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DuckDuckGo for Mac beta now open to the public

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Re: DuckDuckGo for Mac beta now open to the public

#71

Post by _23sd »

chrisjc wrote: post #26
stuff4ben wrote: post #23

Other comments seem to say it's based on Webkit, but why not something like Mozilla Firefox? I stay as far away as I can from Chrome and Google, but Webkit doesn't seem like the answer. That being said, I may still try it.

The "The Browser" episode from the Acquired podcast might shed some light on the reasons why. If one of the key figures in the development of Mozilla and JavaScript didn't choose it for his own new browser, why would anyone else? :( The Browser (with Brendan Eich, Chief Architect of Netscape + Mozilla and CEO of Brave) https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/the-browser-with-brendan-ei...

As mentioned in that interview, Brave's biggest reason for switching away from Gecko was that they couldn't support Netflix DRM. Gecko-based browsers can support it today because Widevine works (see Librewolf).

Re: DuckDuckGo for Mac beta now open to the public

#72

Post by cdubzzz »

WallyFunk wrote: post #37
boywitharupee wrote: post #34

I like the flame animation when clearing the browser history. Is that Lottie based animation?

I have the DDG iOS app and there is an option to remove the flame animation. Never liked it. Too fancy and seems over the top when I just want a brand new temporary session.

Settings > Fire button animation > None

Re: DuckDuckGo for Mac beta now open to the public

#74

Post by TheNorthman »

WallyFunk wrote: post #49
groovybits wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Webkit-based browser [...]just like Brave Brave for Mac is not Webkit-based. It is Blink and V8.

Thanks for pointing that out. I was mis-reading some of the comments here saying the DDG browser in question is Webkit (because it's a MacOS browser only, for now). So is it based off Chromium as the base then? (I know Brave is Chromium based)

No, you read right. The DDG browser for Mac is WebKit. Specifically it's using the WKWebView Class from the WebKit Framework[0]

[0]: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/webkit/wkwebview

Re: DuckDuckGo for Mac beta now open to the public

#75

Post by marc_io »

Glad to see the DDG Browser on the Mac!

Some brief considerations regarding the UI, after some testing:

– It would be nice to be able to set the initial zoom level to pages or, at least, to remember the previous zoom level. I have to do it every time I open the same website.

– While any website is working on something (loading, for example), there's no indication of that. I ended up closing a tab by mistake while a process on the website was still active. This is something that Chrome does well, adding a loading icon to the tab.

– The text on the main search bar jumps abruptly from the center to the left when clicked. In Safari, there's a smooth animation there, which feels more natural.

– The contrast between the search field and its surroundings is very low. Again, in Safari, there's a fine line that helps with it.

Re: DuckDuckGo for Mac beta now open to the public

#76

Post by _23sd »

ARandomerDude wrote: post #31

For those who know a lot more than I do, how does this compare to Brave?

DDG isn't doing uBO level ad blocking like Brave does. It's just blocking common tracking domains and elements, so you don't get (much) cosmetic filtering and some ads will still show up. My local newspaper's site has grey boxes where the ads would be without content or DNS blocking. On YouTube, it can't block the ads unless you open in the "Duck Player" (a page where it embeds the video). It also doesn't support extensions.

That said, it has a cleaner interface than Brave, and it has that fire button from DDG Mobile that deletes everything except for cookies on sites you "fireproof". It's a really nice compromise between "save everything until you delete everything" and "incognito mode" that I wish other browsers would adopt. Plus it uses WebKit so theoretically it should be fast and battery efficient like Safari.

In my opinion there isn't much reason to use DDG Browser unless you really like the fire button. If you want a WebKit browser, Safari with the AdGuard extension blocks ads and trackers, has extensions including more password manager options, and has its own email relay feature. Otherwise Firefox and Brave are excellent and cross-platform.

Re: DuckDuckGo for Mac beta now open to the public

#77

Post by jnrk »

nvrspyx wrote: post #65
DavideNL wrote: post #51

So will uBlock Origin be "crippled" in this browser, like in Chrome/Chromium and Safari?

Does uBlock Origin even exist for Safari? If not, then I imagine it won't exist for this browser either, since it's just a wrapper around a macOS-provided, Safari-/WebKit-based webview.

It used to, but the developer pulled it after extensions were moved to the App Store (requiring an Apple dev account and certification) and some other technical restrictions introduced in Safari 14 IIRC.

Re: DuckDuckGo for Mac beta now open to the public

#78

Post by vinaypai »

Karunamon wrote: post #41
yegg wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(I'm the CEO & Founder of DuckDuckGo.) It is simply not true that we have censored anything or made ourselves "the arbiters of truth." I realized I previously explained how our news rankings work very poorly on Twitter but I subsequently put out a clarification tweet[1] and then we made this help page with a much clearer (and detailed) explanation of how our news rankings work: https://help.duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-…

What you have basically done here is say "we only downrank spam" (this is fine), and then said "state-sponsored news is inherently spam" (this is not). You are using a definition of "spam" that is not commonly held or understood by those who would be your users. Whether or not this is for a noble reason, this renders it a dark pattern. This is not only a violation of the principle of least astonishment, your explanat…

> then said "state-sponsored news is inherently spam

So BBC is spam according to them?

Re: DuckDuckGo for Mac beta now open to the public

#79

Post by someNameIG »

loceng wrote: post #16
TobyTheDog123 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how you claim that you have not made yourselves the arbiters of truth after posting tweets like https://twitter.com/yegg/status/1501716484761997318 "At DuckDuckGo, we've been rolling out search updates that down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation" and "we also often place news modules and information boxes at the top of DuckDuckGo search results (where they are seen and clicked the most) t…

Do you know if DDG also did the same - or perhaps their rankings were already captured by the likes of Reuters et al ("fact checkers") - for the COVID pandemic narrative? It's quite apparent their desired narrative is falling apart now, where a Pfizer executive publicly admitted they didn't even test for transmissabiity - meanwhile that was arguably the primary promotion point for the mRNA shots propagated by the cap…

> It's quite apparent their desired narrative is falling apart now, where a Pfizer executive publicly admitted they didn't even test for transmissabiity

This was known when the clinical trial docs where first published. No one said it did at the very beginning, it was never hidden by anyone. The data of reducing transmission was collected when the vaccines began to roll out. And for pre-omicron strains it did reduce transmission.

This whole thing about the recent Pfizer thing is just some anti-vaxx narrative.

Re: DuckDuckGo for Mac beta now open to the public

#80

Post by lioeters »

nvrspyx wrote: post #65
DavideNL wrote: post #51

So will uBlock Origin be "crippled" in this browser, like in Chrome/Chromium and Safari?

Does uBlock Origin even exist for Safari? If not, then I imagine it won't exist for this browser either, since it's just a wrapper around a macOS-provided, Safari-/WebKit-based webview.

Looks like the answer is no, Safari is not supported.

> ..as of 2022, uBlock Origin’s extension is available for several of the most widely used browsers, including: Chrome, Chromium, Edge, Opera, Firefox and all Safari releases prior to 13.

https://ublockorigin.com/

Explanation of the state of uBlock Origin (and other blockers) for Safari - https://github.com/el1t/uBlock-Safari/issues/158

Apparently, the only WebKit-based browser that can run uBO is Orion browser (beta, Mac only).

https://browser.kagi.com/

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