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I’ve used DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a year

9to5mac.com

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Re: I’ve used DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a year

#51

Post by ethbr0 »

mvanaltvorst wrote: post #40
toddh wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google pays Apple something like $9 billion a year to be the default search engine. So it seems unlikely.

Apple could use DDG as leverage though. If Google stops paying those 9bn, Apple has no reasonable alternative search engine it could resort back to. By quietly continuing development on DuckDuckGo for ~500mn/year, it could be some deterrence towards Google's monopoly that aligns with Apple's own interests.

I think the broader point is that Apple needs a search engine for the same reason it needed a Maps solution: it's basic platform functionality at this point.

And they'd be wise to avoid the Ted Turner mistake: when all your competitors are vertically integrating, don't be the last person left standing without a chair by the time they complete their integration. It leads to an essentially powerless bargaining position.

And like it or not, Google, Facebook, and Amazon are extremely aggressive about integrating their platforms. Microsoft being somewhat of an odder duck.

Re: I’ve used DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a year

#52

Post by FabHK »

curtis3389 wrote: post #34
ibraheemdev wrote: post #23

One thing I've noticed I absolutely love is !bang. Being able to quickly jump to code documentation or a sports game is really awesome.

This is the killer feature! I use it all the time for work and life. Need to find .NET documentation? !dnab Need to search Mozilla docs? !mdn Need to find a Debian manpage? !debman Java docs? !java (or !java7, !java8, etc) Stack overflow? !so Google Maps search? !maps Wikipedia? !w Amazon? !a Ebay? !ebay

more:

!m is enough for Google Maps

!w for Wikipedia in a specific language (!wen for English, !wde for German, !wes for Spanish, ...)

!a for Amazon in a specific language/country (!ade for Germany, ...)

!py3 for Python docs

!dman is enough for Debian man pages

!wa for Wolfram Alpha

!gt to translate into that language, so

!gtes convivial -> alegre

!gten alegre -> happy

Re: I’ve used DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a year

#53

Post by FabHK »

nano-erud wrote: post #11

If you want freedom and more privacy, stop using so much proprietary software. How much Apple lover out there talking about privacy or freedom. They are blind.

If you want more privacy, you should use Android rather than Apple??? I think you misunderstand a lot.

Re: I’ve used DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a year

#54

Post by FabHK »

greggyb wrote: post #49
codecamper wrote: post #29

OK, but... does this mean you don't watch anything on Youtube?

It's not an all-or-nothing thing. For me, I watch YouTube in a dedicated Firefox Container (and everything else in either temporary containers or dedicated), so not much follows me around. Figure out what you want, and then put together pieces that get you there.

This. Or you can use DDG to search, then copy links you like and use youtube-dl to just download the video.

Re: I’ve used DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a year

#55

Post by benlivengood »

FabHK wrote: post #53
nano-erud wrote: post #11

If you want freedom and more privacy, stop using so much proprietary software. How much Apple lover out there talking about privacy or freedom. They are blind.

If you want more privacy, you should use Android rather than Apple??? I think you misunderstand a lot.

Android only comes bundled with Google apps by phone manufacturers. Cyanogen/LineageOS and Replicant are mostly OSS/FS.

Re: I’ve used DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a year

#56

Post by arbol »

jmholla wrote: post #30
evertheylen wrote: post #10

My quick review after more than a year of DDG as my default: - Technical searches are usually on par with Google, or even better. What made me switch originally was that I got fed up with Google just straight up ignoring half my query, and I've had none of that frustration with DDG. - I like the dark theme (although I think Google's experimenting with that now) - DDG is absolutely worthless when it comes to local sea…

> - Technical searches are usually on par with Google, or even better. What made me switch originally was that I got fed up with Google just straight up ignoring half my query, and I've had none of that frustration with DDG. One thing I don't get from DDG is multiple links to the same website, especially stack overflow. I often find information I need to answer my question across several SO questions, but DDG will on…

Yeah this is why I always end up reverting back to Google. It's just much better for finding answers to coding questions

Re: I’ve used DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a year

#57

Post by amelius »

toddh wrote: post #37
amelius wrote: post #28

> Should Apple buy DuckDuckGo? I’ve seen this comment floated around the tech community for years, and while it’s an excellent idea, I don’t think it’s needed. As a non-Apple user I can only say: what?

Google pays Apple something like $9 billion a year to be the default search engine. So it seems unlikely.

> Google pays Apple something like $9 billion a year to be the default search engine.

Except in the EU, I guess.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/02/google-to-let-eu-users-choos...

Re: I’ve used DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a year

#58

Post by D13Fd »

I gave DuckDuckGo an honest shot for a few months a couple of years ago.

I had to give it up, sadly. The results were just not good enough. I'd love to get away from google, but having less than perfect search had a surprisingly large impact on my day-to-day work.

Just one instance of "I couldn't find anything about x . . . " where a manager responds "I found it in 10 seconds on Google" is probably enough to send just about anyone running back to Google for work-related searches.

Re: I’ve used DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a year

#59

Post by TrianguloY »

What I like most about DDG is that they show more text preview of a site. I find easier to know if a site will be useful or not (google shows very little, and you end clicking).

But as all agree some queries are not really usefull on DDG so I have a bookmarklet to toggle between googleDDG with the click of a button:

    javascript:void(window.location.href = "https://" + (window.location.host == 'duckduckgo.com' ? "www.google.com/search" : "duckduckgo.com/") + "?" + window.location.href.match('q=[^&]*')[0])

Re: I’ve used DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a year

#60

Post by TimBurr »

svnpenn wrote: post #6

Duck Duck Go uses "more results", instead of proper pagination. I won't use any website that has such poor judgement in website design.

I dunno if it addresses your concerns in particular, but there is a JS-free version with normal pagination:

https://ddg.gg/html https://html.duckduckgo.com

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