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4 Weeks with DuckDuckGo

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Re: 4 Weeks with DuckDuckGo

#91

Post by neverm0re »

Killswitch wrote: post #63
hammersend wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would expect that the more a search engine knows about me the more relevant my results will be. I have yet to see a compelling argument why that isn't the case. Since I use a search engine for the sole purpose of getting the result I'm looking for as quickly as possible, I am more than happy to make the trade off.

Finally, someone in the tech world who agrees with me... Is it really a bad thing that Google knows you like x product and shows you things related to it instead of completely irrelevant?

Yes, actually. I don't think you understand just how pervasive Google's presence is on the internet. Install Ghostery or similar sometime. Then watch where Google Analytics shows up. This will be some rather surprising places, including porn sites and things you might find yourself feeling rather sensitive about.

Remember, not only does Google have records of every search associated with your IP, but they've spent a lot of work trying to differentiate and distinguish people as their IPs change. They also index all email you receive using their services or if your place of employment uses those services.

In sum, this is actually a very detailed picture to paint of someone. It's not a matter of simply not using Gmail or Google, they've infested the internet with bugs that still provide detailed information of where people have visited and it's actually a bit of effort to slip under their radar. More effort than the average person will ever spend, anyway.

And it's not like you can have them remove what they already know about you, you just have to write that off as a matter of record now. If you still think this is a good thing to hand this all over to a company that owes you absolutely nothing and whose existence largely depends on holding this information about you...

Re: 4 Weeks with DuckDuckGo

#92

Post by Teapot »

samstave wrote: post #45

Back in 1998/9 I was Director of IT of a tech company in the valley. IT, as always, was resposible for deploying all corp machines with the std image. I was following what was happening in the valley at the time - and everyone used Yahoo!. I went through and replaced all browser homes with the new and scrappy Google.com as the main search page. I deployed this on all new machines as well, and I educated users on why…

While i'm a big fan of privacy. I think DDG's biggest advantage over G is the lack of bubble. Which gives users better Results.

Us techier people knows that it's a more complicated, but there's no need to bother users with grey areas. "I upgraded the Search Engine for everyone, it's a bit better now"

Google changes so much these days that most users wont notice it's not G anymore.

Re: 4 Weeks with DuckDuckGo

#93

Post by macuenca »

msfd wrote: post #86
edanm wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're saying two things, so I'll address each. 1. "Google" and "Yahoo!" seemed funny in 1994, but we're used to them. It's possible. This is what most people answer about DDG. I think this is wrong. Google and Yahoo!, while funny names, sound "cool". DuckDuckGo doesn't. My memory isn't great, so I can't be sure I'm right about this, but I'm pretty sure that the first time I heard "Google" or "Yahoo!", I had…

"2. The domain name itself is a problem (long, annoying to type, etc.), and once they get ddg it will be better." Actually, you can already use www.ddg.gg, which redirect you to the HTTPS version of DDG.

They own the DUCK.CO domain, but use it as a community forum. I think they should use that one as a shortcut to their main product, but probably they don't want to cause confusion.

The funny thing is that the registrant of DUCK.COM appears to be Google when you do a whois lookup:

    Registrant:
    DNS Admin
    Google Inc.

Re: 4 Weeks with DuckDuckGo

#95

Post by loverobots »

tonfa wrote: post #85
blntechie wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here we go. Original - http://imgur.com/AGM7I Ad-blocked - http://imgur.com/Sj7pe This is from my laptop screen. The first non-ad result is barely visible on the top fold of the page. Thanks to that key word goes to zach from a comment in this thread. The results are pretty astonishing. I'm disappointed on barely how little visual difference exist between an ad and a legitimate result.

It is a commercial query though, organic results are often less relevant.

;) Google decided that companies that pay them more (between price per click and CPM) are more relevant? Color me surprised. Google is also on a jihad against extremely useful sites that do things like price comparison and reviews. Guess why?

Re: 4 Weeks with DuckDuckGo

#96

Post by rys »

tonfa wrote: post #87
Legion wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google has provided this for years with the "site:" feature Which is something completely different, and is also something present in DuckDuckGo.

But chrome and firefox provide it for years, without giving up your queries to a 3rd party search engine.

In this context, all search engines are "3rd party".

Re: 4 Weeks with DuckDuckGo

#97

Post by tonfa »

loverobots wrote: post #95
tonfa wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a commercial query though, organic results are often less relevant.

;) Google decided that companies that pay them more (between price per click and CPM) are more relevant? Color me surprised. Google is also on a jihad against extremely useful sites that do things like price comparison and reviews. Guess why?

Ad placement also depends on quality: http://support.google.com/adwords/bin/answer.py?hl=en&an...

Re: 4 Weeks with DuckDuckGo

#98

Post by tonfa »

rys wrote: post #96
tonfa wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But chrome and firefox provide it for years, without giving up your queries to a 3rd party search engine.

In this context, all search engines are "3rd party".

If you want to search amazon, or the python website, why give your query to ddg? Especially if you don't have to when you use browser keywords.

Re: 4 Weeks with DuckDuckGo

#99

Post by halfninety »

macuenca wrote: post #93
msfd wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"2. The domain name itself is a problem (long, annoying to type, etc.), and once they get ddg it will be better." Actually, you can already use www.ddg.gg, which redirect you to the HTTPS version of DDG.

They own the DUCK.CO domain, but use it as a community forum. I think they should use that one as a shortcut to their main product, but probably they don't want to cause confusion. The funny thing is that the registrant of DUCK.COM appears to be Google when you do a whois lookup: Registrant: DNS Admin Google Inc.

I remember reading about it on TNW that it came from an acquisition. While most of the domain names Google owns don't redirect to google.com, this one is an exception (you'd wonder how it relates to search in any way). Google wants some free traffic from its little enemy?

Re: 4 Weeks with DuckDuckGo

#100

Post by suking »

aggronn wrote: post #49
13rules wrote: post #23

The fact that DuckDuckGo is even being compared to Google shows how much they have accomplished already ... it also shows that domain names do not matter AT ALL.

to be fair, i think HN is pretty much the only place that the comparison is being made, and most of the support comes from DDG's support for 'hackers' and because a lot of people here really don't like google and microsoft.

Bingo, 99.99999% of people on the street would not know what DDG is - maybe even a higher % outside of SV.
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