Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Make DuckDuckGo your Chrome default search engine

help.duckduckgo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 126 posts

Re: Make DuckDuckGo your Chrome default search engine

#91

Post by dredmorbius »

Legion wrote: post #55
magicalist wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As is usually pointed out in these threads, if you're using Chrome anyways, you can do the same thing (and with the same bang syntax, if you want to go to the bother of customizing them that way) with the location bar in Chrome. Start typing the web address, hit tab, enter the query, and it just goes straight to wikipedia, google, etc with no DDG intermediary. It's slightly different, but you can do almost the same t…

It's more than "slightly different". By all means, try and replicate this complete list in your Chrome browser: https://duckduckgo.com/bang.html . I'll wait... What makes the DDG !bang system awesome is its enormity. You don't look up what !bang to use to search something. You assume it exists, do it, and 99% of the time, you're right. That's a game changer. I don't write Perl, but I know !cpan exists. I don't even h…

What makes the DDG !bang system awesome is its enormity.

Please don't tell me it's evil.

I believe you meant "scope", "scale", or "size".

Re: Make DuckDuckGo your Chrome default search engine

#93

Post by dredmorbius »

kryten wrote: post #87

Why would you use Chrome if you have privacy concerns and want to use DuckDuckGo? Google isn't exactly known for respecting privacy. Install Firefox instead.

Chrome (or Chromium, if you prefer to have someone else run your builds) is open source. It's subject to inspection. It's got some known privacy issues (e.g., safe-browsing mode sends a file URL and hash which is stored with your IP for two weeks, then your IP is stripped).

But if there's anything really untoward going on and people learn about it, it's going to look extremely bad for Google.

While I wouldn't say that's impossible, it's not a high-likelihood event in my book.

Of course, you're free to use alternative browsers.

Just ... keep in mind that if you're using a WebKit browser you're trusting Apple, and if it's WebCore, you're still trusting Google.

Mozilla's Gecko is still independent, however.

Re: Make DuckDuckGo your Chrome default search engine

#94

Post by dredmorbius »

magicalist wrote: post #43
hkmurakami wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found that having the !$var shortcuts to all sorts of sites (including !g for google, !w for wikipedia, and single word strings for many lesser trafficked sites) has made me more productive than a plain google search bar where I often need to add an extra click to the workflow.

As is usually pointed out in these threads, if you're using Chrome anyways, you can do the same thing (and with the same bang syntax, if you want to go to the bother of customizing them that way) with the location bar in Chrome. Start typing the web address, hit tab, enter the query, and it just goes straight to wikipedia, google, etc with no DDG intermediary. It's slightly different, but you can do almost the same t…

I've become very used to doing this. The other handy fact is that if you start typing out a URL you can see the expansion, then hit tab to start the search, rather than having to remember the bang syntax for DDG.

I'll switch between methods though.

Re: Make DuckDuckGo your Chrome default search engine

#96

Post by pilooch »

ippisl wrote: post #82
pilooch wrote: post #56

DDG is nice initiative. The problem is that it does not solve any problem related to privacy because it is based on a matter of trust. Distributed search, similar to bittorrent, DHT-based designs and the like are notoriously difficult. I've participated in such efforts, like the Seeks Project [1], Yacy [2], and related initiatives like Unhosted [3], and it takes a certain amount of dedication (and suffering ;) ). How…

Which of those is the best for the average joe?

Probably none yet, unfortunately. Seeks is usable because it relies on Google or any other engine in the background, when no results are available among peers.

Yacy is more advanced, uses a DHT, but does not really work for daily use, the accuracy being too low.

Unhosted is distributed architecture on top of the Web really. I've mentioned it because it may be useful and/or an inspiration to whoever interested in these matters.

Re: Make DuckDuckGo your Chrome default search engine

#97

Post by kryten »

dredmorbius wrote: post #93
kryten wrote: post #87

Why would you use Chrome if you have privacy concerns and want to use DuckDuckGo? Google isn't exactly known for respecting privacy. Install Firefox instead.

Chrome (or Chromium, if you prefer to have someone else run your builds) is open source. It's subject to inspection. It's got some known privacy issues (e.g., safe-browsing mode sends a file URL and hash which is stored with your IP for two weeks, then your IP is stripped). But if there's anything really untoward going on and people learn about it, it's going to look extremely bad for Google. While I wouldn't say tha…

So basically it's got known privacy problems, requires trust of Google and you're winging it.

Lets also add that Chrome!=Chromium. Chrome is based on Chromium. Not all of it is open and it is not compiled in the public eye.

No thanks.

Re: Make DuckDuckGo your Chrome default search engine

#98

Post by alan_cx »

cromwellian wrote: post #37
jafaku wrote: post #9

What kind of joke is this? You are telling us to use a US-based search engine in a propietary browser made by a US-based company that we already know has given direct access to the NSA? What the fuck.

We don't "know" anything such thing about direct access. We have no evidence other than interpretations of a vague slide that fly in the face other claims.

Do you need yet another individual to become a "traitor" to the US government on this specific assertion before you decide its good enough to "know"?

Re: Make DuckDuckGo your Chrome default search engine

#99

Post by Frostbeard »

manojlds wrote: post #62
laureny wrote: post #58

Pretty lame of DuckDuckGo to use this controversy to gain some cheap exposure. Besides, there are zero guarantees that they are immune to the kind of accusation currently aimed at Google and co.

It is just linking to the DuckDuckGo support page. You are talking as though they made a blog post saying "PRISM!! Use DuckDuckGo instead of Google" and posted it on HN.

On the other hand, they have been contacting bloggers and media in exactly such a manner. https://plus.google.com/+JeffJarvis/posts/5X7nHcjijsC

Re: Make DuckDuckGo your Chrome default search engine

#100

Post by ippisl »

pilooch wrote: post #96
ippisl wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which of those is the best for the average joe?

Probably none yet, unfortunately. Seeks is usable because it relies on Google or any other engine in the background, when no results are available among peers. Yacy is more advanced, uses a DHT, but does not really work for daily use, the accuracy being too low. Unhosted is distributed architecture on top of the Web really. I've mentioned it because it may be useful and/or an inspiration to whoever interested in thes…

I've tried to download seeks, but it's linux only. This makes it much harder to build a large user community and to develop a decent business model.
Post reply on HN