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DuckDuckGo Raises $10M

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Re: DuckDuckGo Raises $10M

#141

Post by novaRom »

DDG is getting better with time. I completely switched to DDG about 2 years ago.

I tried Google search recently and found its results are less relevant and presented in an awkward form where I cannot copy result's URL (searched for a technical paper). DDG is clear winner.

Re: DuckDuckGo Raises $10M

#142

Post by arketyp »

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 find that Google is actually losing ground as the all-seeing-eye-reference-objective-truth due to the increasingly tailored searches. I can no longer refer to a search query and expect a peer to see the same results as I do. This social bubble phenomenon, while no doubt convenient, is sometimes a burden, and with their stricter privacy policy DDG actually has some ground to gain here. Using DDG is more like tuning in to good old ether radio instead of browsing through podcasts. I find that comforting, that break from a claustrophobic solipsist trend.

Re: DuckDuckGo Raises $10M

#143

Post by adrianN »

halflings wrote: post #134
digi_owl wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect that the eternal problem will be that of context. Back when Google started out, they bet the farm on the idea that more links pointing to a document meant that said document was informative. These days though, i wonder if what we are looking for is more hair. That what we are looking for depends on a context that can't be properly included in the search terms used. On top of this "naive" metrics like link c…

Google has been personalizing search results, and going way beyond just "link counts", for a while now. e.g: When I type "pandas" or "kafka", I get the Python library and the streaming framework. I don't get cute black and white animals and a depressed novelist (what the average person would expect).

On DDG I also get the Python library as first and Apache Kafka as second result.

Re: DuckDuckGo Raises $10M

#144

Post by pedro_hab »

csdreamer7 wrote: post #138

I find that DDG is good for about 80% of what I want. But the other 20%, especially dev queries, I muscle memory type in !g. Is there a bang for the type of query answer we are looking for? Such as for 'Ruby gems' I can use !dev so the engine knows to ignore sites like Ruby Gemstone and focus on dev only. I know there is !so and !gh, but I am looking for something that dynamically combines them and other dev resource…

I'm actually feeling google worse every day, I developed a way of searching by only typing important keywords. eg: "js unique array"

Now that's not working well anymore, google is ignoring 2 of 3 keywords to give me a general answer.

And even the search tricks, such as using "" don't work as before.

I think google is using far too much AI in the search is ruining it for me.

I may switch to something else soon.

Re: DuckDuckGo Raises $10M

#145

Post by isaiahg »

For a company that aims to do ethical businesses, they have an uphill better. But it helps that they have such a great search engine. I've been using ddc for a few years exclusively and I think I get better results. Some of my old google-fu works, unlike new google, which seems to ignore it now.

Re: DuckDuckGo Raises $10M

#146

Post by mrweasel »

pedro_hab wrote: post #144
csdreamer7 wrote: post #138

I find that DDG is good for about 80% of what I want. But the other 20%, especially dev queries, I muscle memory type in !g. Is there a bang for the type of query answer we are looking for? Such as for 'Ruby gems' I can use !dev so the engine knows to ignore sites like Ruby Gemstone and focus on dev only. I know there is !so and !gh, but I am looking for something that dynamically combines them and other dev resource…

I'm actually feeling google worse every day, I developed a way of searching by only typing important keywords. eg: "js unique array" Now that's not working well anymore, google is ignoring 2 of 3 keywords to give me a general answer. And even the search tricks, such as using "" don't work as before. I think google is using far too much AI in the search is ruining it for me. I may switch to something else soon.

The ignoring of keywords is annoying. Removing keyword in order to be able to get me a result is almost always the wrong thing to do. I end up clicking through a the first 3 to 4 links and wondering why on earth Google would think those sites was going to be helpful. The indication that a keyword was ignored to give me a result isn't clear enough.

Almost always, at least in my cases, removing keywords makes the resultat useless. I would rather have a blank page say "Sorry, no results".

While DuckDuckGo searches have clearly improved over time, Googles have become worse. I still think Google is better overall, but they're moving in the wrong direction.

Re: DuckDuckGo Raises $10M

#148

Post by mrweasel »

news_to_me wrote: post #10
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).

I've found that "!w", which searches Wikipedia, is extremely useful.

The only thing that annoys me about DDG is that I have to use !wen for Wikipedia searches. !w will return localized search on Wikipedia, and I almost never want the Danish wikipedia.

Re: DuckDuckGo Raises $10M

#149

Post by Const-me »

novaRom wrote: post #141

DDG is getting better with time. I completely switched to DDG about 2 years ago. I tried Google search recently and found its results are less relevant and presented in an awkward form where I cannot copy result's URL (searched for a technical paper). DDG is clear winner.

How do you copy the URL?

Neither of them shows direct URL to search results, https://duckduckgo.com/l/?... is no better than https://www.google.com/url?...

Re: DuckDuckGo Raises $10M

#150

Post by mrweasel »

wjoe wrote: post #42
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 started out doing that, but I've found myself using !g less and less recently. There are two main things I find myself needing it for: Location based queries, Google will always prioritize UK based results, and often London based results for me. The other is technical searches, I'm not sure how much this is due to Google having better search algorithms for this, or just that it has the data to know that I'm a progr…

There's a little toggle switch below the search box on DDG that will let you flip localized searches on/off. I use it when I need local results. It's a step extra of cause, but it is nice being able to quickly tell the search engine whether or not you want local result.
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