I find startpage.com to give a lot better results than DDG. I never seem to hear about others using it. Is it just not well known?
I use it. But comparing it to DDG is a bit unfair IMHO since startpage is basically a proxy to google search.
How to live without Google (2017)
41–50 of 121 posts
Re: How to live without Google (2017)
#42You will find out the answer if you live in China
Re: How to live without Google (2017)
#43Alot of people can't live without Google because the search results are very unique. In that case, we suggest downloading PrivacyWall. It's free and it will block Google tracking along with 3000+ ad trackers. We built it so anyone on Windows can use the web and protect your privacy. PrivacyWall does not have any conflicts of interest. Alot of users are not aware that DuckDuckGo makes money from ads, so they do track…
> Alot of users are not aware that DuckDuckGo makes money from ads, so they do track you. This is a lie, from what I can tell? DDG's ads aren't exactly inconspicuous, and they claim plenty of times that they're targeted exclusively on current search query keywords. So no history or tracking involved.
Correct, our advertising is context-based, not based on a profile or search history. In other words, if you search for "car" you might see a car-related ad, but car-related ads won't then follow you around.
Incidentally it's also possible to disable ads in our settings: https://duckduckgo.com/settings
(Disclaimer: DuckDuckGo staff)
Re: How to live without Google (2017)
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 any…
> 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?
Or you could use yelp for all of it. I just typed "lunch" in and it gave me a list of reasonable placrs nearby, meanwhile Google maps listed every restaurant around me, including places not open for lunch.
Tapping a restaurant on yelp gives me the reviews and there an option in the app to get directions. I'm on Android so I can't check, but from when I used iOS I remember yelp defaults to apple maps for directions.
Seems like a good alternative to me.
Re: How to live without Google (2017)
#45Alot of people can't live without Google because the search results are very unique. In that case, we suggest downloading PrivacyWall. It's free and it will block Google tracking along with 3000+ ad trackers. We built it so anyone on Windows can use the web and protect your privacy. PrivacyWall does not have any conflicts of interest. Alot of users are not aware that DuckDuckGo makes money from ads, so they do track…
Ads doesn’t mean they have to track you. I assume (and it seems like) DDG targets their ads based on your search query and not personal information, and afaik they are very open about this.
That's right - please see my comment above for a bit more detail.
Re: How to live without Google (2017)
#46For 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?
It'd be interesting for the peanut gallery if you went into a bit of detail about what 'satisfactory' and 'unsatisfactory' means to you.
I'm sitting here feeling confused because there is no detectable difference between DDG and Google for me. Search patterns must be very particular to the person and obviously I'm not searching for the right stuff :P.
Re: How to live without Google (2017)
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
for me its about 30% of the searches, not every search. Its fine for very regular stuff, the kind where a Wikipedia page exists but not that great for deep searches.
Re: How to live without Google (2017)
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Maybe it's your DDG "safe search" preferences. There are three options: Strict, Moderate, Off. I clicked the link you provided and not any adult content showed up (it's in "moderate" mode by default). Some adult content appeared in results after I changing it to "off".
OK, yea, my filter is set to off. But still, the search I made was regarding completely innocuous programming related stuff, why should adult results come up that quickly? My Google preferences are also set to no filtering and I looked almost 10 pages deep there (just to check), and no adult results showed up.
Re: How to live without Google (2017)
#49For me where I live (Northern Europe) apple maps and open street maps or any other maps for that matter suck big time. Google maps is the only app which can search for places in a meanfingul way. I search for an ATM nearby but I get results which are 400kms away in apple maps.
Re: How to live without Google (2017)
#50I'm making micro steps forth and back.
Ditched Chrome, using Brave.
Tried DuckDuckGo but - very subjective - it has results that don't work for me, so I'm mostly back to Google.
Removed Google Maps, mostly use Maps.me now.
Remove Google mobile Mails app, now using Nine.