> DuckDuckGo is good enough for regular use
This is news to people?
DuckDuckGo is good enough for regular use
81–90 of 490 posts
Re: DuckDuckGo is good enough for regular use
#82I think I've figured out what is happening when people tell me that DuckDuckGo's results "aren't good enough". What's really happening is that they've been trained to search a certain way to using Google and because DDG doesn't have all the historical data of your searches on their platform they can't fill in the gaps as well. After a couple days using DDG I found the right vocabulary to get good local results and wh…
A lot of DDG fans on HN blame the user or social conditioning and use that as a crutch. It’s BS. You need to provide clear examples of the differences in order to really make this argument to someone who might switch. What specifically are the differences? The last time this topic came up someone told me I was a total noob because I didn’t know how to use search and that was basically the extent of it.
Have you tried it recently?
I generally agree that people made excuses for DDG when it was clearly worse and unusable, but today it’s good enough to use instead (I think it’s better).
I’d try it again if you haven’t for a while. Maybe your needs are different than mine, but since we’re both on HN there’s probably pretty good overlap.
Small thing, but I really like how DDG results are primarily links to websites and I can see a bunch of links on the first page without scrolling. I think with google the last search I did had 3?
I suspect the article is right about google being better about low intent searches (and just generally bad search queries from regular people which probably make up the vast majority of users), but I don’t care about that. I think DDG is probably better for more technical users.
Re: DuckDuckGo is good enough for regular use
#83To people who use DuckDuckGo: how do you deal with its inability to answer simple queries with factual answers? Things like “distance from Los Angeles to New York”, “Joe Biden age”, “knives out cast”, “capital of South Africa”, etc. The time it takes to click a result on DuckDuckGo and navigate to the answer is so much longer than just getting the answer at the top of the results page, as google (and even bing) provi…
I use my search engine to direct me to a source. I do not expect it to be the source. That is just how my brain sees the purpose of the engine.
I can, however, understand why anyone would like it to provide you with instant factual and reliable information! That would be a godsend.
I do not trust the instant answers most of the time. I like seeing forum answers and comments, finding age in wikipedia and stumbling upon more information, and generally getting lost in the web.
Re: DuckDuckGo is good enough for regular use
#84You can't get direct links to images when using Google Image Search, but you can when using DuckDuckGo Image Search. That should be enough for you to switch.
Re: DuckDuckGo is good enough for regular use
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Please teach me how to use DDG, as I’m clearly missing something. I’m happy to switch to a service that provides better results in exchange for a bit more effort in constructing search queries, but the results I get for that effort really do need to be better. The only specific advise I’ve ever seen is “use !g if you don’t get good results the first time”, which really isn’t encouraging.
It’s not about better results. It’s about good enough results without all the spying.
[deleted]
Re: DuckDuckGo is good enough for regular use
#86I think I've figured out what is happening when people tell me that DuckDuckGo's results "aren't good enough". What's really happening is that they've been trained to search a certain way to using Google and because DDG doesn't have all the historical data of your searches on their platform they can't fill in the gaps as well. After a couple days using DDG I found the right vocabulary to get good local results and wh…
When I search for Fish Tacos on DDG's maps and Google, it's night and day. DDG gave me 4 results, none anywhere near me. Do you have a suggestion for how I could have been more effective?
DDG is not good for local stuff. That's in the linked article.
Re: DuckDuckGo is good enough for regular use
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of DDG fans on HN blame the user or social conditioning and use that as a crutch. It’s BS. You need to provide clear examples of the differences in order to really make this argument to someone who might switch. What specifically are the differences? The last time this topic came up someone told me I was a total noob because I didn’t know how to use search and that was basically the extent of it.
Have you tried it recently? I generally agree that people made excuses for DDG when it was clearly worse and unusable, but today it’s good enough to use instead (I think it’s better). I’d try it again if you haven’t for a while. Maybe your needs are different than mine, but since we’re both on HN there’s probably pretty good overlap. Small thing, but I really like how DDG results are primarily links to websites and I…
I have tried it recently and my co-founder and I are literally building a new search experience because we are deeply unsatisfied with the current ones.
Re: DuckDuckGo is good enough for regular use
#88It's Lent, so I just searched for "Fish Tacos" and clicked on Map. It showed four places, none of which are anywhere near me. I click on Directions and it takes me to Bing. Do the same thing on Google, see a dozen places in my neighborhood, and I get Google Maps navigation. What do you get in your searches for Fish Tacos? Do you have a better experience with DDG?
I'm a die-hard DDG fan, but for some things -- particularly mapping related issues -- google maps is so superior. I append a !gm to my searches for stores and it automatically opens in google maps.
Re: DuckDuckGo is good enough for regular use
#89I think I've figured out what is happening when people tell me that DuckDuckGo's results "aren't good enough". What's really happening is that they've been trained to search a certain way to using Google and because DDG doesn't have all the historical data of your searches on their platform they can't fill in the gaps as well. After a couple days using DDG I found the right vocabulary to get good local results and wh…
For me part of the problem is that DDG feels slow to index new results. Trying to search for anything that’s happened in the last week almost always is a swing and a miss for me.
It’s a stark contrast to google, where the results seem more or less live, including updated auto complete for things that have happened recently.
And that doesn’t seem like an issue at all related to privacy, it’s just a problem space that DDG doesn’t seem to handle well.
Re: DuckDuckGo is good enough for regular use
#90I think I've figured out what is happening when people tell me that DuckDuckGo's results "aren't good enough". What's really happening is that they've been trained to search a certain way to using Google and because DDG doesn't have all the historical data of your searches on their platform they can't fill in the gaps as well. After a couple days using DDG I found the right vocabulary to get good local results and wh…
When I search for Fish Tacos on DDG's maps and Google, it's night and day. DDG gave me 4 results, none anywhere near me. Do you have a suggestion for how I could have been more effective?
'Fish Tacos [X]' where X is the name of the city - or turning on your region toggle is usually enough to solve that problem.