I've been using DDG almost exclusively for the past two years. It's improved a lot in that time and now I hardly ever have to !g.
DuckDuckGo grew more than 70% this year
101–110 of 188 posts
Re: DuckDuckGo grew more than 70% this year
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah sorry, I was only counting engines suitable for DDG, ie. English language etc. There's also Qwant and although they are crawling their results still appear to be Bing.
I am not related to Baidu, I just see their crawlers regularly on English language websites. Example search result: http://www.baidu.com/s?rsv_idx=1&wd=duckduckgo&ie=utf-8&sl_l...
Good point! They could definitely be an option then.
Re: DuckDuckGo grew more than 70% this year
#103On desktop I only use DDG, mostly because I think their visual design & typography is much more pleasing than Google's, and the search results are usually just as good.
Re: DuckDuckGo grew more than 70% this year
#104Most of the comments here are complaining that, while people like the idea of DDG, the search results are poor. Two comments regarding that: 1) the only way DDG is going to improve search results is by you using it regularly. Using it regularly drives not only revenue, allowing them to hire additional developers, but it also drives feedback to help DDG improve search results. 2) I suspect that the difference in searc…
> the only way DDG is going to improve search results is by you using it regularly. For what company or product is that not the case? Unfortunately, most people (myself included) aren't interested in integrating inferior products into our lives with the hope that "one day" they might be as good. I decided to default to DDG last year to see how it was, and because my online privacy is worth something. I found the resu…
I ended up giving DDG a chance as well this year and I had a similar experience. I recognize that part of it is probably how I'm conditioned but it's really frustrating to feel like I'm fighting the thing that's supposed to be helping me (which is how I felt).
Hopefully it does improve over time, I do value my privacy, but I still ended up back with Google because it became too much of a hindrance.
Re: DuckDuckGo grew more than 70% this year
#105Most of the comments here are complaining that, while people like the idea of DDG, the search results are poor. Two comments regarding that: 1) the only way DDG is going to improve search results is by you using it regularly. Using it regularly drives not only revenue, allowing them to hire additional developers, but it also drives feedback to help DDG improve search results. 2) I suspect that the difference in searc…
Would it be possible for DDG to base their some result, distantly, off of some scrape of Google, thereby likely increasing relevance?
That will not work for all types of search, like things related to the news (like "Paris terrorists"), and Google might block them (I think they block you for a while if you try too many searches in a short period of time).
Re: DuckDuckGo grew more than 70% this year
#106Most of the comments here are complaining that, while people like the idea of DDG, the search results are poor. Two comments regarding that: 1) the only way DDG is going to improve search results is by you using it regularly. Using it regularly drives not only revenue, allowing them to hire additional developers, but it also drives feedback to help DDG improve search results. 2) I suspect that the difference in searc…
I totally agree. I tried DDG one or two years ago. It didn't last long. Google simply had better results. It took a lot less effort when using Google to find something useful. Several months ago I tried again. This time it's different. I just try harder. It takes effort.
I still use Google, especially at work and for tech (computer) related stuff. For the rest DDG is my first choice and I'm getting used to it.
Re: DuckDuckGo grew more than 70% this year
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Maybe everyone complains about bad behaviour of their insurance company, but that does not mean they'll take a higher premium Exactly. >There's something here about "consumer" psychology and choices that is hard to capture in the concrete terms economists like to formalize using. That some/most economists like to use. There is a huge field in economics (and econophysics and stuff) that focused on actual irrational b…
Former Uruguay president Mujica has some thoughts on your last statement regarding things you can't buy ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JXMpQf2XyE )
Thanks. That is a very valuable statement. Something to keep in mind!
Re: DuckDuckGo grew more than 70% this year
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think an unavoidable conclusion is that while people may like privacy or some other benefit/function, they are rarely willing to take a hit on the main benefit/function (search results) to get it. It think this is an important thing to learn here as it applies in many cases. Maybe everyone complains about bad behaviour of their insurance company, but that does not mean they'll take a higher premium. Some people car…
>Maybe everyone complains about bad behaviour of their insurance company, but that does not mean they'll take a higher premium Exactly. >There's something here about "consumer" psychology and choices that is hard to capture in the concrete terms economists like to formalize using. That some/most economists like to use. There is a huge field in economics (and econophysics and stuff) that focused on actual irrational b…
And home-grown tomatoes.
Re: DuckDuckGo grew more than 70% this year
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
FWIW, DDG search in my experience has gotten vastly better in the past year or so. It used to be that 90% of my searches ended up repeated with !g to go to google, but nowadys I'd guess that's like 30%, and even among those, half the time google's answer quality ends up the same. The only cases where Google is predictably and consistenly superior are 1. error/diagnostic messages: DDG still sucks at precision search,…
> 2. queries that require Natural Language Processing: Google understands stuff like "the bad moustache guy from XYZ series" where I myself have only a vague idea of what I'm looking for. I suspect that Google has been trained by a bunch of people who just don't know how to search, and that's why natural language works and the + operator failed. Have a look at Reddit's "Tip of my tongue" subreddit for examples. https…
> I suspect that Google has been trained by a bunch of people who just don't know how to search, and that's why natural language works and the + operator failed. Have a look at Reddit's "Tip of my tongue" subreddit for examples.
I get where you are coming from, but I'm 99% sure it's not just this. I've searched for extremely vague things such as "that movie where there's one guy that shouts funny catchphrase all the time" and was amazed when the first result was the Wikipedia entry for the specific movie I was looking for, even though the Wikipedia entry didn't mention the specific trait being searched. Google really does do natural language processing on the queries.
Re: DuckDuckGo grew more than 70% this year
#110Interactive DDG Search Traffic Stats: http://apps.axibase.com/chartlab/e8635882/10/