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The curious case of DuckDuckGo

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Re: The curious case of DuckDuckGo

#31

Post by BasDirks »

fbuilesv wrote: post #22
puredemo wrote: post #19

I've said this for a long time, but I think the biggest thing holding back DDG from truly widespread adoption is the name and branding. No one is ever going to 'dukgo' someone. Searching is a verb, the naming conventions used with DDG in its current form just don't fly. I'd love to talk shop with Gabriel about the identity decisions, and whether he is open to pivoting the brand identity now that the service is gettin…

Before Google we never Altavista'd or Yahoo'd anything, I don't see why this has to be a problem. Also, please stop abusing the word "pivot" :(

Right, before Google.. but maybe that's the point: they never became as ubiquitous as Google.

Re: The curious case of DuckDuckGo

#32

Post by EmployedRussian »

geraldwl wrote: post #14

I recently had to rent a car for 3 months in Europe. Google failed miserably. Even the forum posts it uncovered did not really help me find a bargain. There was too much "advertiser" influence in the search results. Duck came to the rescue -- pointed at a great forum post and ultimately a cheaper rate than I found using Google and the phone. Cheaper by over 20%!

Google results for "cheap car rental europe 3 month" appear pretty reasonable, and (on casual examination) (slightly) better than results from DDG.

What was the "cheaper by 20%" solution?

Re: The curious case of DuckDuckGo

#33

Post by jordank »

ansy wrote: post #20

This is really an example of taking Google's strengths and making them out to be weaknesses. Google's search algorithm is tuned to what actually works for most people. Does anyone search for Java and click on coffee links? Or links for Java the island in Indonesia? Based on these results I would bet not. The thousands if not millions of people that typed Java before you didn't want coffee or islands. They wanted the…

We find that our users really like disambiguation. I find it most useful on searches for people (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Doug+smith) or places (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Deerfield).

Re: local search, we're bringing in datasets from services like Yelp. For an example see: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Wood+tavern. We're always looking to improve, so if you've got interesting local data, please reach out.

Re: The curious case of DuckDuckGo

#34

Post by alanh »

puredemo wrote: post #19

I've said this for a long time, but I think the biggest thing holding back DDG from truly widespread adoption is the name and branding. No one is ever going to 'dukgo' someone. Searching is a verb, the naming conventions used with DDG in its current form just don't fly. I'd love to talk shop with Gabriel about the identity decisions, and whether he is open to pivoting the brand identity now that the service is gettin…

Agreed. He has a short URL but I'll be darned if I can remember it. Something like ddggg?

Edit: Right, ddg.gg. I guess I had it. But don't tell me it's memorable (I only recalled increasing character repetition). How do others remember it? "Duck Duck G-G-Go"? He definitely needs a short, pronounceable name.

Re: The curious case of DuckDuckGo

#36

Post by rooshdi »

puredemo wrote: post #19

I've said this for a long time, but I think the biggest thing holding back DDG from truly widespread adoption is the name and branding. No one is ever going to 'dukgo' someone. Searching is a verb, the naming conventions used with DDG in its current form just don't fly. I'd love to talk shop with Gabriel about the identity decisions, and whether he is open to pivoting the brand identity now that the service is gettin…

DuckDuckGo is a good enough name. Penetrating market share is incredibly difficult in the search market. Microsoft is spending billions of dollars each year marketing Bing to the masses and it still only has about 14% market share. It takes time, technology, and money to break the mindshare of users away from Google Search. DuckDuckGo has the name, they just need the time, technology, and money to market to the mainstream.

Re: The curious case of DuckDuckGo

#37

Post by alanh »

mtogo wrote: post #5

Among the benefits listed and hundreds of others are the !bang commands, which i really love. Want to do a search on stackoverflow right from your url bar? !so Hello world Or maybe wikipedia? !w Hello world Or do a google search !g Hello world

One of the best: The null !bang, if you will, is the equivalent of "I'm Feeling Lucky."

      Hacker News !

Re: The curious case of DuckDuckGo

#39

Post by gregable »

gallerytungsten wrote: post #13

re: "Google over does search" (and "autocorrects" your search). This "feature" has been getting steadily more annoying, particularly with more obscure words, or words where there is a similar word that's in more widespread use. Thinking about it now, I was wishing there was a way to turn off this feature; but alas, a dive into http://www.google.com/preferences doesn't seem to have "turn off that dang autocorrect" as…

In the screen shot in this article, you see some text with a link "Search instead for 'College or Uncollege?' above the results which takes you to the results for the original query. It's possible that the author didn't notice this though.

Just a theory, but I suspect this form of autocorrect is helping more than hurting, it's just that it's easy to not notice when things work well and very visible when they don't.

Re: The curious case of DuckDuckGo

#40

Post by resnamen »

gallerytungsten wrote: post #13

re: "Google over does search" (and "autocorrects" your search). This "feature" has been getting steadily more annoying, particularly with more obscure words, or words where there is a similar word that's in more widespread use. Thinking about it now, I was wishing there was a way to turn off this feature; but alas, a dive into http://www.google.com/preferences doesn't seem to have "turn off that dang autocorrect" as…

Surround the uncommon term in quotes and it won't be autocorrected.
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