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DuckDuckGo Traffic

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Re: DuckDuckGo Traffic

#21

Post by sdan »

Unlike some other comments, I use Google mainly and DuckDuckGo sometimes.

As I'm building a product or doing some other imperitive job, I'm not focused on privacy (other than the fact that I put on AlgoVPN and switch between my VPNs often) than getting results that fix bugs or genuinely help me.

Sometimes when I'm searching pretty vague/generic queries I go to DDG because there's a ton of websites that hack their SEO to the top and DDG alleviates that.

As Google recently rolled out its horrible UI I may go to DDG a bit more, but at the end of the day I just need good search results, regardless of which platform (which both engines provides, but based on if the query is generic or not)

Re: DuckDuckGo Traffic

#23

Post by abhs »

nbrempel wrote: post #3

Over the past 5 years I’ve tried DDG several times. Each time except the last I wanted to stick with it but the results simply didn’t stand up to what I’d see on Google. About 6 months ago (a year? I can’t remember) I switched and haven’t looked back. Now, when I look at google, the results actually look less relevant. As well, the ads on Google have become very obnoxious. I don’t feel like I’m being served the best…

Same, when I first tried DDG (2 yrs ago) the results were horrible. Now I've switched to DDG permanently 2 weeks ago as the results are good enough. Later I'm gonna change my parent's default search engine to DDG in a few days of more testing.

I love that DDG has almost no spam and the fact that it's so on point to the queries and doesnt perform the wide search. My dad has a few websites that he's visits daily, and he just goes to them directly. Since Google and DDG cant differentiate themselves much any more, I feel like the next direction for every tech company is a larger emphasis on user privacy and it's only going to be more important for already established markets as a differentiator.

Once DDG grows by 2x more, it'll become a significant competitor to Google. At the point, that additional data advantages likely approaches diminishing returns. Remember, network effects arent exponential in real life, they follow an "S" curve.

Re: DuckDuckGo Traffic

#24

Post by Polylactic_acid »

nbrempel wrote: post #3

Over the past 5 years I’ve tried DDG several times. Each time except the last I wanted to stick with it but the results simply didn’t stand up to what I’d see on Google. About 6 months ago (a year? I can’t remember) I switched and haven’t looked back. Now, when I look at google, the results actually look less relevant. As well, the ads on Google have become very obnoxious. I don’t feel like I’m being served the best…

I think I mentally give DDG a harder time than it deserves. When I search something and don't see the result I want I think "Wow ddg is shit, I'll try this on google" And then I still don't see what I want and think "The info I am looking for doesn't exist or my search was wrong"

Despite both failing I tend to be a lot more lenient to google.

Re: DuckDuckGo Traffic

#25

Post by Dawny33 »

As long as the search results don't need to be extremely localized, I found DDG much better and less obnoxious for a year.

Still can't get away from "Pizzerias around me" style queries on G + not expecting DDG to take these up anytime soon, as they are probably like 10% of my search queries per day anyways.

Re: DuckDuckGo Traffic

#26

Post by input_sh »

throwaway8941 wrote: post #20
teeray wrote: post #14

Bang commands[0] really sealed DDG for me. I know Firefox had install-your-own search plugins forever, but the total lack of friction of typing “!yt badgerbadgerbadger” to get specifically YouTube results was fantastic. !g (search on Google) also makes it far easier to switch. Don’t like the results? Prefix !g and try again. My other favorites: !sr [name of subreddit] - much faster than “reddit.com/r/[name]” !r - Red…

JFYI, there's no need to install anything. Focus on a search field on (almost any) website, open the context menu, and "Add a keyword for this search". Put a letter or two into the "keyword" input. Profit.

As someone hearing about this for the first time, are custom searches portable? Do they sync with Firefox Sync? Do they work on Firefox for Android?

Re: DuckDuckGo Traffic

#27

Post by Shank »

I've been really skeptical of DDG, but one of my favorite features they've implemented is the system wide dark mode support on macOS and iOS. It's worth using just so I don't burn my eyes out on Google's solid white results page at night, with the option to jump to it if I need it.

The results are sometimes worse, but at this point, I'm pretty happy with DDG. DuckDuckHack is discontinued though, which is a shame. I feel like it's one of their advantages (letting the community write new features into the engine), but they don't seem to want to do anything with it.

Re: DuckDuckGo Traffic

#28

Post by jmarbach »

Ironically I just made the switch to DDG today with Firefox because Google’s results have become so polluted and irrelevant.

I expected Firefox to ship with DDG as the default but alas it did not to my surprise. Why is Google still the default in Firefox?

Re: DuckDuckGo Traffic

#29

Post by grimgrin »

sdrothrock wrote: post #19
teeray wrote: post #14

Bang commands[0] really sealed DDG for me. I know Firefox had install-your-own search plugins forever, but the total lack of friction of typing “!yt badgerbadgerbadger” to get specifically YouTube results was fantastic. !g (search on Google) also makes it far easier to switch. Don’t like the results? Prefix !g and try again. My other favorites: !sr [name of subreddit] - much faster than “reddit.com/r/[name]” !r - Red…

This is an offshoot discussion and I have nothing against DDG or bang commands -- just presenting another side of convenient searches. > I know Firefox had install-your-own search plugins forever, but the total lack of friction of typing “!yt badgerbadgerbadger” to get specifically YouTube results was fantastic. I find "use your own search" to be much less friction than going through DDG since it takes me right to re…

There's a thing I wish FF had that Chrome has had for a long, long time (an older comment of mine):

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20056174

re: ease of searching within sites and building that availability (of sites) up

Re: DuckDuckGo Traffic

#30

Post by maverick2007 »

input_sh wrote: post #26
throwaway8941 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

JFYI, there's no need to install anything. Focus on a search field on (almost any) website, open the context menu, and "Add a keyword for this search". Put a letter or two into the "keyword" input. Profit.

As someone hearing about this for the first time, are custom searches portable? Do they sync with Firefox Sync? Do they work on Firefox for Android?

I'd also like to know this. Been using Firefox mobile but chrome on PC and syncing custom search operators could be what gets me to switch back to FF on PC
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