4 ms·

DuckDuckGo: A New Search Engine Built from Open Source

15 points by tomh 16y ago

patrickaljord 16y ago
DuckDuckGo is not open source, it may use some Open Source code but so does Google and tons of other web apps.
- coderdude 16y ago
  I'm not sure why people are voting you up. Nowhere in the article (or even in the title) does it say DDG is open source. It says that it is built from open source.
  - code_duck 16y ago
    I'd bet that just about every search engine (aside from Bing, but probably part of that one too) is built in open software. I wouldn't pick this out to be Duck's distinguishing feature.
    - coderdude 16y ago
      I'm not defending what the article said, I'm merely pointing out that the parent comment should be downvoted rather than upvoted because he's arguing something no one said.
      - deleted 16y ago
        [deleted]
sprout 16y ago
Aside from Bing and Yahoo I suppose.
vaksel 16y ago
new?
- jacquesm 16y ago
  New to those outside of a very limited audience. Just like google wasn't new by a long shot any more when suddenly the mainstream press started writing about this great new search engine.
MikeCapone 16y ago
Is this getting voted up just because it mentions DDG? It's fine for HN to have a crush on DDG (it's a good site), but I'd like to suggest that we should be a bit more discerning about what we vote up.
coderdude 16y ago
"It's like the evolution of the LAMP stack that has served so many sites so well for many years. Too bad there isn't a snappy acronym like LAMP for it. Maybe we can call it the Duck stack." Nginix, Memcached, PostgreSQL, Perl, FreeBSD. Duck stack? Is DuckDuckGo really the first to ever use these together? I highly doubt it. This article is very kiss-ass and I can't tell why it's on a site that talks about open source software. Writing your crawler and backend in Perl doesn't mean you're built from open source, nor does using FreeBSD as your operating system. Or does it? Also, I noticed in the first sentence they link the words "search engine" to DDG instead of "DuckDuckGo" (the first word in the first sentence). This article is contrived and looks more like someone just paid to have it written up.
- jacquesm 16y ago
  Afaik ddg does not have its own crawler (yet) but is built on top of other search engines, it does pull in a lot of data from different sources.
  - coderdude 16y ago
    From the article: "DuckDuckGo also uses it's own web crawler: the DuckDuckBot." Plus I'm pretty sure I've heard the DDG guy mention it before on HN.
    - jacquesm 16y ago
      Ok, neat, thanks for the correction!
  - jm4 16y ago
    It does according to the DDG FAQ: https://duckduckgo.com/faq.html https://duckduckgo.com/faq.html
arnorhs 16y ago
I'm sorry. Guilty as charged. I voted it up as soon as I saw DuckDuckGo in the title. I didn't know I was this simple, but I seem to automatically upvote everything relating to DDG...
- arnorhs 16y ago
  Why the downvotes? I thought I was being honest. To me, the fact that I did upvote the link without thinking made me curious/interested. I didn't realize that I was so simple. I wasn't making a joke and I was sincerely sorry. I think it probably shows you, no matter how clever all of us think we are, most of our actions are automatic and non-voluntary.
cmurphycode 16y ago
DuckDuckGo is a pretty well done site. I don't know if DDG is doing anything revolutionary with their software stack, but the stack is working well enough that one guy is essentially providing a useful alternative to Google. Consider the amount of brilliant engineers working on Google search, and you have to be a touch impressed. Of course, this extremely light weight development means he can have enough success to live on without worrying about monetizing as effectively as Google. Since he doesn't track searches as much as Google and thus cannot provide advertisers the same amount of targeting, this is important. I look forward to tracking the site's evolution!

15 points by tomh 16y ago

patrickaljord 16y ago

DuckDuckGo is not open source, it may use some Open Source code but so does Google and tons of other web apps.

coderdude 16y ago
I'm not sure why people are voting you up. Nowhere in the article (or even in the title) does it say DDG is open source. It says that it is built from open source.
- code_duck 16y ago
  I'd bet that just about every search engine (aside from Bing, but probably part of that one too) is built in open software. I wouldn't pick this out to be Duck's distinguishing feature.
  - coderdude 16y ago
    I'm not defending what the article said, I'm merely pointing out that the parent comment should be downvoted rather than upvoted because he's arguing something no one said.
    - deleted 16y ago
      [deleted]

sprout 16y ago

Aside from Bing and Yahoo I suppose.

vaksel 16y ago

new?

jacquesm 16y ago
New to those outside of a very limited audience. Just like google wasn't new by a long shot any more when suddenly the mainstream press started writing about this great new search engine.

MikeCapone 16y ago

Is this getting voted up just because it mentions DDG? It's fine for HN to have a crush on DDG (it's a good site), but I'd like to suggest that we should be a bit more discerning about what we vote up.

coderdude 16y ago

"It's like the evolution of the LAMP stack that has served so many sites so well for many years. Too bad there isn't a snappy acronym like LAMP for it. Maybe we can call it the Duck stack." Nginix, Memcached, PostgreSQL, Perl, FreeBSD. Duck stack? Is DuckDuckGo really the first to ever use these together? I highly doubt it. This article is very kiss-ass and I can't tell why it's on a site that talks about open source software. Writing your crawler and backend in Perl doesn't mean you're built from open source, nor does using FreeBSD as your operating system. Or does it? Also, I noticed in the first sentence they link the words "search engine" to DDG instead of "DuckDuckGo" (the first word in the first sentence). This article is contrived and looks more like someone just paid to have it written up.

jacquesm 16y ago
Afaik ddg does not have its own crawler (yet) but is built on top of other search engines, it does pull in a lot of data from different sources.
- coderdude 16y ago
  From the article: "DuckDuckGo also uses it's own web crawler: the DuckDuckBot." Plus I'm pretty sure I've heard the DDG guy mention it before on HN.
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    Ok, neat, thanks for the correction!
- jm4 16y ago
  It does according to the DDG FAQ: https://duckduckgo.com/faq.html https://duckduckgo.com/faq.html

arnorhs 16y ago

I'm sorry. Guilty as charged. I voted it up as soon as I saw DuckDuckGo in the title. I didn't know I was this simple, but I seem to automatically upvote everything relating to DDG...

arnorhs 16y ago
Why the downvotes? I thought I was being honest. To me, the fact that I did upvote the link without thinking made me curious/interested. I didn't realize that I was so simple. I wasn't making a joke and I was sincerely sorry. I think it probably shows you, no matter how clever all of us think we are, most of our actions are automatic and non-voluntary.

cmurphycode 16y ago

DuckDuckGo is a pretty well done site. I don't know if DDG is doing anything revolutionary with their software stack, but the stack is working well enough that one guy is essentially providing a useful alternative to Google. Consider the amount of brilliant engineers working on Google search, and you have to be a touch impressed. Of course, this extremely light weight development means he can have enough success to live on without worrying about monetizing as effectively as Google. Since he doesn't track searches as much as Google and thus cannot provide advertisers the same amount of targeting, this is important. I look forward to tracking the site's evolution!