9 ms·

How DuckDuckGo is trying to help programmers

355 points by tagawa 11y ago

throwanem 11y ago
> Oops! Something has gone horribly wrong! Not terribly helpful.
- sluggg 11y ago
  it's back now
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
tkinom 11y ago
The demo/blog page can use some animated gif(s).
soared 11y ago
I wish DuckDuckGo would change their name and branding. I can't take anything they do seriously.
- arkadiyt 11y ago
  They've made a ton of improvements since the last time I tried them - I'm using them permanently now to get away from Google and it's great. Would recommend giving it a try. My only 2 complaints are: 1) I make a search and want to see news (or whatever) but they don't show the news link - they only display it based on some algorithm that is wrong all the time. 2) No maps - Google is still the leader here. Would be great to see some sort of integration between duckduckgo and openstreetmap
  - moollaza 11y ago
    For 1 -- try adding "news" to the query. That should almost always trigger our News Instant Answer For 2 -- We actually have maps powered by openstreetmap: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=20+paoli+pike+paoli&ia=maps https://duckduckgo.com/?q=20+paoli+pike+paoli&ia=maps
  - alohaas 11y ago
    Also check out the directions feature we recently integrated to maps so you can hop to another service if you like :) https://duck.co/blog/post/291/directions https://duck.co/blog/post/291/directions
- Mc_Big_G 11y ago
  If you don't use any services with ridiculous names, you must be interneting like it's 1999.
  - dhimes 11y ago
    Everybody was Yahoo! even then-- still ridiculous. And if you called customer service, somebody yodeled it in your ear. They still might for all I know.
  - dredmorbius 11y ago
    More like 1995. Yahoo! Amazon. Google. AltaVista. HotWired. Dogpile. Excite.
- hotcool 11y ago
  I like their branding. Really like it. More personal, less of a corporate feel. I hope they don't change a thing.
- clouddrover 11y ago
  What, the name DuckDuckGo is entirely unlike those serious names Google, Yahoo, and Bing?
  - ijhnv 11y ago
    To be honest, after years of hearing it, Google kind of sounds serious to me now.
rogerbinns 11y ago
I've been using DuckDuckGo for several years, but sadly their search doesn't really help for technical topics. I let them have first crack at the answer, and then usually have to add !g to let google have the next crack. The underlying problem is what they do when a search contains multiple words - 3 or more especially. DDG starts ignoring some of the words, but usually that is what matters. For example search for [usb type c resistor] and the DDG results treat the "resistor" part of the search as a small amount of what is being searched, with many results not that directly useful. As a human we know that [usb type c] is very common, and adding the [resistor] part is actually the meat of the query. Google gets that and gives better results, although they aren't miles apart. The pattern is the user adds more terms to make the search more specific, while DDG then seems to use them to make the search more general. For technical stuff you really did want the specific! That aside DDG has been slowly but surely getting better over the years.
- _zekiel 11y ago
  This is why we need help! :) Really, though, even if we had 100,000 employees, having a great Instant Answer for hyper-niche searches requires esoteric knowledge and expertise that can best be achieved from a community. Not to mention, it can happen faster. Bitcoin conversions were possible on DuckDuckGo before Google bc our community rallied behind it. The people most passionate about a topic are most likely to create a great answer for it. I can't imagine what my version of a color-code IA would look like. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=cmyk%280.12%2C+0%2C+0%2C+0%29&ia=answer https://duckduckgo.com/?q=cmyk%280.12%2C+0%2C+0%2C+0%29&ia=a... Finally, thanks for the feedback (and for going into specific detail) and for the kind words. It's great to hear that you're seeing noticeable improvement.
  - dhimes 11y ago
    Well, as another datum, my search for an awk solution gave me exactly what I needed with your new feature (TFA). I did that before I saw this thread or had heard anything about the feature.
    - _zekiel 11y ago
KayL 11y ago
For someone with fast network, I don't mind with one more click. It's about same to click on "show more". But well, no harmful at all. I expected the cheatsheet also linking to useful help page, then it'd be super cool! also, if i type in 'mysql data types', it won't show anything. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=mysql+data+types https://duckduckgo.com/?q=mysql+data+types
- itcrowd 11y ago
  FWIW the example of MySQL data types in the OP is the result of searching for "MySQL cheatsheet"
itcrowd 11y ago
This, along with !bang syntax and respect for privacy is what makes DDG my favourite search engine. I really love typing "Maxwell's equations !w" or similar if I know I want the Wikipedia page for it. Although the search results aren't always perfect (I still use Google occasionally, especially for non-English queries) these features are truly killer. Learned some !bang shortcuts and it saves me time every single day. The cheatsheets are good too and having StackOverflow answers pop up at the top is also a great way to quickly get the right info.
- saalweachter 11y ago
  If you want the Wikipedia page, why don't you go to Wikipedia and search there?
  - mpitt 11y ago
    Because going to Wikipedia, waiting for it to load and then searching is a two-step process, while writing a query with a !w is only one step.
    - tucosan 11y ago
      Why not simply use quicksearch in Chrome/FF? Instead of having to go through ddg, I simply directly search wikipedia via `wp foo` or youtube via `y bar`.
      - contravariant 11y ago
        I use both, but the '!bang' syntax is more convenient when you simply want to repeat a search using a different search engine, or want to use an engine you don't have a quicksearch for (you could of course add them, but sometimes it's just not worth the trouble for the few times you need it).
      - r3bl 11y ago
        Because it won't work in every browser and making shortcuts the same across Firefox and Chrome is a hassle, plus you can never get up to thousands of shortcuts that DDG has. Sometimes, I'm just experimenting. I had no idea that DDG had a Flickr bang because I never had the need to use Flickr before, but I just added !f to my query and I got the results I was looking for.
kevindeasis 11y ago
I'd like more API's related to search please
kriro 11y ago
I try DDG every now and then but the results for non-English searches are pretty bad. Since my daily searches tend to be very mixed language maybe 70-80% English that's unfortunately very inconvenient. Makes me a sad panda because they have some pretty !awesome things going for them.
epi0Bauqu 11y ago
We would love your help: http://duckduckhack.com/ http://duckduckhack.com/ DuckDuckHack (that link) is our instant answer platform and it is all open source (both the answers themselves and the underlying answer engine). We believe that each programming area (MySQL, Perl, React, etc.) can be best served by a group of Instant Answers, and only developers with expertise in those areas can craft the best experiences for that set of Instant Answers. As a small team, we therefore need help in our goal of making DuckDuckGo the best search engine for developers.
- Animats 11y ago
  Yes, you too can work for DuckDuckGo for free. It's open source, but only useful on their platform. Their search engine uses Yahoo ads. You don't get a cut of the ad revenue when a query uses your add-on. So they can monetize your work, but you can't. I admire DuckDuckGo for being able to survive at all. But they're a for-profit company that asks people to donate things to them. That's just wrong. If you want donations, you have to be a non-profit or a cooperative. (One problem we have today is that few people are members of an organization in which their vote matters and management really serves at the pleasure of the members. Today, "membership" means "customer".) TechShop does this. TechShop is a for-profit company, not a member-owned hacker space. But they ask for donations anyway.[1] This annoys many regular TechShop members, many of whom are familiar with starting or running a business. Especially when they fail to open a location after collecting money, as they did in LA. [1] http://www.techshop.ws/ts_los_angeles.html http://www.techshop.ws/ts_los_angeles.html "People like you helping people like us help themselves."
  - jrockway 11y ago
    Aren't you working for Hacker News for free right now? If nobody posted comments here, nobody would know what Y Combinator is. And high-profile HN contributors aren't getting a share of profits YC makes from their startups :)
    - nickpsecurity 11y ago
      How much money is Hacker News pulling in for pg etc? Is that why my adblocker stays working overtime here? Who is investing what round of capital in it? Who is planning to acquire it to get dang his 6% of options before the market tanks again? Hacker News is closer to Animats non-profit concept than a for-profit business asking for donations. Hence, it's worth contributing free time to. ;)
mfo 11y ago
I'm using DuckDuckGo as a primary search engine. Unfortunately for complex queries, search results are less relevant than google. Also Instant search is great when I'm searching for an API method or something really specific. But form time to time I'm looking for an epiphany search: something focus on programming, close enough to get some inspirations in order to refine my search query a few times : then I find the perfect query. My feeling is google enable this kind of exploration/iterative searching : not DDG :-( Saying that I truly want to stick to DDG... and Instant search is not the feature that I need. So a "dream feature" would be to search only a subset of your index : between 9.AM until 7P.M I only want answers from tech blogs, stackoverflow, stack exhange etc... A kind of "search profile". Is it possible ?
- progx 11y ago
  A list of checkboxes in which categories should be searched "programming" with subcats "programming - java" would be nice. This selection should then automatically include and priorise sites like github, stackoverflow, .... And users should save this selections to own search preference list which they can switch (one click when you are at work)
Chefski 11y ago
DuckDuckGo user here, while I love their system and philosophy, the search functionality and reliability isn't as grand as Google.
Kinnard 11y ago
HackerNews hug of death?
Kinnard 11y ago
HackerNews hug of death?
rodionos 11y ago
DuckDuckGo crossed 10M daily direct queries threshold last June and has been growing albeit at a slower rate. http://apps.axibase.com/chartlab/e8635882/11/ http://apps.axibase.com/chartlab/e8635882/11/
dallamaneni 11y ago
It is amazing! I searched for "get unmerged branches git" today in DDG and I am amazed it directly gave me the answer.
ruipgil 11y ago
This is the way to hold on to more technical users. I've tried ddg, but switched back to Google because the results were not good enough for my technical needs. If they are able to lock on this focus group, they'll have a strong user base, and a very loyal one. Ultimately I want more, and better competition, it's always good for the final user.
tux 11y ago
Did DuckDuckGo just broken "SearchCode.com" ? https://searchcode.com/ https://searchcode.com/ "Bad Request (400)"
knight17 11y ago
I don't get why other search engines (not just DDG, even Bing) don't introduce useful features Google has withdrawn. The Google search is getting better but as users we really are losing control of the results, I feel. I would loce to see the return of: 1. a good blog search 2. a good forum/discussion search Google apparently don't find them much useful.
superobserver 11y ago
The immediate issue I see with Programming IA is that it doesn't apparently address changes in coding syntax and support as programming languages evolve. PL's often evolve so much that, in my experience of just trying to get a leg up on, say, python, I've had to sort through changing features between Python 2.7 and Python 3 to such an extent that it can be genuinely frustrating at times.
Debugreality 11y ago
I have a side project that I use to solve this problem. It creates your own reference that is downloaded and searchable locally for instant results. https://www.cof8.com https://www.cof8.com
janellaboughton 11y ago
It's fantastic to see such a useful post. I recently had to fill out a form and spent an enormous amount of time trying to find an appropriate Maybe you would be interested in an online service with a ton of Form templates (tax, real estate, legal, business, insurance forms, etc..) I used it to fill out http://pdf.ac/77C1Lh http://pdf.ac/77C1Lh.
janellaboughton 11y ago
It's fantastic to see such a useful post. I recently had to fill out a form and spent an enormous amount of time trying to find an appropriate Maybe you would be interested in an online service with a ton of Form templates (tax, real estate, legal, business, insurance forms, etc..) I used it to fill out http://pdf.ac/77C1Lh http://pdf.ac/77C1Lh.

355 points by tagawa 11y ago

throwanem 11y ago

> Oops! Something has gone horribly wrong! Not terribly helpful.

sluggg 11y ago
it's back now
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

tkinom 11y ago

The demo/blog page can use some animated gif(s).

soared 11y ago

I wish DuckDuckGo would change their name and branding. I can't take anything they do seriously.

arkadiyt 11y ago
They've made a ton of improvements since the last time I tried them - I'm using them permanently now to get away from Google and it's great. Would recommend giving it a try. My only 2 complaints are: 1) I make a search and want to see news (or whatever) but they don't show the news link - they only display it based on some algorithm that is wrong all the time. 2) No maps - Google is still the leader here. Would be great to see some sort of integration between duckduckgo and openstreetmap
- moollaza 11y ago
  For 1 -- try adding "news" to the query. That should almost always trigger our News Instant Answer For 2 -- We actually have maps powered by openstreetmap: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=20+paoli+pike+paoli&ia=maps https://duckduckgo.com/?q=20+paoli+pike+paoli&ia=maps
- alohaas 11y ago
  Also check out the directions feature we recently integrated to maps so you can hop to another service if you like :) https://duck.co/blog/post/291/directions https://duck.co/blog/post/291/directions
Mc_Big_G 11y ago
If you don't use any services with ridiculous names, you must be interneting like it's 1999.
- dhimes 11y ago
  Everybody was Yahoo! even then-- still ridiculous. And if you called customer service, somebody yodeled it in your ear. They still might for all I know.
- dredmorbius 11y ago
  More like 1995. Yahoo! Amazon. Google. AltaVista. HotWired. Dogpile. Excite.
hotcool 11y ago
I like their branding. Really like it. More personal, less of a corporate feel. I hope they don't change a thing.
clouddrover 11y ago
What, the name DuckDuckGo is entirely unlike those serious names Google, Yahoo, and Bing?
- ijhnv 11y ago
  To be honest, after years of hearing it, Google kind of sounds serious to me now.

rogerbinns 11y ago

I've been using DuckDuckGo for several years, but sadly their search doesn't really help for technical topics. I let them have first crack at the answer, and then usually have to add !g to let google have the next crack. The underlying problem is what they do when a search contains multiple words - 3 or more especially. DDG starts ignoring some of the words, but usually that is what matters. For example search for [usb type c resistor] and the DDG results treat the "resistor" part of the search as a small amount of what is being searched, with many results not that directly useful. As a human we know that [usb type c] is very common, and adding the [resistor] part is actually the meat of the query. Google gets that and gives better results, although they aren't miles apart. The pattern is the user adds more terms to make the search more specific, while DDG then seems to use them to make the search more general. For technical stuff you really did want the specific! That aside DDG has been slowly but surely getting better over the years.

_zekiel 11y ago
This is why we need help! :) Really, though, even if we had 100,000 employees, having a great Instant Answer for hyper-niche searches requires esoteric knowledge and expertise that can best be achieved from a community. Not to mention, it can happen faster. Bitcoin conversions were possible on DuckDuckGo before Google bc our community rallied behind it. The people most passionate about a topic are most likely to create a great answer for it. I can't imagine what my version of a color-code IA would look like. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=cmyk%280.12%2C+0%2C+0%2C+0%29&ia=answer https://duckduckgo.com/?q=cmyk%280.12%2C+0%2C+0%2C+0%29&ia=a... Finally, thanks for the feedback (and for going into specific detail) and for the kind words. It's great to hear that you're seeing noticeable improvement.
- dhimes 11y ago
  Well, as another datum, my search for an awk solution gave me exactly what I needed with your new feature (TFA). I did that before I saw this thread or had heard anything about the feature.
  - _zekiel 11y ago

KayL 11y ago

For someone with fast network, I don't mind with one more click. It's about same to click on "show more". But well, no harmful at all. I expected the cheatsheet also linking to useful help page, then it'd be super cool! also, if i type in 'mysql data types', it won't show anything. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=mysql+data+types https://duckduckgo.com/?q=mysql+data+types

itcrowd 11y ago
FWIW the example of MySQL data types in the OP is the result of searching for "MySQL cheatsheet"

itcrowd 11y ago

This, along with !bang syntax and respect for privacy is what makes DDG my favourite search engine. I really love typing "Maxwell's equations !w" or similar if I know I want the Wikipedia page for it. Although the search results aren't always perfect (I still use Google occasionally, especially for non-English queries) these features are truly killer. Learned some !bang shortcuts and it saves me time every single day. The cheatsheets are good too and having StackOverflow answers pop up at the top is also a great way to quickly get the right info.

saalweachter 11y ago
If you want the Wikipedia page, why don't you go to Wikipedia and search there?
- mpitt 11y ago
  Because going to Wikipedia, waiting for it to load and then searching is a two-step process, while writing a query with a !w is only one step.
  - tucosan 11y ago
    Why not simply use quicksearch in Chrome/FF? Instead of having to go through ddg, I simply directly search wikipedia via `wp foo` or youtube via `y bar`.
    - contravariant 11y ago
      I use both, but the '!bang' syntax is more convenient when you simply want to repeat a search using a different search engine, or want to use an engine you don't have a quicksearch for (you could of course add them, but sometimes it's just not worth the trouble for the few times you need it).
    - r3bl 11y ago
      Because it won't work in every browser and making shortcuts the same across Firefox and Chrome is a hassle, plus you can never get up to thousands of shortcuts that DDG has. Sometimes, I'm just experimenting. I had no idea that DDG had a Flickr bang because I never had the need to use Flickr before, but I just added !f to my query and I got the results I was looking for.

kevindeasis 11y ago

I'd like more API's related to search please

kriro 11y ago

I try DDG every now and then but the results for non-English searches are pretty bad. Since my daily searches tend to be very mixed language maybe 70-80% English that's unfortunately very inconvenient. Makes me a sad panda because they have some pretty !awesome things going for them.

epi0Bauqu 11y ago

We would love your help: http://duckduckhack.com/ http://duckduckhack.com/ DuckDuckHack (that link) is our instant answer platform and it is all open source (both the answers themselves and the underlying answer engine). We believe that each programming area (MySQL, Perl, React, etc.) can be best served by a group of Instant Answers, and only developers with expertise in those areas can craft the best experiences for that set of Instant Answers. As a small team, we therefore need help in our goal of making DuckDuckGo the best search engine for developers.

Animats 11y ago
Yes, you too can work for DuckDuckGo for free. It's open source, but only useful on their platform. Their search engine uses Yahoo ads. You don't get a cut of the ad revenue when a query uses your add-on. So they can monetize your work, but you can't. I admire DuckDuckGo for being able to survive at all. But they're a for-profit company that asks people to donate things to them. That's just wrong. If you want donations, you have to be a non-profit or a cooperative. (One problem we have today is that few people are members of an organization in which their vote matters and management really serves at the pleasure of the members. Today, "membership" means "customer".) TechShop does this. TechShop is a for-profit company, not a member-owned hacker space. But they ask for donations anyway.[1] This annoys many regular TechShop members, many of whom are familiar with starting or running a business. Especially when they fail to open a location after collecting money, as they did in LA. [1] http://www.techshop.ws/ts_los_angeles.html http://www.techshop.ws/ts_los_angeles.html "People like you helping people like us help themselves."
- jrockway 11y ago
  Aren't you working for Hacker News for free right now? If nobody posted comments here, nobody would know what Y Combinator is. And high-profile HN contributors aren't getting a share of profits YC makes from their startups :)
  - nickpsecurity 11y ago
    How much money is Hacker News pulling in for pg etc? Is that why my adblocker stays working overtime here? Who is investing what round of capital in it? Who is planning to acquire it to get dang his 6% of options before the market tanks again? Hacker News is closer to Animats non-profit concept than a for-profit business asking for donations. Hence, it's worth contributing free time to. ;)

mfo 11y ago

I'm using DuckDuckGo as a primary search engine. Unfortunately for complex queries, search results are less relevant than google. Also Instant search is great when I'm searching for an API method or something really specific. But form time to time I'm looking for an epiphany search: something focus on programming, close enough to get some inspirations in order to refine my search query a few times : then I find the perfect query. My feeling is google enable this kind of exploration/iterative searching : not DDG :-( Saying that I truly want to stick to DDG... and Instant search is not the feature that I need. So a "dream feature" would be to search only a subset of your index : between 9.AM until 7P.M I only want answers from tech blogs, stackoverflow, stack exhange etc... A kind of "search profile". Is it possible ?

progx 11y ago
A list of checkboxes in which categories should be searched "programming" with subcats "programming - java" would be nice. This selection should then automatically include and priorise sites like github, stackoverflow, .... And users should save this selections to own search preference list which they can switch (one click when you are at work)

Chefski 11y ago

DuckDuckGo user here, while I love their system and philosophy, the search functionality and reliability isn't as grand as Google.

Kinnard 11y ago

HackerNews hug of death?

Kinnard 11y ago

HackerNews hug of death?

rodionos 11y ago

DuckDuckGo crossed 10M daily direct queries threshold last June and has been growing albeit at a slower rate. http://apps.axibase.com/chartlab/e8635882/11/ http://apps.axibase.com/chartlab/e8635882/11/

dallamaneni 11y ago

It is amazing! I searched for "get unmerged branches git" today in DDG and I am amazed it directly gave me the answer.

ruipgil 11y ago

This is the way to hold on to more technical users. I've tried ddg, but switched back to Google because the results were not good enough for my technical needs. If they are able to lock on this focus group, they'll have a strong user base, and a very loyal one. Ultimately I want more, and better competition, it's always good for the final user.

tux 11y ago

Did DuckDuckGo just broken "SearchCode.com" ? https://searchcode.com/ https://searchcode.com/ "Bad Request (400)"

knight17 11y ago

I don't get why other search engines (not just DDG, even Bing) don't introduce useful features Google has withdrawn. The Google search is getting better but as users we really are losing control of the results, I feel. I would loce to see the return of: 1. a good blog search 2. a good forum/discussion search Google apparently don't find them much useful.

superobserver 11y ago

The immediate issue I see with Programming IA is that it doesn't apparently address changes in coding syntax and support as programming languages evolve. PL's often evolve so much that, in my experience of just trying to get a leg up on, say, python, I've had to sort through changing features between Python 2.7 and Python 3 to such an extent that it can be genuinely frustrating at times.

Debugreality 11y ago

I have a side project that I use to solve this problem. It creates your own reference that is downloaded and searchable locally for instant results. https://www.cof8.com https://www.cof8.com

janellaboughton 11y ago

It's fantastic to see such a useful post. I recently had to fill out a form and spent an enormous amount of time trying to find an appropriate Maybe you would be interested in an online service with a ton of Form templates (tax, real estate, legal, business, insurance forms, etc..) I used it to fill out http://pdf.ac/77C1Lh http://pdf.ac/77C1Lh.

janellaboughton 11y ago