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DuckDuckGo – two non-JavaScript versions of search results

help.duckduckgo.com

11–20 of 99 posts

Re: DuckDuckGo – two non-JavaScript versions of search results

#11

the 'html' version is nice. the 'lite' version is so barebones, I can't imagine anyone actually using it. It almost seems like it's meant for scraping

It is so fast and clean, I just set it as my duck keyworded search. I'm not on a search engine for the looks, but for the results. The faster I get them and the fewer things there are to distract the eye, the better for me.

The lite and HTML versions are identical in speed for me. If I had really slow internet though, maybe I’d see a difference.

The JS version is maybe a tiny bit slower, but honestly is about the same.

Re: DuckDuckGo – two non-JavaScript versions of search results

#14
I threw together some CSS for dark mode in the "HTML" version using values from the normal JavaScript version:

https://gist.github.com/CivBase/818f7f4f56050c9769c4b783c08c...

EDIT: I replaced the raw code with a link to a GitHub gist to reduce the obnoxious size of my post.

Re: DuckDuckGo – two non-JavaScript versions of search results

#15

the 'html' version is nice. the 'lite' version is so barebones, I can't imagine anyone actually using it. It almost seems like it's meant for scraping

Have you ever been in a part of the world where internet speeds were abysmal?

Yeah, but I moved out of Germany for other reasons.

Re: DuckDuckGo – two non-JavaScript versions of search results

#16
Just tested the pure HTML version and was pleased to find out that it does not force a minimum browser width upon the user. I usually set my desktop (1080p) to use a 3-column layout with i3 and am always bothered by the fact that I cannot escape from horizontal scrolling on every search I run on DDG.

I needed to add the HTML version as a new search engine option in the browser options to have it running as default, but hey, it works! Horizontal scrolling is now a thing of the past.

Re: DuckDuckGo – two non-JavaScript versions of search results

#17
As someone who's just written about the "small web" [1], this warms my heart. The lite version is probably a little too bare-bones for most people's tastes, but it sure is tiny -- great for people on very slow or flakey connections. Some numbers:

HTML homepage transfers 34KB (94KB uncompressed) over 6 requests. HTML search results page transfers 133KB (248KB uncompressed) over 31 requests.

Lite homepage transfers 13KB (11KB uncompressed, ha) over 4 requests. Lite search results page transfers 21KB (43KB uncompressed) over 5 requests.

In all cases, all requests are to *.duckduckgo.com, which was very good to see from a privacy perspective. Nice work, DDG!

[1] https://benhoyt.com/writings/the-small-web-is-beautiful/

Re: DuckDuckGo – two non-JavaScript versions of search results

#18
post #9

I compared all 3 searching "venera" and prefer the JS one, (sorry?), but I could see this being useful for their niche audience very well. I worry more about tracking than JS in browsers, when it runs super fast on my devices. But TIL about DDG's awesome help pages.

Tons of tracking happens via javascript dom calls. Lots of identifying information and analytics. Some web sites runs hundreds of scripts.

I browse with javascript disabled, except for sites/domains that I exempt like banks and stuff.

Re: DuckDuckGo – two non-JavaScript versions of search results

#19
The HTML version seems to not redirect to a URL specific to your search (i.e. it doesn't include a ?s= ... parameter).

Anyone an idea how I can configure this search engine in Firefox Mobile?

As far as I can see, there is no way I can teach FF Mobile to make a POST request instead.

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