An Interview with DuckDuckGo's founder, Gabriel Weinberg
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Re: An Interview with DuckDuckGo's founder, Gabriel Weinberg
#2I like DDG and I even converted chrome over to use it as its primary engine, however, recently I am noticing more and more spam links and less and less links that really matter. I think I am coming to the conclusion that DDG did this is the wrong order. They are developing a great frontend and using others backends, but to really beat google or MS or yahoo you need to develop a great backend that can filter results well and troll the web efficiently then you can put an awesome frontend on it.
I still think the real silver bullet will be to make a backend system that can peer with other systems to gather data and can be customized to get deep results from a small subset of the web that interests a particular user ( think corporation uses it for internal search and to make their site show up better on a common front end). I even started a research project to begin working with some of the things needed to accomplish it[1].
Re: An Interview with DuckDuckGo's founder, Gabriel Weinberg
#3This is one product I hope people really get behind. Good interface and smart aggregation. Keep it up guys!
Re: An Interview with DuckDuckGo's founder, Gabriel Weinberg
#4I've been using DDG as my default browser for a while (though I sometimes revert to !g to search google), and I'm satisfied with the experience.
The main thing that would really improve my experience would be if it was faster. Google really spoiled my with the instant results and suggestions as you type.
I'm also looking forward to them switching to SPDY as I always use the encrypted version, and this should make it a bit more responsive.
Re: An Interview with DuckDuckGo's founder, Gabriel Weinberg
#5I like what I've seen from DDG so far. I don't expect it to be Google, but it seems like the search engine keeps getting better with each iteration.
With the launch of DuckDuckHack it will be interesting to see what people build for the platform. Plus, I'm just excited to see a talented team take on search.
Re: An Interview with DuckDuckGo's founder, Gabriel Weinberg
#6I have never liked DuckDuckGo after seeing their advertisement tactics, especially the "educational" http://donttrack.us/ minisite. Apparently your anonymous HTTP referer info (from Google Analytics?) will be sold to insurance companies / appear in a background check? It is blatant fear mongering and really made me angry.
Re: An Interview with DuckDuckGo's founder, Gabriel Weinberg
#7I have never liked DuckDuckGo after seeing their advertisement tactics, especially the "educational" http://donttrack.us/ minisite. Apparently your anonymous HTTP referer info (from Google Analytics?) will be sold to insurance companies / appear in a background check? It is blatant fear mongering and really made me angry.
It all goes into the huge (secret by law) national insurance database, which is accessible by all insurers. All information gained by an insurance company about an individual is put in there, and insurers are prohibited from discussing it.
Re: An Interview with DuckDuckGo's founder, Gabriel Weinberg
#8The article mentions $115K in revenue last year. How is that close to self-sustainable for a 10-15 person company?
Re: An Interview with DuckDuckGo's founder, Gabriel Weinberg
#9DuckDuckGo has really fallen behind Google in the zero click information department, which is one of DDG's key selling points. DDG needs to have one or more major competitive advantages over Google in order grow. Privacy is great, but zero click is something obvious and usability orientated that really stands out. I'm not going to use DDG if Google gives me more zero click information no matter what; it just makes too significant a difference in search experience.
Re: An Interview with DuckDuckGo's founder, Gabriel Weinberg
#10I like DDG and I even converted chrome over to use it as its primary engine, however, recently I am noticing more and more spam links and less and less links that really matter. I think I am coming to the conclusion that DDG did this is the wrong order. They are developing a great frontend and using others backends, but to really beat google or MS or yahoo you need to develop a great backend that can filter results w…
> you need to develop a great backend that can filter results well and troll the web
Trawl. The web gets trolled enough as it is.