91–100 of 134 posts
I switched earlier this year. It takes some time to get used to it. I used to !g often. It doesn't feel as intuitive at knowing what you are looking like Google. Addresses and map integration is not that good either and does not come even close to Google. It is a good enough. I have their app on my phone as my search tool, which I miss Google maps more often.
!gm will push you back to google maps if you need it!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure if the average tech person is switching (from what I see in my environment) or if it's the vocal minority on HN. I'm happy for their success although the number is still not very significant
If it helps offset the echo chamber, I’ve been much happier with Google search than DDG (after setting it as my provider for a year). I’ve got no plans to move away from Google services, because I don’t think they actually pose some huge moral or privacy threat.
I've been exactly where you are until very recently... It might be a general cynicism towards the world at large recently, but I've found myself finally honestly considering that Google might do some actual evil, and if they really wanted to it could get ugly... Removing "don't do evil" from their company motto may have been a self-fulfilling prophecy?
At a 50% growth rate, it would take DDG 12 years to surpass Google's 2015 volume of 3 billion searches, correct? Not that DDG has to catch up to google to be a success. But it's interesting to consider the scale.
My only wish would be some way to customize them and add new ones as they almost make web browsing into using a command line (and what that would be like with aliases and adding scripts to PATH).
Reason I ask is because strangely enough, after reading this article, I hopped on Reddit and saw a promoted ad for DuckDuckGo. That can't have been a coincidence...
Am I the only one that finds that the DDG’s bang commands actually make DuckDuckGo more useable than google, even for googles own products? E.g. it’s faster to type in a location and append !gm after (which will cause DuckDuckGo to redirect immediately to searching within google maps itself) than it is to click around on google to bring the maps up? (Likewise for google express !ge google images !gi and especially Yo…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If it helps offset the echo chamber, I’ve been much happier with Google search than DDG (after setting it as my provider for a year). I’ve got no plans to move away from Google services, because I don’t think they actually pose some huge moral or privacy threat.
Famous last words ;) I've been exactly where you are until very recently... It might be a general cynicism towards the world at large recently, but I've found myself finally honestly considering that Google might do some actual evil, and if they really wanted to it could get ugly... Removing "don't do evil" from their company motto may have been a self-fulfilling prophecy?
Am I the only one that finds that the DDG’s bang commands actually make DuckDuckGo more useable than google, even for googles own products? E.g. it’s faster to type in a location and append !gm after (which will cause DuckDuckGo to redirect immediately to searching within google maps itself) than it is to click around on google to bring the maps up? (Likewise for google express !ge google images !gi and especially Yo…
I just use Chrome's address bar. "map " enters a maps-only search. Same for "you " for youtube, etc.
But otherwise that's very true, I also use desktop Chrome's search engines as a keyword system (typing "ny" to launch https://nytimes.com), regardless if the URL actually includes a search query.