why there are so many billboards in bruxelles?
Lobbying? It makes sense to make your name resonate to European Commission employees (and MEPs and their collaborators, and European journalists) that live, travel or work there.
DuckDuckGo Billboards
31–40 of 59 posts
Re: DuckDuckGo Billboards
#32These... actually worked for me. I've been getting fed up with Google getting worse and had been intending to set my default search to DDG, and seeing the billboard was enough of a nudge to make the switch on my phone. I had tried out DDG before, but the combination of Google getting worse and DDG getting better has passed the tipping point - I wonder how many other people will do the same.
I also did the same but DDG is still worse than google for technical search. We really need more competitors at search engine space but DDG is still far away from google for technical semantics search.
Sometimes it does, but it's good enough that I've switched to DDG as the default and just use !g when the main DDG search misses the mark. Not having to deal with Google cruft anymore is worth it.
Re: DuckDuckGo Billboards
#33So many people point out that DDG isn't being explicit with what they do in their billboards whilst also referencing that they know what it is but others probably don't.
I think this is intentional, I'd wager a pretty penny that most of the HN crowd represent the more technical part of the population, and so for their non-technical, friends, family members, and associates probably are the de facto "influencer" in matters of technology. DDG isn't trying to convince the lay people to switch, they are trying to convince the tech people to switch knowing that if they can capture that market they will drag everyone else with them.
Really it is brilliant.
Re: DuckDuckGo Billboards
#34Shameless plug for my site: https://notgoogle.com
Edit: why am I being downvoted :( I think it’s funny..
Re: DuckDuckGo Billboards
#35These... actually worked for me. I've been getting fed up with Google getting worse and had been intending to set my default search to DDG, and seeing the billboard was enough of a nudge to make the switch on my phone. I had tried out DDG before, but the combination of Google getting worse and DDG getting better has passed the tipping point - I wonder how many other people will do the same.
I also did the same but DDG is still worse than google for technical search. We really need more competitors at search engine space but DDG is still far away from google for technical semantics search.
quickref.dev works fairly well
Re: DuckDuckGo Billboards
#36No matter whose billboards they are, I would rather not have any. They are a blight on our environment—drive on 294 around Chicago if you don’t believe me. I love DDG and am a long time user. I’d just prefer that nobody had billboards.
Come to Maine. Billboards are illegal here! All of the surrounding states talk about how beautiful it is here, I think that a huge part of the beauty is the lack of forced exposure to advertisement on our highways. (though the beautiful and well preserved landscape and coastline doesn't hurt either)
Re: DuckDuckGo Billboards
#37I haven't seen a Duck billboard yet, but I heard its sponsorship notice on NPR earlier this week.
Good to see another tech company realize that off-line ads are just as valuable as online ads, if not more so.
It's like that article on HN a few weeks ago asking why Warby Parker succeeded while its competitors failed. To me the reason was simple: Traditional advertising. Warby Parker fully embraced television ads, radio ads, print ads, subway ads, even put up brick-and-mortar storefronts, in additional to social and digital.
The others spent money on Google ads and went out of business.
Re: DuckDuckGo Billboards
#38There's one by us and my wife and I were talking about it the other day while stopped at a light...I'm not sure who the target audience for the billboard is, honestly. There's no mention of what DuckDuckGo is. In tech circles it's definitely more of a household name, but to the wider public I wouldn't expect anyone to have heard of it. The call to action is also a bit vague, and doesn't really do much for a layperson…
>this is the billboard, for reference
"Hey, motorists. Are you [word associated with causing unnecessary deaths]? Then take a break, have a rest, save some lives!"
"Hey, motorists. Are you [same word]? Then change your browser!"
Re: DuckDuckGo Billboards
#39I saw one driving down the I-10 I think, don't remember where exactly though, I want to say it was in California around Indio
Re: DuckDuckGo Billboards
#40What do the designs look like?
Billboards are an interesting form of marketing. Forget everything you know about audience data collection and careful targeting of ads with Google, FB, etc. These target virtually everybody in town, it's the giant hammer solution. The highest bidder typically goes out to the company providing a product or service that averages the highest profit per person for the ads, weighted more or less equally regardless of what group you're in.