Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

DuckDuckGo Challenges Google on Privacy (With a Billboard in San Francisco)

wired.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 224 posts

Re: DuckDuckGo Challenges Google on Privacy (With a Billboard in San Francisco)

#11

Post by coderdude »

potatolicious wrote: post #7
coderdude wrote: post #2

More FUD from DuckDuckGo about Google and privacy issues. Didn't we come to the conclusion that the things they are railing against Google for are applicable to any and every Website? Matt Cutts stole the comment show on this one: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2063619 The worst thing about this is how blindly news about DDG gets upvoted around here. Edit: To my down-voters: It doesn't make what I said not true…

That's disingenuous. DDG has legitimate claim to "Google tracks you" beyond just referrer URLs. When you search for "athlete's foot" on DDG you won't see an add for foot cream the next time you're watching a video on YouTube. That's the sort of tracking Google undeniably does do that users may find troubling (I know I do). Most users don't know about this level of tracking. Moreover, while referral URLs containing se…

Then that is their ONLY claim against Google (yet not Google alone). Everything else on that donttrack.us page is applicable to any and every search engine or Website. I believe DDG is being disingenuous by making it sound like this a Google-only thing. Even if Google is the big guy they want to go after, they should be up front that this is not something that makes Google evil or is specific to Google.

Re: DuckDuckGo Challenges Google on Privacy (With a Billboard in San Francisco)

#13

Post by [deleted] »

truebosko wrote: post #6

Is the whole privacy on search thing really a big issue? I, for one, want Google to be all Orwellian on me because it will mean better search results. I had a scenario like this a few days ago when I googled for "fabric" -- Being a Python developer I was looking for http://fabfile.org and it shows up as the second result while logged in. If I'm not, it won't show up. This may be the outlier state of mind on HN, but I…

[deleted]

Re: DuckDuckGo Challenges Google on Privacy (With a Billboard in San Francisco)

#14

Post by klochner »

truebosko wrote: post #6

Is the whole privacy on search thing really a big issue? I, for one, want Google to be all Orwellian on me because it will mean better search results. I had a scenario like this a few days ago when I googled for "fabric" -- Being a Python developer I was looking for http://fabfile.org and it shows up as the second result while logged in. If I'm not, it won't show up. This may be the outlier state of mind on HN, but I…

There is also a slightly different case - google passing on your search terms to the website that you click through to.

You may trust google with knowing that you searched for "naked bieber pics", but you may not want other websites also knowing your search habits.

Re: DuckDuckGo Challenges Google on Privacy (With a Billboard in San Francisco)

#16

Post by potatolicious »

coderdude wrote: post #11
potatolicious wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's disingenuous. DDG has legitimate claim to "Google tracks you" beyond just referrer URLs. When you search for "athlete's foot" on DDG you won't see an add for foot cream the next time you're watching a video on YouTube. That's the sort of tracking Google undeniably does do that users may find troubling (I know I do). Most users don't know about this level of tracking. Moreover, while referral URLs containing se…

Then that is their ONLY claim against Google (yet not Google alone). Everything else on that donttrack.us page is applicable to any and every search engine or Website. I believe DDG is being disingenuous by making it sound like this a Google-only thing. Even if Google is the big guy they want to go after, they should be up front that this is not something that makes Google evil or is specific to Google.

donttrack.us also rips on third-party ad networks that are non-Google for extending the tracking even further. This also seems to be the core reason why DDG rails against search terms in referral URLs, since it's a major enabler for third-party network tracking.

So yes, DDG is targeting the 800# gorilla in its marketing, but it's not unjustified, nor has DDG claimed on the donttrack.us page that Google is the sole culprit in the destruction of user privacy.

There's a certain amount of opportunism in this billboard/privacy ad campaign here, that much is obvious. But, as a search engine it does not seem unreasonable to call out the failings of your main competitor.

Re: DuckDuckGo Challenges Google on Privacy (With a Billboard in San Francisco)

#17

Post by ericd »

[deleted] wrote: post #13
truebosko wrote: post #6

Is the whole privacy on search thing really a big issue? I, for one, want Google to be all Orwellian on me because it will mean better search results. I had a scenario like this a few days ago when I googled for "fabric" -- Being a Python developer I was looking for http://fabfile.org and it shows up as the second result while logged in. If I'm not, it won't show up. This may be the outlier state of mind on HN, but I…

[deleted]

That's being a bit pedantic, he's just using it as a colorful way of saying that he doesn't mind them keeping track of what he's done, and he backs it up with a really good reason.

Re: DuckDuckGo Challenges Google on Privacy (With a Billboard in San Francisco)

#18

Post by cmelbye »

latch wrote: post #12

I know this comes up every now and again...but I find the length of the domain name a barrier to entry. I think building a brand around "DuckDuckGo" is an upward battle.

This is one of the biggest reasons I don't use DuckDuckGo yet. Seems trivial, but for me it's certainly a barrier to entry. I'd say the second biggest reason is the annoying user interface (gaudy effects like large lime green backgrounds when you roll over search results, etc.)

Re: DuckDuckGo Challenges Google on Privacy (With a Billboard in San Francisco)

#19

Post by michaelbuckbee »

klochner wrote: post #14
truebosko wrote: post #6

Is the whole privacy on search thing really a big issue? I, for one, want Google to be all Orwellian on me because it will mean better search results. I had a scenario like this a few days ago when I googled for "fabric" -- Being a Python developer I was looking for http://fabfile.org and it shows up as the second result while logged in. If I'm not, it won't show up. This may be the outlier state of mind on HN, but I…

There is also a slightly different case - google passing on your search terms to the website that you click through to. You may trust google with knowing that you searched for "naked bieber pics", but you may not want other websites also knowing your search habits.

Are they passing on search terms for previous searches or just the current search?

In your (frankly terrifying) example, would the site have had to have ranked for "naked bieber pics", showing up in the results and then you click it to pull the search terms? Because that would seem to be pretty innocuous.

Re: DuckDuckGo Challenges Google on Privacy (With a Billboard in San Francisco)

#20

Post by hrabago »

cmelbye wrote: post #18
latch wrote: post #12

I know this comes up every now and again...but I find the length of the domain name a barrier to entry. I think building a brand around "DuckDuckGo" is an upward battle.

This is one of the biggest reasons I don't use DuckDuckGo yet. Seems trivial, but for me it's certainly a barrier to entry. I'd say the second biggest reason is the annoying user interface (gaudy effects like large lime green backgrounds when you roll over search results, etc.)

> I'd say the second biggest reason is the annoying user interface DuckDuckGo is the first website that made me want to install a browser plugin to change the way the page looks. (As for other websites that had a look I didn't like, I simply stopped visiting them.) The problem with installing plugins, though, is that I use several browsers on several computers, and to get a consistent look, I'd have to customize all of them (if possible).
Post reply on HN