Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

DuckDuckGo vs Google

fourweekmba.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 558 posts

Re: DuckDuckGo vs Google

#211

Post by imron »

StavrosK wrote: post #60
Lifesnoozer wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started feeling like I had all my eggs in the same basket. Google has my email, it knows where I want to go and when (Google Maps), it translates stuff for me, and it knows what I search for. While it doesn't really affect me that Google has all this information, I've become more and more uncomfortable with the fact that they do. So I figured if I had a choice of two search engines, where I get satisfying results i…

I made the jump to Fastmail.com and couldn't be happier. The UI is very snappy (much faster than Gmail's), the actual notifications and delivery is faster, and it's a better experience overall, for me. Plus, Google doesn't get to see my mail any more. Ditto for Firefox vs Chrome.

It does every time you send an email to someone with a gmail address ;-)

I also agree that Fastmail is great.

Re: DuckDuckGo vs Google

#212

Post by jerf »

toxican wrote: post #208
benbenhu wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And don't forget to use the bangs that can allow you to check other engines results fast if you need. For people afraid of getting off google, you can always search something like '!g my-search', it works the same for youtube(!yt), google image(!gi), or even hackernews(!hn) And of course the best bang is the 'I am feeling lucky' one (!), i.e.: 'hackernews !'

I tried switching to DDG a few years ago, but I found myself using !ge more often than not, so I wasn't really sure what the point of using DDG was. For my needs, DDG's results are pretty mediocre. Which is a shame, becuase I'd rather support them over Google.

Your needs a few years ago, or your needs now? As benbenhu says, it has gotten a lot better. Lately I've found that when DDG doesn't have the thing I want and I stick the !g in, Google doesn't necessarily do any better, which implies that it's just a hard search.

Re: DuckDuckGo vs Google

#213

Post by wtetzner »

EliRivers wrote: post #172
mcherm wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you consider the difference between a mosquito and a goose to be "almost irrelevant"?

Let's take a look here. The message being communicated was "google is much much larger than duckduckgo". Metaphor used carried that information. Communication achieved. What's this about a goose and a mosquito? What's that adding to the communication? Seems pretty irrelevant.

I think it adds a lot. Comparing an elephant and a mosquito makes it seem like the mosquito is almost non-existent. A goose compared to an elephant is much more significant. A goose can stand up to an elephant. [1]

[1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CURzgw60bFY

Re: DuckDuckGo vs Google

#214

Post by lyk »

I used to use ddg, then startpage, but I've been using a self-hosted searx for a while now. It's a meta-search engine that scrapes other sites. Results are always great, and it's nice being able to enable specific engines for different sites. Check it out: https://searx.me

Re: DuckDuckGo vs Google

#215

Post by senatorobama »

mda wrote: post #83
losvedir wrote: post #58

Isn't DDG basically Bing + bangs? Doesn't seem fair to credit it at beating Google without highlighting the billions of dollars that MSFT has invested.

Ahh. the uncomfortable truth that DDG is just a meta search engine with a few shortcuts.

Wow. It is a hustler company.

Re: DuckDuckGo vs Google

#216

Post by sandov »

daurnimator wrote: post #39
laser wrote: post #28

"Google would be an elephant while DuckDuckGo is a mosquito (this is not to emphasize; I’m actually making things better for DuckDuckGo)." Why would this guy go out of his way to say this metaphor is actually literally informative and generous towards DuckDuckGo while apparently having exerted no mental effort and being incorrect by orders of magnitude on his own data? If you're most generous to the writer, you get 1…

Maybe he was using a scale other than weight/volume? Though looking at size, an african elephant is 4m tall, while a small mosquito is 2mm. this is a ratio of 2000:1.

>this is a ratio of 2000:1.

In which case he would actually have been generous to DuckDuckGo while not being wrong by orders of magnitude.

Conclusion: OP meant linear size, not mass. He could have stated it explicitly though, because one would naturally think that he was referring to mass.

Re: DuckDuckGo vs Google

#217

Post by AdamSC1 »

graphitezepp wrote: post #175
grepthisab wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. Tried a while back and didn't really take. I found myself Googling most things after DDG'ing them. Tried again recently because I love the mission, and it's working much better. Usually what I want is in the top few results, although Google still does a bit better with search result quality. I see myself using it as my main search engine at this point.

I only miss google as a DDG user when DDG doesn't have a tool google has to give you an automatic result, i.e. when trying to look up some unit conversion ratio like lb to kg. But when you know that is what you want there is always !g.

Hey graphitezepp,

We do have some of those tools, at DuckDuckGo they are called "Instant Answers."

For example the query: "2 lb to kg" will bring you to this results page https://duckduckgo.com/?q=2+lb+to+kg&ia=answer

You can see all our Instant Answers here: https://duck.co/ia

If something isn't triggering for you - let us know with the feedback tool on the site!

Disclaimer: DDG staff.

Re: DuckDuckGo vs Google

#218

Post by Chris2048 »

daurnimator wrote: post #57
amelius wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But animals are three-dimensional, so it's better to include three dimensions in the comparison. We also compare CPUs by die-area, not by their length or height.

It's pretty common to compare animals by height. e.g. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Largestd...

So a thin-but-tall animal compared to an elephant? I think you'd switch to mass/volume in context..

Re: DuckDuckGo vs Google

#219

Post by mitja_belak »

Lifesnoozer wrote: post #3

Recently switched over to DuckDuckGo on all my devices. Tried to do the same thing several years ago and found it didn't really work out, but this time around it is so much better, both when it comes to speed and results. If anyone has doubts because they tried it years ago, I'd say go for it again.

Same here. They used to be fringe back then, now they are quite reliant for everything that isnt really overly specific.

Re: DuckDuckGo vs Google

#220

Post by AdamSC1 »

jbergstroem wrote: post #196

Does anyone know of a way to help DDG improving by passing them statistics about how I use !g as well as passing information about the results I prefer from google? I can only assume it would be riddled with privacy issues but would be happy to occasionally provide it.

Whenever you do a search you'll notice there is a "Feedback" button in the top right-hand corner of the screen.

This allows you to lets you share your feedback about the site or specific results with us. Your personal information is not recorded.

If a query isn't returning as expected you can share it there!

Disclaimer: DDG staff.

Post reply on HN