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Google competitor DuckDuckGo says it's getting shut out

chicagotribune.com

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Re: Google competitor DuckDuckGo says it's getting shut out

#11

Post by gnufied »

noibl wrote: post #5
Matt_Cutts wrote: post #2

From the article: "In an interview on Wednesday, [Gabriel] Weinberg said it is difficult to make his DuckDuckGo the default search site in Google's Chrome web browser, and that Google disadvantages his company in the Android mobile operating system as well. .... "It's one-click to get onto Firefox and it's five steps on Chrome and people generally fail," he said. The Google spokeswoman said popular search alternative…

Wait, 'one-click'? In Firefox if I click the dropdown on the search field, then click 'Manage Search Engines' I get a dialog in which can be found a link to 'Get more search engines...'. Clicking that opens an add-ons store tab with the 'Search Tools' filter applied, none of whose above-the-fold suggestions has anything to do with DDG. That's not one-click, it's a runaround. In contrast, Chrome automatically adds sea…

I am not supporting DuckDuckgo's claim, but the procees is indeed less painful if you just install their extension,

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/duckduckgo-fo...

I don't know why no such addon exists for Chrome?

EDIT: Ugh I am woefully wrong, the Chrome extension only shows up when you visit the site from Chrome. Perhaps they mean choosing a default search engine in Chrome is not as straightforward as Firefox. You will have to open preferences -> Search -> Manage Search engines and then change the default engine.

Re: Google competitor DuckDuckGo says it's getting shut out

#12

Post by srathi »

rodion_89 wrote: post #6
Matt_Cutts wrote: post #2

From the article: "In an interview on Wednesday, [Gabriel] Weinberg said it is difficult to make his DuckDuckGo the default search site in Google's Chrome web browser, and that Google disadvantages his company in the Android mobile operating system as well. .... "It's one-click to get onto Firefox and it's five steps on Chrome and people generally fail," he said. The Google spokeswoman said popular search alternative…

I'm curious, how many clicks is it to replace Bing as the default in IE? Isn't it impossible for DDG to become the default in Safari? Not saying they're wrong to point it out, but rather that they should be consistent in pointing fingers if they do.

I couldn't agree more. It is a pain to set Google as default search provider in IE.

Re: Google competitor DuckDuckGo says it's getting shut out

#13

Post by noibl »

delackner wrote: post #8
noibl wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, 'one-click'? In Firefox if I click the dropdown on the search field, then click 'Manage Search Engines' I get a dialog in which can be found a link to 'Get more search engines...'. Clicking that opens an add-ons store tab with the 'Search Tools' filter applied, none of whose above-the-fold suggestions has anything to do with DDG. That's not one-click, it's a runaround. In contrast, Chrome automatically adds sea…

Click-and-hold on the firefox search engine icon in the search field, and a list of engines appears. I clearly see "Add DuckDuckGo" as an option in that list while I am on the site, and you can slide the mouse over to that option and release. So yes, one click.

Thanks, now I get it. Having a UI cue when you're on the DDG website is a good idea.

Re: Google competitor DuckDuckGo says it's getting shut out

#14

Post by CaveTech »

cpg wrote: post #9

I have been a happy DDG user for more than two years and it's one of the best things I have done in a while. It works well, and it's great for productivity. So, that Google does not take it extra easy on them is not surprising. However, as Google matures, they will realize they need an AMD to their Intel. Something that poses little business threat, yet diffuses the antitrust threat. ... Watch.

Bing already occupies that position.

Re: Google competitor DuckDuckGo says it's getting shut out

#15

Post by WrkInProgress »

rodion_89 wrote: post #6
Matt_Cutts wrote: post #2

From the article: "In an interview on Wednesday, [Gabriel] Weinberg said it is difficult to make his DuckDuckGo the default search site in Google's Chrome web browser, and that Google disadvantages his company in the Android mobile operating system as well. .... "It's one-click to get onto Firefox and it's five steps on Chrome and people generally fail," he said. The Google spokeswoman said popular search alternative…

I'm curious, how many clicks is it to replace Bing as the default in IE? Isn't it impossible for DDG to become the default in Safari? Not saying they're wrong to point it out, but rather that they should be consistent in pointing fingers if they do.

Fired up IE9 to take a look.

One click on the search icon in the address bar and Bing and Ask.com (really?) are listed as two default search providers.

There is an Add button which takes me to an Internet Explorer Add-On page. DDG and Google are highlighted as popular options. Click on the "tile" and another click to install.

So 4 clicks for IE9.

It's 4 clicks in Chrome (Menu - Settings - Settings - Manage Search Providers, to get to the "Manage Search Engines" screen but DDG is nowhere to be found. YOu have to manually add it and it isn't very clear how to do it because the textbox is truncated for the actual url.

Re: Google competitor DuckDuckGo says it's getting shut out

#16

Post by barrkel »

cpg wrote: post #9

I have been a happy DDG user for more than two years and it's one of the best things I have done in a while. It works well, and it's great for productivity. So, that Google does not take it extra easy on them is not surprising. However, as Google matures, they will realize they need an AMD to their Intel. Something that poses little business threat, yet diffuses the antitrust threat. ... Watch.

I set DDG as my default search in Firefox; the results were abysmal. It felt like being transported back to altavista.digital.com, wading through middling irrelevant links searching for info. I got fed up with having to put !g into every query to get a good result, I ended up switching to DuckDuckGoog instead (and this is my current search provider).

Re: Google competitor DuckDuckGo says it's getting shut out

#17

Post by Samuel_Michon »

rodion_89 wrote: post #6
Matt_Cutts wrote: post #2

From the article: "In an interview on Wednesday, [Gabriel] Weinberg said it is difficult to make his DuckDuckGo the default search site in Google's Chrome web browser, and that Google disadvantages his company in the Android mobile operating system as well. .... "It's one-click to get onto Firefox and it's five steps on Chrome and people generally fail," he said. The Google spokeswoman said popular search alternative…

I'm curious, how many clicks is it to replace Bing as the default in IE? Isn't it impossible for DDG to become the default in Safari? Not saying they're wrong to point it out, but rather that they should be consistent in pointing fingers if they do.

There's a DDG extension available for Safari, which will make DDG the default search provider.

https://extensions.apple.com/#search-extensions (it takes just one click to install and activate)

Re: Google competitor DuckDuckGo says it's getting shut out

#18

Post by thrownaway2424 »

rustynails wrote: post #10

I really like the idea of duckduckgo, but it just doesn't do it for me. As an example, I can't find articles posted in the last hour, let alone the last week (eg. iOS 6 jailbreak). I know it's slightly off topic, but this would certainly encourage me to use this - and I have a community around me that tends to adopt what I do.

I agree. I have tried DDG and found their quality and freshness are both much worse than Google. Bing at least presents a credible alternative in terms of quality, depth, and freshness, but DDG is only good for people who actually don't care much if they find what they are looking for.

Re: Google competitor DuckDuckGo says it's getting shut out

#19

Post by ck2 »

Many people like DuckDuckGo for good reasons but let's be clear:

It does not do any of it's own indexing.

It's just a frontend to other very very expensive backends that have millions of dollars behind them.

The entire company can be shut down overnight if it's data feeds are cut.

Re: Google competitor DuckDuckGo says it's getting shut out

#20

Post by id_ris »

rustynails wrote: post #10

I really like the idea of duckduckgo, but it just doesn't do it for me. As an example, I can't find articles posted in the last hour, let alone the last week (eg. iOS 6 jailbreak). I know it's slightly off topic, but this would certainly encourage me to use this - and I have a community around me that tends to adopt what I do.

I've switched to using DDG over the past 6 months and use it as my main search engine because I think the results are as good as Google and there are less distractions, and I don't want my search history stored.

If I need to search for news, images, etc then it's back to Google. For me it's akin to using the command line for most tasks, but every so often opening up a cluttered but easier to use GUI.

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