How to live without Google (2017) • Hacker News Board

Re: How to live without Google (2017)

#21

Post by chiefalchemist » Mon, Mar 18, 2019, 10:26 AM UTC

derinbay wrote: post #7

phil9987 wrote: post #3

For a couple of month I have set duckduckgo as my standard search engine, but I often do not get satisfactory results. Is this because I am used to the Google results or does duckduckgo indeed not prioritize in a good way?

duckduckgo is definitely not an alternative for google. you can't even compare.

I use both. I start with DDG. If I sense it's not finding what I seek, I switch. I end up getting a second opinion from Google approx 15-20% of the time. That's better than give Google 100% of my queries.

Re: How to live without Google (2017)

#22

Post by dkrich » Mon, Mar 18, 2019, 10:27 AM UTC

derinbay wrote: post #7

phil9987 wrote: post #3

For a couple of month I have set duckduckgo as my standard search engine, but I often do not get satisfactory results. Is this because I am used to the Google results or does duckduckgo indeed not prioritize in a good way?

duckduckgo is definitely not an alternative for google. you can't even compare.

Neither is Vimeo for YouTube or Apple Maps for Google Maps. Those were pathetic suggestions and in my mind ruin the credibility of the rest of the post. There is enormous value to the end user in the integration between search, navigation and reviews. So I’m supposed to find a place to eat on duck duck go, then find reviews in yelp, and finally go to Apple maps to get directions? That’s not a real alternative for anyone but the most privacy focused users is it?

Re: How to live without Google (2017)

#23

Post by chiefalchemist » Mon, Mar 18, 2019, 10:28 AM UTC

Soes anyone know if the Vivaldi browser supports multiple users / instances the way Chrome does?

Re: How to live without Google (2017)

#24

Post by phil9987 » Mon, Mar 18, 2019, 10:33 AM UTC

datenhorst wrote: post #11

derinbay wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

duckduckgo is definitely not an alternative for google. you can't even compare.

It is in some use cases. For programming related queries, it oftentimes gives me better results than Google because it's not trying to be clever and guess what I could actually mean.

I do not quite agree. I found that duckduckgo often returns too many results from the same website, which is for programming related search queries often stackoverflow. The same query on Google leads (for me) often times to more diverse results which include more different base urls.

Re: How to live without Google (2017)

#25

Post by more-entropy » Mon, Mar 18, 2019, 10:34 AM UTC

Yeah, we have a plenty alternative services, but only two dominated mobile OS (and three desktop). Isn't you are looking for a problem in a wrong direction?

Re: How to live without Google (2017)

#26

Post by icebraining » Mon, Mar 18, 2019, 10:34 AM UTC

662a00c659fb134 wrote: post #20

derinbay wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

duckduckgo is definitely not an alternative for google. you can't even compare.

Why do you think that? I switched to duckduckgo about a year ago and never even looked back. The results are perfectly fine and I am pretty satisfied with them. What do you feel is not comparable? One thing I noticed, which is great, that duckduckgo does not filter/censor your search results (except pictures). edit: The only "bad" thing about it is its name. typing duckduckgo.com into the url bar when I am on some ot…

The domain ddg.gg redirects to duckduckgo.com

Re: How to live without Google (2017)

#27

Post by sureaboutthis » Mon, Mar 18, 2019, 10:36 AM UTC

I am glad so many people are pointing to these articles lately. It gives them something to do and keeps them off the streets.

Re: How to live without Google (2017)

#28

Post by sureaboutthis » Mon, Mar 18, 2019, 10:37 AM UTC

csunbird wrote: post #2

It does not matter if you do not use GMail, google/microsoft/ has all your emails anyways, since everybody sends you emails from those domains.

And if they didn't get it from Google, they'd get it from someone else. Just like they did for centuries before email came around.

Re: How to live without Google (2017)

#29

Post by distant_hat » Mon, Mar 18, 2019, 10:38 AM UTC

phil9987 wrote: post #3

For a couple of month I have set duckduckgo as my standard search engine, but I often do not get satisfactory results. Is this because I am used to the Google results or does duckduckgo indeed not prioritize in a good way?

I default to DuckDuckGo as my search engine though I use !g for anything it doesn't get right. I was on call with a colleague and we were problem solving and I needed to look up something and I typed it in the search box and a bunch of porn results came up. She just laughed but I knew it was a close shave. DuckDuckGo's image search can come up with porn for rather innocuous terms, e.g., https://duckduckgo.com/?q=search+reddit&t=ffab&iax=images&ia... for "search reddit" gets porn on the second screen for me.

Re: How to live without Google (2017)

#30

Post by adgasf » Mon, Mar 18, 2019, 10:42 AM UTC

distant_hat wrote: post #29

phil9987 wrote: post #3

For a couple of month I have set duckduckgo as my standard search engine, but I often do not get satisfactory results. Is this because I am used to the Google results or does duckduckgo indeed not prioritize in a good way?

I default to DuckDuckGo as my search engine though I use !g for anything it doesn't get right. I was on call with a colleague and we were problem solving and I needed to look up something and I typed it in the search box and a bunch of porn results came up. She just laughed but I knew it was a close shave. DuckDuckGo's image search can come up with porn for rather innocuous terms, e.g., https://duckduckgo.com/?q=sear…

Nice idea, I even tried it myself. What happens though is you start putting "!g" before every search, since DDG is unreliable and searching twice adds friction.