Ask YC: What do you think of my new search engine?

#1

Post by epi0Bauqu » Thu, Sep 25, 2008, 5:58 PM UTC

Ask YC: What do you think of my new search engine?
duckduckgo.com

Re: Ask YC: What do you think of my new search engine?

#2

Post by epi0Bauqu » Thu, Sep 25, 2008, 6:13 PM UTC

Hi all, I would really appreciate any feedback. Here is some more info: http://duckduckgo.com/about.html

Re: Ask YC: What do you think of my new search engine?

#3

Post by mstefff » Thu, Sep 25, 2008, 6:20 PM UTC

Looks like one of those fake copycat google co-op search engines you see spammed all over ebay for sale at first.

pretty interesting functionality - i like how vague searches ask for categorization. i searched a band name and got specific info and links.

but most searches produce way too little broad results.

interesting but needs more work i'd say.

Re: Ask YC: What do you think of my new search engine?

#4

Post by axod » Thu, Sep 25, 2008, 6:21 PM UTC

Impressed so far, but not impressed with the [load more results]->web2.0 spinner I'd rather just have normal pagination there.

Seems to give some good results back in a useful way.

Re: Ask YC: What do you think of my new search engine?

#5

Post by ashleyw » Thu, Sep 25, 2008, 6:23 PM UTC

Ummm...at first I thought it was a front using something like Yahoo! BOSS as a back end - until I saw you had a bot.

Would love to know more, like if you do crawl everything yourself... :)

Re: Ask YC: What do you think of my new search engine?

#6

Post by redorb » Thu, Sep 25, 2008, 6:24 PM UTC

pretty cool, seems to use wikipedia to seem semantic... which works most of the time. I just don't see how its possible to break into google's market share or for that sake, Yahoo's or MSN's ...

- I think companies like octopart, that are doing segmented search have a better chance.

Re: Ask YC: What do you think of my new search engine?

#7

Post by immad » Thu, Sep 25, 2008, 6:25 PM UTC

Why "Try duck duck Google".

I found that confusing. Just say Google. Also you could use Yahoo BOSS to pull in results when you dont have any (if thats allowed)

Re: Ask YC: What do you think of my new search engine?

#8

Post by notauser » Thu, Sep 25, 2008, 6:26 PM UTC

Wow, I really like the results, especially the 'see also' section.

(Give a search for "pearl" a go for a good example.)

More focused searches also worked well ("javascript array split" got me the result I wanted).

I also liked the fall back to google domain specific search for "javascript aray split w3schools" although I'm not sure I understand exactly what made it do that.

The result layout needs some work, mostly to make long results easier to scan, but I will probably carry on using this provided I can remember the URL.

Re: Ask YC: What do you think of my new search engine?

#9

Post by epi0Bauqu » Thu, Sep 25, 2008, 6:27 PM UTC

immad wrote: post #7

Why "Try duck duck Google". I found that confusing. Just say Google. Also you could use Yahoo BOSS to pull in results when you dont have any (if thats allowed)

I am using Yahoo BOSS as fallback. That message comes up when Yahoo BOSS times out (i.e. double fallback), which unfortunately happens more than it should.

Duck Duck Google is a remnant of earlier functionality that is currently not live. You're right, Google' is simpler than 'Duck Duck Google'.

Re: Ask YC: What do you think of my new search engine?

#10

Post by jgfoot » Thu, Sep 25, 2008, 6:30 PM UTC

It is very useful for research-type queries. I like it better than hakia. Thanks very much for this.