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Let's start using DuckDuckGo more often

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Re: Let's start using DuckDuckGo more often

#141

Post by neltnerb »

phatfish wrote: post #27

I have used it as a default for at least 2 years. I'd estimate drop back to Google for 20-25% of specific "subject matter" searches, mostly around technology. Probably a bit less than that for general searches. Most of the time I run the same search on Google the results are very similar for the top hits. But Google does seem to produce helpful results that are not exactly what I searched for more often. DDG also ske…

By a huge margin the most frequent time I drop back to Google is because they have unit conversions built in. So I can send duckduckgo a query like "!g speed of light / 400nm in terahertz" and I get the calculated unit-correct answer immediately.

It's basically replaced my TI-89 for years, I hate doing calculations with units by hand and it's super error prone to not include them in the calculations.

For everything else, duckduckgo has consistently provided a suitable result to answer my question for 90%+ of stuff, no worse than Google. It's super rare for me to check if Google has better results for normal things. I see them as a different ordering rather than superior ordering, so I think of Google more as an alternative than a fallback. They clearly both interpret whether a site is a good match using different algorithms but I don't know I'd say one is strictly superior.

Re: Let's start using DuckDuckGo more often

#142

Post by newscracker »

I have degoogled myself heavily and don’t use anything other than Maps once in a while, but DDG is not the best answer as a replacement for people who just want to get things done. Instead of telling people to use DDG alone, it’s better to tell people to use DDG, Searx, and others so that there’s choice and freedom.

I use DDG as my primary search engine, but the quality of search results and the rate of improvement leave much to be desired. So I tend to go to !s (search in startpage) or !g (search on Google). DDG would have to improve by leaps and bounds if it has to be the only search engine that I have to use (or rather, the only search engine who’s direct results I have to use).

Apart from poorer search results, instant answers aren’t great either. DDG has currency conversions as well as stock quotes as instant answers. But both these are so highly hit or miss that I end up going to some other site anyway. For currency conversion, depending on where you put the currency symbol or code (as a prefix or suffix) or if you don’t leave a space between the currency and the numerical value, you may or may not get instant answers. For stock quotes, there are many symbols where, if you just type the symbol, you wouldn’t get instant answers. You’d have to type “ stock”. For some stocks just typing the stock symbol is enough.

Re: Let's start using DuckDuckGo more often

#143

Post by anoncake »

akvadrako wrote: post #78
anoncake wrote: post #53

The fact that Google tends to ignore half the query does make that choice easier.

DDG also ignores half the query, so that's a weird thing to say. At least Google has verbatim mode.

It does, but boycotting a search engine that returns garbage in favor of another search engine that returns garbage is easier than if the former actually worked properly.

Re: Let's start using DuckDuckGo more often

#144

Post by sizzle »

DDG loads painfully slow on Android chrome browser compared to Google search for me. Does anyone know if this is deliberate on Google part? Is there a way to speed up DDG search? I'm using a vpn ad blocker, I wonder if it's something in my host file...

Re: Let's start using DuckDuckGo more often

#145

Post by HeadsUpHigh »

sizzle wrote: post #144

DDG loads painfully slow on Android chrome browser compared to Google search for me. Does anyone know if this is deliberate on Google part? Is there a way to speed up DDG search? I'm using a vpn ad blocker, I wonder if it's something in my host file...

Works fine on me. Might be device specific.

Re: Let's start using DuckDuckGo more often

#146

Post by fareesh »

epicide wrote: post #88
lucb1e wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I the only one who really doesn't like having to prefix that symbol and never types bangs? I type faster than most other tech people but putting my whole left hand on the left side of the keyboard to press Shift with my pinky and 1 with my ring finger is more trouble than adding a keyword for the search in Firefox ( http://kb.mozillazine.org/Using_keyword_searches ). Especially because I type the G, Y, and W (goog…

> putting my whole left hand on the left side of the keyboard to press Shift with my pinky and 1 with my ring finger Try using your right pinky to press shift when typing a bang. If you want to just use one hand, try holding shift with pinky and hitting 1 with your middle finger. Slightly less stretching.

Middle finger stretch is what I do, haven't noticed it being a problem before but I'll pay attention from now on. Haven't really thought about it.

Re: Let's start using DuckDuckGo more often

#147

Post by divbzero »

neltnerb wrote: post #141
phatfish wrote: post #27

I have used it as a default for at least 2 years. I'd estimate drop back to Google for 20-25% of specific "subject matter" searches, mostly around technology. Probably a bit less than that for general searches. Most of the time I run the same search on Google the results are very similar for the top hits. But Google does seem to produce helpful results that are not exactly what I searched for more often. DDG also ske…

By a huge margin the most frequent time I drop back to Google is because they have unit conversions built in. So I can send duckduckgo a query like "!g speed of light / 400nm in terahertz" and I get the calculated unit-correct answer immediately. It's basically replaced my TI-89 for years, I hate doing calculations with units by hand and it's super error prone to not include them in the calculations. For everything e…

DuckDuckGo does do unit conversions “100 JPY in EUR” [1] and unit-less calculations “2^32 - 1” [2].

[1]: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=100+JPY+in+EUR

[2]: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=2%5E32-1

But like you I drop back for unit-aware calculations. For those an alternative to Google is Wolfram Alpha “!wa speed of light / 400nm in terahertz” [3] which also allows for symbolic computation “!wa integral of 2x” [4].

[3]: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=!wa+speed+of+light+%2F+400nm+in+te...

[4]: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=!wa+integral+of+2x

Re: Let's start using DuckDuckGo more often

#148

Post by juusto »

neltnerb wrote: post #141
phatfish wrote: post #27

I have used it as a default for at least 2 years. I'd estimate drop back to Google for 20-25% of specific "subject matter" searches, mostly around technology. Probably a bit less than that for general searches. Most of the time I run the same search on Google the results are very similar for the top hits. But Google does seem to produce helpful results that are not exactly what I searched for more often. DDG also ske…

By a huge margin the most frequent time I drop back to Google is because they have unit conversions built in. So I can send duckduckgo a query like "!g speed of light / 400nm in terahertz" and I get the calculated unit-correct answer immediately. It's basically replaced my TI-89 for years, I hate doing calculations with units by hand and it's super error prone to not include them in the calculations. For everything e…

>So I can send duckduckgo a query like "!g speed of light / 400nm in terahertz" and I get the calculated unit-correct answer immediately.

sheesh...

Made me feel super dumb for googling "10kg in pounds"

Re: Let's start using DuckDuckGo more often

#149

Post by majewsky »

neltnerb wrote: post #141
phatfish wrote: post #27

I have used it as a default for at least 2 years. I'd estimate drop back to Google for 20-25% of specific "subject matter" searches, mostly around technology. Probably a bit less than that for general searches. Most of the time I run the same search on Google the results are very similar for the top hits. But Google does seem to produce helpful results that are not exactly what I searched for more often. DDG also ske…

By a huge margin the most frequent time I drop back to Google is because they have unit conversions built in. So I can send duckduckgo a query like "!g speed of light / 400nm in terahertz" and I get the calculated unit-correct answer immediately. It's basically replaced my TI-89 for years, I hate doing calculations with units by hand and it's super error prone to not include them in the calculations. For everything e…

> So I can send duckduckgo a query like "!g speed of light / 400nm in terahertz" and I get the calculated unit-correct answer immediately.

You can use the command-line program units(1) to do this, available on all Unices. (The preinstalled version on macOS is horribly outdated though, so you might have to look for a newer version in Homebrew.)

  $ units --verbose
  Currency exchange rates from FloatRates (USD base) on 2019-02-20 
  3070 units, 109 prefixes, 109 nonlinear units

  You have: c / 400 nm
  You want: terahertz
        c / 400 nm = 749.4811449999999695137376 terahertz
        c / 400 nm = (1 / 0.001334256380792608193130988) terahertz
The only drawback is that getting up-to-date currency exchange rates requires running an extra program, units_cur.

Re: Let's start using DuckDuckGo more often

#150

Post by szatkus »

I use Duck on my desktop for about a year, I think. I noticed that Google got worse during that period to the point I switched default engine on my phone to DDG.

The only drawback I see that DDG sometimes returns strange results for local searches. Even with Poland switch. For example if I typed some restaurant's name I most likely would get some restaurant in Warsaw with the same or similar name.

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