unclear, however. So nothing major to reveal yet, sorry :)
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