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An Interview with DuckDuckGo's founder, Gabriel Weinberg

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Re: An Interview with DuckDuckGo's founder, Gabriel Weinberg

#31

Post by comex »

boyter wrote: post #16
JohnsonB wrote: post #9

DuckDuckGo 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 to…

What about things like, https://duckduckgo.com/?q=frequency+of+letters+in+The+quick+brown+fox+jumps+over+the+lazy+dog https://duckduckgo.com/?q=days+between+6%2F22%2F1979+and+10%2F5%2F1979 https://duckduckgo.com/?q=hn+duckduckgo+interview https://duckduckgo.com/?q=php+xml_parser_create+example https://duckduckgo.com/?q=currently+in+theaters https://duckduckgo.com/?q=msft https://duckduckgo.com/?q=currency+in+panama T…

Careful... for "hn duckduckgo interview", at the moment, DuckDuckGo shows a HNSearch widget with three (stale) results, none of which is this page; no relevant results appear in the main listing. Google has no special widget, but this page comes up first in the main listing.

To digress a bit, zero-click is great when the information you want is actually accessible with zero clicks, but it's very, very limited: as soon as you need to click through to a website, special widgets can't compete with a solid backend for regular search results. That's why I can hardly imagine switching to DuckDuckGo...

Re: An Interview with DuckDuckGo's founder, Gabriel Weinberg

#33

Post by boyter »

comex wrote: post #31
boyter wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about things like, https://duckduckgo.com/?q=frequency+of+letters+in+The+quick+brown+fox+jumps+over+the+lazy+dog https://duckduckgo.com/?q=days+between+6%2F22%2F1979+and+10%2F5%2F1979 https://duckduckgo.com/?q=hn+duckduckgo+interview https://duckduckgo.com/?q=php+xml_parser_create+example https://duckduckgo.com/?q=currently+in+theaters https://duckduckgo.com/?q=msft https://duckduckgo.com/?q=currency+in+panama T…

Careful... for "hn duckduckgo interview", at the moment, DuckDuckGo shows a HNSearch widget with three (stale) results, none of which is this page; no relevant results appear in the main listing. Google has no special widget, but this page comes up first in the main listing. To digress a bit, zero-click is great when the information you want is actually accessible with zero clicks, but it's very, very limited: as soo…

Fair comment. I was hoping the hacker news search would be a little more accurate. I would argue that it is what failed in this case but it does reflect poorly on DDG...

Interesting both Google and DDG have the linked article as result number one for the term "duckduckgo interview" but no Zero click for either.

That's an interesting comment about the zero click. It's interesting, but I find myself using zero click info more these days. I tend to craft queries which I know will pull this information back for me. Its much the same way that Google trained me to use their syntax or how the instant search trained me. I agree that a solid index of the web is critical for regular search results though.

I would be curious to know if the apparent issues with Bing/DDG are more down to people perceiving Google to know the answer. I know that when I use alternative search engines I get weird looks from people at work who say quote "Why are you using that? Its crap! Just use Google."

Re: An Interview with DuckDuckGo's founder, Gabriel Weinberg

#34

Post by nodata »

Steko wrote: post #15
Ralith wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Not to hijack further but 'troll' is technically fine there. troll ... 4.(intransitive, fishing, by extension) To fish using a line and bait or lures trailed behind a boat similarly to trawling; to lure fish with bait. [from circa 1600] http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/troll#Verb

It's not fine because "troll" would be recognised here as the standard meaning, not the meaning from 1600.

Re: An Interview with DuckDuckGo's founder, Gabriel Weinberg

#35

Post by brokenparser »

MikeCapone wrote: post #4

I'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…

Error: DDG is not a browser.

Re: An Interview with DuckDuckGo's founder, Gabriel Weinberg

#36

Post by culturestate »

nodata wrote: post #34
Steko wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to hijack further but 'troll' is technically fine there. troll ... 4.(intransitive, fishing, by extension) To fish using a line and bait or lures trailed behind a boat similarly to trawling; to lure fish with bait. [from circa 1600] http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/troll#Verb

It's not fine because "troll" would be recognised here as the standard meaning, not the meaning from 1600.

The fishing definition is still very much in use. See e.g. http://outdoorsportinggoods.poorfish.com/search?w=trolling+m...

Re: An Interview with DuckDuckGo's founder, Gabriel Weinberg

#37

Post by petdance »

Sad that there's no mention of the huge role Perl + CPAN play in their infrastructure:

* http://help.duckduckgo.com/customer/portal/articles/216392-a... * https://github.com/duckduckgo/duckduckgo/wiki/DuckDuckGoPerl * http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=848999

They've also been visible in sponsoring the Perl community.

Re: An Interview with DuckDuckGo's founder, Gabriel Weinberg

#38

Post by MikeCapone »

brokenparser wrote: post #35
MikeCapone wrote: post #4

I'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…

Error: DDG is not a browser.

I meant 'search engine', that was a weird typo. Sometimes my fingers don't listen to my brain.

Re: An Interview with DuckDuckGo's founder, Gabriel Weinberg

#39

Post by moollaza »

comex wrote: post #31
boyter wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about things like, https://duckduckgo.com/?q=frequency+of+letters+in+The+quick+brown+fox+jumps+over+the+lazy+dog https://duckduckgo.com/?q=days+between+6%2F22%2F1979+and+10%2F5%2F1979 https://duckduckgo.com/?q=hn+duckduckgo+interview https://duckduckgo.com/?q=php+xml_parser_create+example https://duckduckgo.com/?q=currently+in+theaters https://duckduckgo.com/?q=msft https://duckduckgo.com/?q=currency+in+panama T…

Careful... for "hn duckduckgo interview", at the moment, DuckDuckGo shows a HNSearch widget with three (stale) results, none of which is this page; no relevant results appear in the main listing. Google has no special widget, but this page comes up first in the main listing. To digress a bit, zero-click is great when the information you want is actually accessible with zero clicks, but it's very, very limited: as soo…

Hey, I'm the intern who implemented the HNSearch Zero Click plugin, so let me explain the poor result:

A HNSearch (HNSearch.com) for "interview duckduckgo" doesn't return this thread at all, in any of the results (even on a 'stories' only search), however the one thing it does surface is your comment, because that exact phrase was found in it. I realized we weren't showing the right comments, and I found a very small bug which has now been fixed. So thanks for getting me to notice that :)

However, if you search "interview duckduckgo's" (ie. the same wording in the thread's title) the ONLY result returned is this exact thread (an HNSearch limitation).

These same results are fed to us by the HNSearch API and so the fault lies within HNSearch's search methodology (as far as I can tell). We're still looking for a resolution to this, however, any suggestions are welcome!

Re: An Interview with DuckDuckGo's founder, Gabriel Weinberg

#40

Post by [deleted] »

culturestate wrote: post #36
nodata wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not fine because "troll" would be recognised here as the standard meaning, not the meaning from 1600.

The fishing definition is still very much in use. See e.g. http://outdoorsportinggoods.poorfish.com/search?w=trolling+m...

[deleted]
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