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DuckDuckGo Hits 14M Searches in a Single Day

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Re: DuckDuckGo Hits 14M Searches in a Single Day

#21

>In addition, the search engine is celebrating a combined total of 10 billion searches performed, with 4 billion searches conducted in December 2016 alone. This can't be right, can it? DDG's been around for years, and nearly half of its total use volume has been in the past month?

It should be 4 billion in 2016, not just Dec 2016.

Re: DuckDuckGo Hits 14M Searches in a Single Day

#22
post #9
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey Phil, DuckDuckGo employee here - Be sure to use the 'feedback' button that you find on the search results page whenever you feel a search isn't up to standards. Our team has been working hard at increasing relevancy, but the best changes come when users let us know what they need. Since we don't filter bubble results ( https://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_b... ) results certainly feel differ…

Google has a list of scheduled flights when you put in two airport codes which is useful, doesn't look like DDG does the same.

Here is a reasonable looking service:

http://www.flightstats.com/go/Mobile/flightStatusByRoute.do?...

It looks like a nice weekend project for someone.

I typed in sfo and jfk, but it looks like the java script submitted longer names, so there might be some non-trivial airport name handling to wire in.

Re: DuckDuckGo Hits 14M Searches in a Single Day

#23
I've been using DuckDuckGo since @yegg's first announcement of it (on reddit iirc). The relevance of the results compared to their competitors' has been noticeably improving over the years.

When a search doesn't quite give me what I'm looking for, I prepend !sp on my query (to use startpage.com). I use this less and less and for most things DDG gets me where I need to go.

I'm a huge fan. I'm thankful services like this are available--that respect our privacy. I did have good intentions of contributing to duckduckhack.com but have regretfully not gotten around to it yet.

Re: DuckDuckGo Hits 14M Searches in a Single Day

#24

I couldn't find anything obviously authoritative, but various sources suggested Google does 3500m or so daily searches. That puts DDG at less than 1%, but their percentage growth is huge. It can't continue forever, but they could be a significant search engine if it doesn't peter out too soon. I tried DDG several times, but it finally stuck earlier this year. I'm really happy it's available as an alternative.

>> " Google does 3500m or so daily searches"

It's difficult to define what constitutes a "search" these days. Since google release autocomplete search in 2004 [1], each letter you type into the search bar results in a search query.

So simply searching for "superbowl 2017" would result in 14 searches because there are 14 characters. So, do you count that as 1 search or 14?

[1] http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/08/how-go...

Re: DuckDuckGo Hits 14M Searches in a Single Day

#25
post #4

The key for switching to DuckDuckGo for me was to set it as the default searchengine / startpage on all browsers. While the relevance of search results is slightly (noticable) worse than Google, I think the tradeoff between privacy VS result-quality is worth it. Thanks for making such a great product!

Hey Phil, DuckDuckGo employee here - Be sure to use the 'feedback' button that you find on the search results page whenever you feel a search isn't up to standards. Our team has been working hard at increasing relevancy, but the best changes come when users let us know what they need. Since we don't filter bubble results ( https://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_b... ) results certainly feel differ…

Not sure how this might affect privacy, or maybe you're doing it already, but couldn't you guys sample every time someone runs a search and then the same search with !g ?

Re: DuckDuckGo Hits 14M Searches in a Single Day

#26

I couldn't find anything obviously authoritative, but various sources suggested Google does 3500m or so daily searches. That puts DDG at less than 1%, but their percentage growth is huge. It can't continue forever, but they could be a significant search engine if it doesn't peter out too soon. I tried DDG several times, but it finally stuck earlier this year. I'm really happy it's available as an alternative.

I suspect the main reason for Google's stranglehold is that it's usually set up as the default search engine for many web browsers (both for desktop and mobile) and the vast majority of users don't change that.

In spite of its good growth rate, DDG will have to change tack if it wants to make the leap to the next stage.

*FYI, DDG is my default search engine.

Re: DuckDuckGo Hits 14M Searches in a Single Day

#27
post #22
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google has a list of scheduled flights when you put in two airport codes which is useful, doesn't look like DDG does the same.

Here is a reasonable looking service: http://www.flightstats.com/go/Mobile/flightStatusByRoute.do?... It looks like a nice weekend project for someone. I typed in sfo and jfk, but it looks like the java script submitted longer names, so there might be some non-trivial airport name handling to wire in.

Flightstats is a popular service. Not free though: https://developer.flightstats.com/getting-started/pricing

Similarly, Google sells api access to their flight search api: https://developers.google.com/qpx-express/v1/pricing

I have no idea if DDG could leverage either and not wreck their business model.

Re: DuckDuckGo Hits 14M Searches in a Single Day

#29

I couldn't find anything obviously authoritative, but various sources suggested Google does 3500m or so daily searches. That puts DDG at less than 1%, but their percentage growth is huge. It can't continue forever, but they could be a significant search engine if it doesn't peter out too soon. I tried DDG several times, but it finally stuck earlier this year. I'm really happy it's available as an alternative.

>> " Google does 3500m or so daily searches" It's difficult to define what constitutes a "search" these days. Since google release autocomplete search in 2004 [1], each letter you type into the search bar results in a search query. So simply searching for "superbowl 2017" would result in 14 searches because there are 14 characters. So, do you count that as 1 search or 14? [1] http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/arc…

Good point. However when you switch to a different search engine in your browser, you'll likely still have incremental search for the new search provider.

Re: DuckDuckGo Hits 14M Searches in a Single Day

#30
Given the climate of political discord that is occurring on Google sites, especially google "news" (which gets prominent placement in many google searches now), I've switched my iPhone default search in Safari to DDG. I've been pleasantly surprised that I don't need to google things for 90% of searches.
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