My quick review after more than a year of DDG as my default:
- Technical searches are usually on par with Google, or even better. What made me switch originally was that I got fed up with Google just straight up ignoring half my query, and I've had none of that frustration with DDG.
- I like the dark theme (although I think Google's experimenting with that now)
- DDG is absolutely worthless when it comes to local searches like shops or even just nearby places (I live in Belgium). I always use '!g' for those. I also still use Google Maps.
> - Technical searches are usually on par with Google, or even better. What made me switch originally was that I got fed up with Google just straight up ignoring half my query, and I've had none of that frustration with DDG.
One thing I don't get from DDG is multiple links to the same website, especially stack overflow. I often find information I need to answer my question across several SO questions, but DDG will only ever direct me towards one solution.
Another thing for which DuckDuckGo is useless: finding media. It or whatever crawler it uses totally falls for those keyword-flooded sites that have a couple ads and then paragraphs of "wandavision watch free mr robot now free download all seasons season 1 101 dalmatians disney land[...]" autogeneration. I wish they'd do something about all the spam.
It seems to do better with local searches in the US(not surprising) but it's still not very good at that. In terms of maps, DDG maps basically stinks besides the fact that the actual map UI is based on Apple Maps. It otherwise lacks a lot of features that MapQuest even had back in 1998.
When it comes to local searches, i recommend toggling the little switch on the left that limits searches to a specific country/language. I have found that this helps a lot.
That reflects my usage pretty accurately as well. I am rarely on a DDG results page for non-technical topics because I always delegate to other sites via !bang, !g being the most common one.
I still use the !gm bang too; but I'm starting to use the !mq bang more. It's a shame that the !osm bang is broken, because I use osmand instead of google maps.
I’ve used ddg for about 5 years. I find it works about as well as Google. I think Google works worse than it did about 10-15 years ago and that this is just a reflection of the internet itself becoming crappier.
This article doesn't really cover anything that the hacker news audience won't already be familiar with. What is notable, however, is that Duckduckgo has seen a pretty strong surge in usage recently [0], moreso than similar surges in the past.
I’ve always wondered how the economics of DDG work out, considering they’re basically a proxy for Bing with a bunch of other scraped/API-based data sources they layer on top. Are they paying Bing per query? How can that net out positively?
I suppose at their volume they’ve negotiated great API rates, but their own ads can’t possibly bring in enough revenue to cover the expenses of the API calls…
Some of the links are also affiliated. This is not exactly great for 100% 'unbiased' results but, since their main competition is Google, I think the Rubicon has already been crossed on that score?
> Should Apple buy DuckDuckGo? I’ve seen this comment floated around the tech community for years, and while it’s an excellent idea, I don’t think it’s needed.
Apple could use DDG as leverage though. If Google stops paying those 9bn, Apple has no reasonable alternative search engine it could resort back to. By quietly continuing development on DuckDuckGo for ~500mn/year, it could be some deterrence towards Google's monopoly that aligns with Apple's own interests.
How is that a leak ? The URL is only sent to ddg server, encrypted using TLS so no eavesdropper can read it. It also stays in your browser history and let you use the back button.
That seems like a reasonable trade-off. It's https so it's not visible to people snooping on you, and it being GET means that browser history and sharing links to searches works.
Plus, they do have an option to go POST-only, so if you don't like their already-very-private default you can change it.
I've always wondered why DDG doesn't go fully open source? Their mobile apps and browser extensions are already open source, why not open source the search engine? Is it just because they don't want to deal with the extra work (they already shutdown duckduckhack), or is there something else that I am missing?
I've tried DDG a few times over the past 3-4 years and reverted back to Google each time until now because, actually, the results are good enough and it's refreshing to see just a page full of search results without all the Google guff.
Readit News
- Technical searches are usually on par with Google, or even better. What made me switch originally was that I got fed up with Google just straight up ignoring half my query, and I've had none of that frustration with DDG.
- I like the dark theme (although I think Google's experimenting with that now)
- DDG is absolutely worthless when it comes to local searches like shops or even just nearby places (I live in Belgium). I always use '!g' for those. I also still use Google Maps.
One thing I don't get from DDG is multiple links to the same website, especially stack overflow. I often find information I need to answer my question across several SO questions, but DDG will only ever direct me towards one solution.
[0] https://ddg.gg/traffic
I suppose at their volume they’ve negotiated great API rates, but their own ads can’t possibly bring in enough revenue to cover the expenses of the API calls…
The economics are that you charge more for ads than you pay for API calls. That's all there is to it, really.
As a non-Apple user I can only say: what?
Except in the EU, I guess.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/02/google-to-let-eu-users-choos...
They leak the searches in the URL like this https://duckduckgo.com/?q=this+is+not+private+at+all&ia=web
Plus, they do have an option to go POST-only, so if you don't like their already-very-private default you can change it.
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