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DuckDuckGo Raises $10M

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Re: DuckDuckGo Raises $10M

#91

Post by yellowapple »

gpm wrote: post #16
newfocogi wrote: post #4

I have been using DDG for about a year now, although I had tried using it years ago. It works fine for simple queries( e.g. search name of company rather than typing out url). But I basically have !g programmed into my fingers for everything more complicated. Many times when I don't find the results I am looking for, I subconsciously assume that google would be able to find them. This is in comparison to when I canno…

I've been using DDG for a few years now. I have the same reflex with !g, but when I'm on a browser that's google by default I quickly find that I also need a way to go the other way and do the equivalent of !ddg... In other words the queries that google has good results for isn't a superset of the queries that ddg has good results for. It's just a different set.

The bang commands alone are DDG's killer feature for me, and it's why DDG is set as my homepage and default search engine (and probably still would be even if I did have to !g every non-site-specific query).

Re: DuckDuckGo Raises $10M

#92

Post by i1856511 »

DDG has the same business plan as major providers(selling keywords), but they do it in a way that is more respectful of your autonomy.

Reasons I use DDG exclusively:

- I prefer their business plan. Keyword ads still appear on search results page, but I am not psychographically modeled and retargeted after I close the browser session.

- It performs fast and I like the visual appearance.

- No AMP results. (Google does not give you a way to disable AMP, at all, which surprised me. I do not like AMP because it does not feel right on iOS.)

- It integrates Instant Answers and has surprised me with some Stack Overflow/Superuser excerpts.

- Mobile search is now geo-aware (again, crucially, in a way that does not build a ad targeting profile on me over time).

- The scale of the company is smaller and the CEO seems like a real, reachable person.

Re: DuckDuckGo Raises $10M

#93

Post by smichel17 »

flas9sd wrote: post #73
mLuby wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the same muscle memory, but I don't think it's a bad thing. Basically I only use !g when normal DDG doesn't give me what I'm looking for, and half the time !g doesn't have it either. The only thing I can't abandon is !gmaps. And I'm just discovering a bunch of other ! commands that make DDG significantly more useful that Google (eg !esen).

If anybody is curious for the distribution of used searches between ddg/!g, I came up with this rough estimate for firefox: sqlite3 ~/.mozilla/firefox/*default*/places.sqlite "select substr(p.url,9,14) as search_backend,count(1) from moz_places p where p.url like 'https://duckduckgo%' or p.url like 'https://%.google.%/search%' group by search_backend;" I fall back to google every 11th query, not counting maps searche…

I fall back every 21st query. That said, Google doesn't always find the answer in those cases, either.

Re: DuckDuckGo Raises $10M

#95

Post by jodrellblank »

jmah wrote: post #80

DuckDuckGo is fantastic on mobile (iPhone). It feels way faster than Google for me — part of that is not getting the "Can I use your location?" pop-ups which then trigger a re-search. Plus there's no AMP junk in the results! And links are real links — when you copy them you get the URL, not some huge tracking string. Occasionally I've felt like I'm not getting good results so have gone to Google to repeat the search.…

part of that is not getting the "Can I use your location?" pop-ups

From a buiness IP address - "searching from: small business park, tiny region, city outskirts". "Google would like to know your location: allow/deny".

You'd like my permission to know it, while making it perfectly clear you already know. Creeps me out, like a Hollywood film mob intimidation tactic.

Re: DuckDuckGo Raises $10M

#96

Post by pmoriarty »

jjeaff wrote: post #60
lugg wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This post reads perfectly if you replace DDG with "Google" and believe it's 1999. Sure Google had a vastly superior algorithm but I don't think too many people really grasped that at the time.

Contrary to the seemingly popular belief, that their success was due to their algorithm, I used them because of their uncluttered and simple design. That's why I used Altavista before that. Google kept things very simple while other sites loaded on the bloat and garbage. I don't remember ever feeling like what I found with Google couldn't be found with Altavista or lycos. But a lot of the other companies tried to pre…

"That's why I used Altavista before that. Google kept things very simple while other sites loaded on the bloat and garbage."

It wasn't just the simplicity. Google was also a lot faster, and had no ads!

How ironic that advertisement later became their bread and butter.

Re: DuckDuckGo Raises $10M

#97

Post by TheGrassyKnoll »

yellowapple wrote: post #91
gpm wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using DDG for a few years now. I have the same reflex with !g, but when I'm on a browser that's google by default I quickly find that I also need a way to go the other way and do the equivalent of !ddg... In other words the queries that google has good results for isn't a superset of the queries that ddg has good results for. It's just a different set.

The bang commands alone are DDG's killer feature for me, and it's why DDG is set as my homepage and default search engine (and probably still would be even if I did have to !g every non-site-specific query).

AbSOLUTELY ! Love the bang feature.

Re: DuckDuckGo Raises $10M

#98

Post by TheGrassyKnoll »

pmoriarty wrote: post #96
jjeaff wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Contrary to the seemingly popular belief, that their success was due to their algorithm, I used them because of their uncluttered and simple design. That's why I used Altavista before that. Google kept things very simple while other sites loaded on the bloat and garbage. I don't remember ever feeling like what I found with Google couldn't be found with Altavista or lycos. But a lot of the other companies tried to pre…

"That's why I used Altavista before that. Google kept things very simple while other sites loaded on the bloat and garbage." It wasn't just the simplicity. Google was also a lot faster, and had no ads! How ironic that advertisement later became their bread and butter.

Yes. It was clean AND fast when the rest of the internet was pretty clunky in the late 90's. I think that speed investment paid off HUGELY.

Re: DuckDuckGo Raises $10M

#99

Post by Rafuino »

nikanj wrote: post #74

I'm I the only one who's surprised to see how small this round was? The modern SV economy seems to be built around $100M seed rounds and valuations in the low billions, pre-launch.

The modern SV economy to which you refer is built around massive valuations with huge growth expectations ahead of a buyout or (less rare these days) an IPO. I don't see DDG going public anytime soon, and it's unlikely to be sold to a player like Google given ethical differences (or any other similar player given the modern SV economy is also primarily based on privacy violating business models). Thus, a $10M investment isn't small...it's more rational. At least that's my opinion!

Re: DuckDuckGo Raises $10M

#100

Post by ninjin »

yellowapple wrote: post #91
gpm wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using DDG for a few years now. I have the same reflex with !g, but when I'm on a browser that's google by default I quickly find that I also need a way to go the other way and do the equivalent of !ddg... In other words the queries that google has good results for isn't a superset of the queries that ddg has good results for. It's just a different set.

The bang commands alone are DDG's killer feature for me, and it's why DDG is set as my homepage and default search engine (and probably still would be even if I did have to !g every non-site-specific query).

Bangs are truly amazing, my only disagreement would be in that I use !sp instead of !g as a fallback since they have a better privacy record. Other favourites include !m and !osm, but I should probably read up on even more of them.
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