Nothing Can Stop Google. DuckDuckGo Is Trying Anyway • Hacker News Board

Re: Nothing Can Stop Google. DuckDuckGo Is Trying Anyway

#151

Post by Ivoirians » Thu, Jan 17, 2019, 6:03 PM UTC

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #84

You know what can stop google? a search engine that assumes I want every word in my query, or even better a search engine that honors a string in quotes to mean these words in this order. When did google stop doing this? edit: This wouldn't stop google, it would just make that part of my life as easy as it was 10 years ago.

People keep saying it happens, but I've never seen a Google query that didn't full-match a phrase in quotes.

Also, if you click Tools, you can change "All Results" to "Verbatim", and it will do what it says on the box. I tried leaving it on and got annoyed after five minutes.

Re: Nothing Can Stop Google. DuckDuckGo Is Trying Anyway

#152

Post by aylmao » Thu, Jan 17, 2019, 6:04 PM UTC

mangoman wrote: post #79

Back in the day, before I just defaulted to using Google, I remember checking multiple search engines to find the thing I was looking for. You'd check Yahoo/Google/Lycos, try a couple of different phrasings, and then if that didn't work try searching on a few other search engines. Somewhere along the way, Google had won me over, because I almost always found my answer. I had stopped even considering other search engi…

> It feels like when I search on Google, Google is telling me 'No no, you don't care about JsonAPI parsing performance, you care about parsing json, because we know best'.

I've experienced more of this lately, and see myself using the quotation mark syntax to a greater extent (quotations will tell Google to explicitly include a phrase in their search).

I don't know if at this point their are over-optimizing and now all the other data Google has about you matters more than what you type on the search box, but it's annoying sometimes. Or maybe they're giving your search a slight nudge to results where they could get a better profit? I wonder how they measure search effectivity, and what they are optimizing towards.

Re: Nothing Can Stop Google. DuckDuckGo Is Trying Anyway

#153

Post by gtsteve » Thu, Jan 17, 2019, 6:05 PM UTC

mangoman wrote: post #79

Back in the day, before I just defaulted to using Google, I remember checking multiple search engines to find the thing I was looking for. You'd check Yahoo/Google/Lycos, try a couple of different phrasings, and then if that didn't work try searching on a few other search engines. Somewhere along the way, Google had won me over, because I almost always found my answer. I had stopped even considering other search engi…

I used DDG for a while and I found amusingly I almost missed Google tracking me. I'd search for a restaurant to find opening times or address and the first result would be a restaurant of the same name but in a different city or different country. Google always seems to know where I am. I'm sure that's just some clever algorithms or balance of probabilities or something based on their profile of me. I don't like that idea but at the same time I can't say it's not useful.

Re: Nothing Can Stop Google. DuckDuckGo Is Trying Anyway

#154

Post by taf2 » Thu, Jan 17, 2019, 6:08 PM UTC

Isn't DDG just bing with a different interface? Or do they actually build their own index now or am I just completely confused and totally wrong about my assumptions?

Re: Nothing Can Stop Google. DuckDuckGo Is Trying Anyway

#155

Post by glenrivard » Thu, Jan 17, 2019, 6:09 PM UTC

Bing loss 25% of their market share in just the last couple of months.

http://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share Search Market Share - StatCounter Global ...

Now with the story of

https://www.geekwire.com/2019/investigation-reveals-microsof... Investigation reveals that Microsoft Bing surfaces and recommends ...

Going to get worse. Sounds like DDG is taking from Bing and not Google.

Re: Nothing Can Stop Google. DuckDuckGo Is Trying Anyway

#156

Post by losvedir » Thu, Jan 17, 2019, 6:11 PM UTC

I use and like DDG but I can't believe this article didn't mention Bing, which powers DDG's organic results. Like, yes DDG is a small company based "just east of nowhere" in PA because Microsoft has spent literally billions of dollars on Bing.

To the extent we have a choice in search provider at all, it's entirely due to Microsoft's huge investment, and I feel like it's remiss not to consider those implications. If Microsoft eventually throws in the towel and shuts off Bing, then DDG will cease to exist. It's not like this plucky little underdog of a company that people are rooting for has any chance on its own. The market dynamics of running a successful search crawler and engine are important to consider here and totally brushed under the table in this article.

Re: Nothing Can Stop Google. DuckDuckGo Is Trying Anyway

#157

Post by kojeovo » Thu, Jan 17, 2019, 6:12 PM UTC

darkpuma wrote: post #66

kojeovo wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

95% just isn't good enough.

It's good enough 95% of the time. There is nothing stopping you from falling back to google that 5% of the time.

Or just continue to use Google and get better results every time.

Re: Nothing Can Stop Google. DuckDuckGo Is Trying Anyway

#158

Post by dragonwriter » Thu, Jan 17, 2019, 6:12 PM UTC

ouid wrote: post #149

anomie31 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't "Kodak moment" a counterexample?

No, because Kodak is not a free service. Xerox or Kleenex are closer, obviously, but neither of them is free to use, so there's always room to come along with something cheaper, moreover, Xerox and Kleenex at least have unbranded, one word synonyms for the commodity they produce, photocopy and tissue respectively. Google has "search the internet for", which you will never convince the average person to say, so dethro…

> Furthermore, no one can compete with Google on price, since it's free

Google is free because they are deriving revenue from ads. Another service monetizing with ads or by some other method not directly from users could share revenue with users, thus competing favorably on price with Google's free service.

Re: Nothing Can Stop Google. DuckDuckGo Is Trying Anyway

#159

Post by siproprio » Thu, Jan 17, 2019, 6:12 PM UTC

It is not even trying, considering how slow DuckDuckGo is to load compared to Google and Bing.

At least it is slow in my country anyway.

Re: Nothing Can Stop Google. DuckDuckGo Is Trying Anyway

#160

Post by averagehuman » Thu, Jan 17, 2019, 6:13 PM UTC

tpaschalis wrote: post #27

Quick question, if you Google 'ddg' in incognito mode, do you get any results regarding DuckDuckGo? In the first 10 pages of Google Search I only get two 'relevant' results; one in the bottom of the first page, and a second one of an article mentioning DuckDuckGo in page 8 or something. (Not trying to start a war here, just asking).

I get a link to DuckDuckGo on page 3, and a mention of it on page 8.

On page 2 there is a link to "Duck Duck Geese" which is a local restaurant apparently.

Google's official reason for forcing local search results was that 1 in 5 users were searching for local results. So in this case they are returning results that are sub-optimal to 4 out of 5 users.