Earlier quoted context omitted.
I starting thinking about the Python equivalent of this and it was disgusting.
This? $ python -c 'import datetime; print(datetime.date(2019, 3, 12) + datetime.timedelta(days=366))' 2020-03-12
Beautiful.
DuckDuckGo is good enough for regular use
441–450 of 490 posts
Re: DuckDuckGo is good enough for regular use
#442Re: DuckDuckGo is good enough for regular use
#443I think I've figured out what is happening when people tell me that DuckDuckGo's results "aren't good enough". What's really happening is that they've been trained to search a certain way to using Google and because DDG doesn't have all the historical data of your searches on their platform they can't fill in the gaps as well. After a couple days using DDG I found the right vocabulary to get good local results and wh…
A lot of DDG fans on HN blame the user or social conditioning and use that as a crutch. It’s BS. You need to provide clear examples of the differences in order to really make this argument to someone who might switch. What specifically are the differences? The last time this topic came up someone told me I was a total noob because I didn’t know how to use search and that was basically the extent of it.
I uaed google the last 3 years on my desktop while I used DDG on my phone, so I have a pretty good feeling about the differences. I started using duckduckgo because I accidentally set the default search engine to it and thought: OK I might as well use that for a while.
The question you ask is hard to answer because the differences depend on the thing you are searching for. My feeling: for searching code stuff google is a tad better, while for everyday stuff duckduckgo seems to display more relevant results.
It is definitly worth trying, just to notice the subtle things google does sometimes.
Re: DuckDuckGo is good enough for regular use
#444I use DDG as the primary search engine on my own devices and Google at work.
DDG is still worse than Google in the following aspects:
- autocompletion is crap, DDG thinks that "lyrics" is a word that improves every search
- DDG is worse at searching SO/Reddit/GitHub. Just a few days ago I was looking for a solution to an issue with my 3D printer, and DDG missed the most useful Reddit post
- a filter bubble is often a good thing, I don't search for political news, but Google knows I usually search for technical issues, so where DDG is happy to return results about tabletop games, rock formations and corrosion, Google knows I am looking for Go, Nim, Crystal and Rust.
Re: DuckDuckGo is good enough for regular use
#445Earlier quoted context omitted.
Today I was trying to find info about Corpus Christi - a Polish film that won some awards lately. DDG gives me information about a place in Texas, including stuff from the local newspaper and attractions. I'm searching from a Poland IP btw. Anyway, the actual film was at the very end of the first page of results for me. It certainly feels like it priotises things weirdly. Google Maps has a similar issue though: plent…
Wait a second. You can't use a privacy themed search engine and expect them to lookup your ip, figure out what city you are in. The entire point of using ddg is to avoid this.
It already knows I’m in the UK from my IP address. I get a UK toggle at the top of the page.
Re: DuckDuckGo is good enough for regular use
#446Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I search for Fish Tacos on DDG's maps and Google, it's night and day. DDG gave me 4 results, none anywhere near me. Do you have a suggestion for how I could have been more effective?
I do not use DDG for map queries. Google Maps is still light years ahead of anyone else for maps. For non-map queries, DDG is now well ahead of Google except for long tail stuff, for example: technical error messages.
For POIs, Google Maps is out in front. For motoring directions, Apple is catching up. For walking and cycling, OSM is streets ahead.
Re: DuckDuckGo is good enough for regular use
#447Earlier quoted context omitted.
So, to be clear, Google is lamer than DDG because it supports the natural language expression `X days after M D Y` but does not support the mathematical `M D Y + X days` I guess Google has figured out with its trillions(?) of queries how humans search and not how nerds search.
Why not be more inclusive and enable both how humans search as well as how nerds search?
Interestingly it seems that DDG also supports "human" search: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=500+days+after+march+12+2019&t=can...
(Also interesting that you can infer that I'm on Ubuntu from my sharing of the search URL, though.)
Re: DuckDuckGo is good enough for regular use
#448Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google gives me bad results. It ignores some of the words in my queries, and the context boxes are generally spammy and irrelevant. Even if the correct information is somewhere in the results page, I bounce before I can find it. From what I can tell from the article, this might be because I type too much stuff into the search bar, and because Google’s manually curated semantic web stuff is not relevant to me. However…
I switched for about a month... for most general searches ddg was as good or better... when searching for development terms as a programmer, I found that the ddg results were often worthless to me. The context that google has associated to you specifically adds value to the results. Since most of my searches were for technical libraries, components, etc, I found myself searching again with !g more than half the time.…
duck.com :)
Re: DuckDuckGo is good enough for regular use
#449For query "malesia bus conections search" DDG gives me porn results (I have safe search disabled). That doesn't make me thin it's "good enough".