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

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

#181

Post by epi0Bauqu »

jonknee wrote: post #176
epi0Bauqu wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Privacy is just but one aspect of DuckDuckGo: http://duckduckgo.com/about.html http://duckduckgo.com/goodies.html I spend the vast majority of my time improving the search experience. I would welcome you trying it for a week and giving me your feedback! I would love it if Google reacted to this by stopping this search leakage.

I changed to Duck Duck Go in Chrome a couple weeks ago to do just this and didn't make it past three days. I was looking forward to getting rid of content mills (which was the reason I wanted to try DDG for a week), but the lack of things like local results and search completion drove me absolutely batty.

Thx -- both of those things we're actively working on and should have something for this year (probably earlier than later).

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

#182

Post by tomrod »

jamesaguilar wrote: post #163
iamelgringo wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the whole privacy on search thing really a big issue? Of course it is. Google and Facebook have been pushing the bounds of privacy repeatedly over the years because it is in their financial best interest to do so. Their primary product isn't search or communication or maps. Their product is plain and simple people's personal information. And, becuase they are a corporation in the USA they are legally bound to maxi…

> they are legally bound to maximize shareholder value Can you point to a single instance where a company was forced to commit some act that its managers reasonably thought was morally wrong because of the "law" that companies must maximize shareholder value? Personally I think this trope has no basis in fact and cannot explain why Google or any other company is compelled to do things that are wrong. There are many p…

Yes, I can. I was employed by such a company and laid off when I made a stink.

There is no legal "law" of such: it's an economic reality, however.

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

#183

Post by Goronmon »

burgerbrain wrote: post #88
jeremydavid wrote: post #8

Not knowing which keywords referred visitors would be terribly annoying to webmasters. Unless you're using dodgy 3rd party advertisers, I don't see what's so bad about aggregating referrer data. I have a feeling Google might be keen to hold onto their duck.com domain a little longer :)

"Not knowing which keywords referred visitors would be terribly annoying to webmasters" Why should I, as a user, care about that?

You don't directly. But if the internet landscape becomes unusable to content providers, you'll care when there is nothing worth finding anymore.

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

#184

Post by markkat »

pedanticfreak wrote: post #50

Anyone else think there should be a DuckDuckGo of browsers that is similarly proactive about privacy? There way more ways than just cookies to track people nowadays and it's about time we implemented default behavior in the browser to block them. There's no reason to wait for Google or Mozilla to do it for us either.

I would use this, most definitely. Sign me up. I don't think Google or Mozilla would do it.

I think an interesting option would be to have a "what you can know about me" table in the browser that you could fill out. Location, interests, etc. -Your web experience is customizable, but on your terms.

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

#185

Post by jonknee »

epi0Bauqu wrote: post #181
jonknee wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I changed to Duck Duck Go in Chrome a couple weeks ago to do just this and didn't make it past three days. I was looking forward to getting rid of content mills (which was the reason I wanted to try DDG for a week), but the lack of things like local results and search completion drove me absolutely batty.

Thx -- both of those things we're actively working on and should have something for this year (probably earlier than later).

Great to hear. I like what you're doing and will definitely continue to check it out when you add new features. I don't agree with your stance on referrers (which isn't a Google problem any more than it's a HN problem), but I like rooting for the little guy.

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

#186

Post by epi0Bauqu »

jonknee wrote: post #185
epi0Bauqu wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thx -- both of those things we're actively working on and should have something for this year (probably earlier than later).

Great to hear. I like what you're doing and will definitely continue to check it out when you add new features. I don't agree with your stance on referrers (which isn't a Google problem any more than it's a HN problem), but I like rooting for the little guy.

Thank you, and I can appreciate that position. However, I think it is a search engine problem because search terms often contain sensitive personal information and they're embedded in the referrer, whereas HN links don't contain such info.

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

#187

Post by stcredzero »

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…

I, for one, want Google to be all Orwellian on me because it will mean better search results.

Will it necessarily mean better search results or will it mean that you will be subjected to personalized spam produced by those who game Google's system? I think history shows that there will be at least a little of the latter.

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

#189

Post by rottendevice »

It strikes me as kind of odd that the billboard says "We", implying that DuckDuckGo is a company of multiple people.

Then again, saying "I don't track you" would sound extremely strange.

I guess we (as a society) have become so accustomed to companies requiring large groups of people to be successful. I guess Gabe's ability to take on Google, the biggest tech company this decade, by himself, is a testament to computer programming being so empowering.

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

#190

Post by apitaru »

eddieplan9 wrote: post #83
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.

That's what bookmark is for. `Google' is not easy to type either, at least compared to `bing'. I put DuckDuckGo at position 3 of Safari's bookmark bar (position 1 being bookmarklet from instapaper and position 2 being bookmarklet for my posterious blog). Then I could just press command-3, and type `!w Al Franken' or `!w faithful place' or `!python tempfile'. Pretty sweet IMHO.

I think google is actually easier (or as easy) to type compared to bing. Look at the position of your fingers as you type it.. the repetition of G/O and the close proximity of L/E respectively makes it a easy to type without looking at the keyboard.
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