I like DDG because it covers most of my basic search needs. I only use Google when I need services that are related to my location. Searching with Google is becoming less effective for me because the first pages almost always bring up ads or business-related content (like blogs that are sponsoring something or are trying to sell some product or service).
DuckDuckGo Traffic
91–100 of 251 posts
Re: DuckDuckGo Traffic
#92Honest question: what distinguishes DDG from Google or Bing? Why shouldn’t they (or won’t they) follow the same trajectory as our once beloved “don’t be evil” Google of the late 2000s? I’ve used DDG off and on, and I think the interface is fine (perhaps better these days as Google seems to have gotten worse), but I see the idea of selling clicks as being too lucrative. Are we just rooting for the downfall of the incu…
They sell clicks, but non-tracked, non-invasive keyword clicks. Which of course means a search for iphone 11 will have some paid ads to click on.
As they've built their user base on privacy and those unhappy with Google, it's very unlikely the user base would shrug and carry on if DDG switch to Google mode tracking with all the dubious extras of data collection, and retargeting etc. Not that it's going to work though, as DDG have um, DDG search. No platform, no phone, no analytics, home speaker, fonts, domain registry, email etc, ad nauseum. So where to collect the data until they're a FANG monster with a finger in every pie?
So we either see it coming a long time off, or DDG become a privacy focused monster with fingers in lots of privacy aware pies. Or stay as just DDG privacy friendly search.
Re: DuckDuckGo Traffic
#93I would like to use DDG but it needs a verbatim mode that I can use as a default. That’s the best feature of Google.
I find that my non-verbatim searches on Google return mostly garbage, so I'm not sure I would call "please stop displaying garbage" the best feature of Google. Maybe a "last thread" feature. That said, I've recently started switching to DDG.
Re: DuckDuckGo Traffic
#94Bang 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…
For me, the killer feature is DDG's solid keyboard navigation of search results. Google's never worked properly and they eventually removed it.
Re: DuckDuckGo Traffic
#95Earlier 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.
Mozilla is deprecating OpenSearch support in Firefox[1] at some point. The OpenSearch standard is what provides this functionality. [1] https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2019/10/15/search-engine-add...
That article is only about OpenSearch addons from addons.mozilla.org. While I don't see a good reason to remove them, I also don't see a good reason to keep them.
The OpenSearch discovery feature is staying and I haven't heard of any efforts to remove it. Or am I missing something?
Re: DuckDuckGo Traffic
#963.5 billion queries for google daily, 54 mil daily record for DDG.
That means that google achieves the daily record for DDG for slightly more than 14 minutes.
It is incredibly hard / nearly impossible to compete against a tech monopoly in its core business grounds. I would like to switch to DDG, but for me the google results are definitely more relevant than the DDG results.
I wish it was otherwise.
Re: DuckDuckGo Traffic
#97Bang 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…
Back in the day, say 15 years ago, there were dedicated search bars and prefix searches were the only option. I've hated the idea of separate search bar, so I used the prefix way after it was necessary even for the default search engine. Every browser ever that I can remember had supported them out of the box.
Re: DuckDuckGo Traffic
#98I don't want to sound like an astroturfer but bing results have actually gotten much better too. Though search is a big field and something I wouldn't mind mozilla getting into too.
That's why DDG's results have been getting better, since it's Bing underneath.
Re: DuckDuckGo Traffic
#99Ironically I made the switch to DDG in protest of the Dragonfly fiasco. Only later I learned DDG results are sourced from Bing, which provides censored search in China for years. But I stayed with DDG because the UX suits me.
Re: DuckDuckGo Traffic
#100Bang 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…
I'm speaking 3 languages and learning a 4th; this is really a blessing.
!wen - English Wikipedia
!wpl - Polish
!wde - German
etc.