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Let's start using DuckDuckGo more often

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Let's start using DuckDuckGo more often

#81

Post by lucb1e »

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…

DDG skews very heavily towards your country setting indeed, and the default is indeed the USA, but Google is even worse. On DDG the locale selector is a switch displayed on every search results page. For Google, you have to use a VPN for the same effect.

I'm a Dutchman living in Germany speaking English at home and at work, so I switch between languages quite a lot: Dutch when I want to know local things (e.g. European laws, or recipes with ingredients that stores here actually carry), German when I need to know something like filing taxes or when trash is being picked up (I don't speak German yet, so I only do this when necessary), and English for everything else. Trying to do that on Google is nearly impossible. It somewhat picks up on the language of your query (certainly better than DDG picks up on that), but for English queries I'll still get a few German results, even after I click the "Change to English?" prompt (and I have to click every time, since I do not store cookies for Google). Like, thanks for this German forum thread when looking for an error message after I already set it to English... In DDG you can just flip a switch.

Re: Let's start using DuckDuckGo more often

#82

Post by gpm »

owlrobot wrote: post #68

I would but one of the biggest problems I have with it is how I can't look up info. in certain areas like Reddit which I use a lot because it only gives one link even if I include the word "reddit".

I use "site:reddit.com" all the time on ddg, no problems whatsoever with the results.

Re: Let's start using DuckDuckGo more often

#83

Post by [deleted] »

octosphere wrote: post #3

I like DuckDuckGo if it wasn't for their data centers being in the U.S. My problem lies in the fact that they could have an intelligence agency like the NSA in their data centers and they could attribute specific queries to specific users by looking at the originating IP. I'm not even sure they have a canary[0] [1] implemented. This is why combining DDG with an anonymous mixer network like Tor is useful (or even a VP…

[deleted]

Re: Let's start using DuckDuckGo more often

#84

Post by jplayer01 »

DDG's search results seem consistently terrible whenever I try to use it for an extended period of time. It's fine for really basic searches, but anything more specialized or niche is terrible (considering my interests, that's all of my searches). I mostly use Startpage nowadays instead, which seems to give me good enough results most of the time.

Re: Let's start using DuckDuckGo more often

#85

Post by epicide »

kitotik wrote: post #64
hjek wrote: post #28

DDG is just a proxy for Bing. Yes, let's degoogle our lives, but why not start using a free/libre metasearch engine (like Searx[0]), while you're at it? [0]: https://asciimoo.github.io/searx/

Citation needed. They use Bing Ads, but I’m not sure if their actual search results are just proxied Bing results.

They seem to even let you turn ads off in the settings.

Re: Let's start using DuckDuckGo more often

#86

Post by truculent »

herodotus wrote: post #80

My biggest beef with ddg is that they do not localize my searches. If I search for "Ferry Schedule" for example, I want the nearest Ferry, not San Francisco. My tech related searches are probably fine on DDG, but my personal life searches (movies, transit, theatre, music, events.....) should all use the best available location information.

I used to feel this too, but once I started getting back into the habit of stating the location I'm interested in in the search it became a non-issue

Re: Let's start using DuckDuckGo more often

#87

Post by octosphere »

skellera wrote: post #70
octosphere wrote: post #3

I like DuckDuckGo if it wasn't for their data centers being in the U.S. My problem lies in the fact that they could have an intelligence agency like the NSA in their data centers and they could attribute specific queries to specific users by looking at the originating IP. I'm not even sure they have a canary[0] [1] implemented. This is why combining DDG with an anonymous mixer network like Tor is useful (or even a VP…

What search engine do you use then?

I use a few. Putting all my eggs in one basket is a bad idea in general. If you must know, I do use DDG, but strictly with Tor and sometimes a VPN. In no order:

https://eu.startpage.com

https://www.searx.me/

https://www.ecosia.org/

https://millionshort.com/

https://www.mojeek.com/

https://www.qwant.com

(All used with Tor and sometimes a VPN)

Re: Let's start using DuckDuckGo more often

#88

Post by epicide »

lucb1e wrote: post #35
fareesh wrote: post #26

For the uninitiated, !bang is a pretty great feature: https://duckduckgo.com/bang

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.

Re: Let's start using DuckDuckGo more often

#89

Post by lucb1e »

lelf wrote: post #66
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…

You can surely think of a better choice ,⟨prefix⟩ for example

Indeed, pretty much all of the pinky-operated non-dead symbols on the right would be better (so ,./;[]- primarily, maybe also = though that is further away, but not ' because for many people that's a dead key). The comma also universally works for German and French keyboards.

Re: Let's start using DuckDuckGo more often

#90

Post by Timucin »

jplayer01 wrote: post #84

DDG's search results seem consistently terrible whenever I try to use it for an extended period of time. It's fine for really basic searches, but anything more specialized or niche is terrible (considering my interests, that's all of my searches). I mostly use Startpage nowadays instead, which seems to give me good enough results most of the time.

I believe having privacy puts the user at disadvantage since DDG doesn't keep your history or track who you are. i.e. Google knows definitely knows I am a developer and shows the tech related things first even when I search for super generic words. That's why people think DDG doesn't do a good job but I think it does if you can be more specific.

Yet I agree it's not better than or equal to Google when it comes to image search. I guess Google is doing a better job on classifying images.

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