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4 Weeks with DuckDuckGo

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Re: 4 Weeks with DuckDuckGo

#101

Post by EvilTerran »

goggles99 wrote: post #70
mrschwabe wrote: post #66

"most site’s internal search engines suck, returning results that are somewhat hit or miss. " If I want to find a movie, I type !imdb Avengers If I want to find a recipe, I type !allrecipes pizza If I want to play music right now I type !grooveshark AC-DC Thunderstruck If you know where to look use bangs. If you think Google does a better job, there's a bang for that too type !g

Bangs? is that like using "site" in Google? Using Google: If I want to find a movie, I type site:imdb.com Avengers If I want to find a recipe, I type site:allrecipes.com pizza If I want to play music right now I type site:grooveshark.com AC-DC Thunderstruck

googling "site:imdb.com ..." uses google's index, restricted to imdb.com; DDGing "!imdb ..." uses imdb's internal search.

I almost never bother with sites' internal searches, as google's "site:" feature almost invariably works better, so I wouldn't be inclined to use DDG's site-search bang-lines myself. YMMV, I guess it depends on how good the site in question's internal search functionality is.

Re: 4 Weeks with DuckDuckGo

#102

Post by mgrouchy »

officemonkey wrote: post #82
tom9729 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can't use it for all sites you want to search, then what's the point? I'm sure python isn't the only site with a bad search.

It just seems he used a useless search on purpose. The !w for wikipedia searches and the !v for youtube searches are as awesome as the !python is lame.

Or he is a Python developer(I know I work with him). Searching the python docs or the Internet for some module is a pretty common use case.

Re: 4 Weeks with DuckDuckGo

#104

Post by losvedir »

I've spent approximately the last 4 weeks with DDG, as well, and I haven't decided yet if I want to keep it as my primary search engine.

For the most part it works well, although, I periodically g! just to make sure I'm not missing something important.

The thing is, I don't particularly mind Google building up a profile of me, keeping track of my browsing, email, and prior searches. I mind them doing it to show me ads.

I strive to avoid needless purchases and prefer to keep as few items as possible (I've whittled my wardrobe down to couple pairs of pants and about a week's worth of shirts, undies, socks). I want to keep a simple, regular grocery list of bread, chicken, etc, and so avoid the coupons lest I be enticed to buy a fancy cereal or something. I know that Google constantly inundating me with products more and more relevant to my interests will lead to a life of higher spending.

DuckDuckGo is better in that regard (usually only one ad in the results) so I'm happy. But if I could pay a yearly ad-free fee to Google I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Re: 4 Weeks with DuckDuckGo

#105

Post by karl_hungus »

cemerick wrote: post #10
bob_kelso wrote: post #7

I tried DDG for little more than a week about a year a go and it made me realize how much I use the search suggestion feature in Chrome. The lack of that feature using DDG really annoyed me. Often I don't know the exact spelling of the thing I'm looking for or the best way to phrase my question (English being my third language), and the suggestions I get in chrome just by typing a few letters in the address bar is re…

You might like: http://ddgg.nfriedly.com/ Adds in a browser search engine option that targets duckduckgo, but uses google for autocomplete/suggestions.

And there's no good reason not to do the encrypted install.

Re: 4 Weeks with DuckDuckGo

#106

Post by officemonkey »

edanm wrote: post #88
msfd wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"2. The domain name itself is a problem (long, annoying to type, etc.), and once they get ddg it will be better." Actually, you can already use www.ddg.gg, which redirect you to the HTTPS version of DDG.

I actually knew that, but ddg.gg seems to never stick in my memory.

On the other hand, how often do you type any search engine into the URL field? It's either bookmarked or it's automatically set as your search engine.

Re: 4 Weeks with DuckDuckGo

#107

Post by edanm »

officemonkey wrote: post #106
edanm wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually knew that, but ddg.gg seems to never stick in my memory.

On the other hand, how often do you type any search engine into the URL field? It's either bookmarked or it's automatically set as your search engine.

Actually, the use case is more for someone like me - I remember that I want to try DDG once in a while, so I decide to visit it, and then I can't remember the shortcut and am annoyed that I have to type in the whole name.

Obviously serious users of DDG don't have any problem with it.

Re: 4 Weeks with DuckDuckGo

#108

Post by officemonkey »

mgrouchy wrote: post #102
officemonkey wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It just seems he used a useless search on purpose. The !w for wikipedia searches and the !v for youtube searches are as awesome as the !python is lame.

Or he is a Python developer(I know I work with him). Searching the python docs or the Internet for some module is a pretty common use case.

True, but I think DDG is smart to pursue the bigger market of "people who want to find stuff on wikipedia, youtube, and google image search" and wait for DuckDuckHack to come up with a plugin that does skillful python searches.

Re: 4 Weeks with DuckDuckGo

#109

Post by hammersend »

neverm0re wrote: post #91
Killswitch wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finally, someone in the tech world who agrees with me... Is it really a bad thing that Google knows you like x product and shows you things related to it instead of completely irrelevant?

Yes, actually. I don't think you understand just how pervasive Google's presence is on the internet. Install Ghostery or similar sometime. Then watch where Google Analytics shows up. This will be some rather surprising places, including porn sites and things you might find yourself feeling rather sensitive about. Remember, not only does Google have records of every search associated with your IP, but they've spent a…

"Then watch where Google Analytics shows up. This will be some rather surprising places, including porn sites and things you might find yourself feeling rather sensitive about."

I'm not a huge porn surfer but when I do find my self in certain corners of the internet, I use private browsing mode and a vpn. I doubt Google is using that as part of my profile.

The rest you say doesn't bother me as again it is a trade off. I trade information to get good search results.

Re: 4 Weeks with DuckDuckGo

#110

Post by hammersend »

loverobots wrote: post #95
tonfa wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a commercial query though, organic results are often less relevant.

;) Google decided that companies that pay them more (between price per click and CPM) are more relevant? Color me surprised. Google is also on a jihad against extremely useful sites that do things like price comparison and reviews. Guess why?

There's a lot more to it than that. If somebody clicks your ad and then peel out within a few seconds then obviously your ad didn't do anything for them so the next time somebody clicks, your price goes up. Pretty soon you write a better ad. I know it isn't popular to say this but sometimes when I'm looking for a product to buy, ads are relevant. And the better the ad the more I appreciate it.
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