4 ms·

I've been using DuckDuckGo for years now. It's not perfect but if you think carefully about your query it will work fine. For me the killer feature is DDG's ba

by clubm8 8y ago

I've been using DuckDuckGo for years now. It's not perfect but if you think carefully about your query it will work fine. For me the killer feature is DDG's bang commands (https://duckduckgo.com/bang https://duckduckgo.com/bang) prepend "!w" for wikipedia, "!imdb" for movie trivia stuff, etc. And if you don't find what you're looking for "!s" will search with Startpage (a site that proxies Google searches for you)

frereubu 8y ago
I initially thought that there would be a high mental cost of switching from Google to DDG - but now that bangs have become muscle memory, using privacy-conscious DDG by default and then using !g if the results aren't helpful feels seamless.
kxyvr 8y ago
Quick question: What's the advantage of bangs over adding a custom search engine to something like Firefox? In Firefox, we can right click any search bar and add a keyword for the search, so we could just type something like "w topic" to search Wikipedia for some topic. Anyway, maybe there's something I'm missing, but I am curious.
- majewsky 8y ago
  There are some bangs that do not directly correspond to search boxes. For example, "!rfc 2616" expands into https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2616 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2616
  - vntok 8y ago
    "Rfc 2616" typed into google works just as well and saves you a click.
    - majewsky 8y ago
      Which click? DDG just redirects without even showing a SERP.
- illnewsthat 8y ago
  I was thinking the same. I have a ton of custom search engines in Google Chrome. Examples: gi (google image search) gl (google i'm feeling lucky search) y (youtube) wa (wolfram alpha) i (imdb search) w (wiki search) m (google maps directions from my home address) d (definition) a (amazon) f (stock/finance)
  - clubm8 8y ago
    >I have a ton of custom search engines in Google Chrome. Many of those have the exact same abreviation for their bang command. All of them should be available. I prefer having the same search engine anywhere I use DDG versus only having custom search engines on machines I've customized.
- Mediterraneo10 8y ago
  Wikipedia’s in-built search has historically been poorer than third-party search like Google. That is why people prefer to use a bang on DDG to show all relevant content on Wikipedia’s domain.
  - dredmorbius 8y ago
    !w drops to Wikipedia's native search, not DDG's. I use it precisely for this.
- Jaxan 8y ago
  To me the advantage is that it works in any browser. So I don’t have to set up anything. It evens works on mobile.
- Sir_Cmpwn 8y ago
  All of DDG's bangs already exist. I can just think up what the bang probably looks like and lo-and-behold: it works. Try !mdn, !tvtropes, !deb, !wayback...
speek 8y ago
Check out http://duckduckgoog.com http://duckduckgoog.com -- which is google search with a sprinkling of DDG's bang commands
- wruza 8y ago
  Curious how they made it to work (the same for startpage.com). Even my stationary workplace PC with static IP occasionally asks for captcha in google search. It says something like "we suspect you're a robot that abuses google search, back off". Sometimes solving series of 4 captchas is still not enough so I back off and beep twice.

by clubm8 8y ago

frereubu 8y ago

I initially thought that there would be a high mental cost of switching from Google to DDG - but now that bangs have become muscle memory, using privacy-conscious DDG by default and then using !g if the results aren't helpful feels seamless.

kxyvr 8y ago

Quick question: What's the advantage of bangs over adding a custom search engine to something like Firefox? In Firefox, we can right click any search bar and add a keyword for the search, so we could just type something like "w topic" to search Wikipedia for some topic. Anyway, maybe there's something I'm missing, but I am curious.

majewsky 8y ago
There are some bangs that do not directly correspond to search boxes. For example, "!rfc 2616" expands into https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2616 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2616
- vntok 8y ago
  "Rfc 2616" typed into google works just as well and saves you a click.
  - majewsky 8y ago
    Which click? DDG just redirects without even showing a SERP.
illnewsthat 8y ago
I was thinking the same. I have a ton of custom search engines in Google Chrome. Examples: gi (google image search) gl (google i'm feeling lucky search) y (youtube) wa (wolfram alpha) i (imdb search) w (wiki search) m (google maps directions from my home address) d (definition) a (amazon) f (stock/finance)
- clubm8 8y ago
  >I have a ton of custom search engines in Google Chrome. Many of those have the exact same abreviation for their bang command. All of them should be available. I prefer having the same search engine anywhere I use DDG versus only having custom search engines on machines I've customized.
Mediterraneo10 8y ago
Wikipedia’s in-built search has historically been poorer than third-party search like Google. That is why people prefer to use a bang on DDG to show all relevant content on Wikipedia’s domain.
- dredmorbius 8y ago
  !w drops to Wikipedia's native search, not DDG's. I use it precisely for this.
Jaxan 8y ago
To me the advantage is that it works in any browser. So I don’t have to set up anything. It evens works on mobile.
Sir_Cmpwn 8y ago
All of DDG's bangs already exist. I can just think up what the bang probably looks like and lo-and-behold: it works. Try !mdn, !tvtropes, !deb, !wayback...

speek 8y ago

Check out http://duckduckgoog.com http://duckduckgoog.com -- which is google search with a sprinkling of DDG's bang commands

wruza 8y ago
Curious how they made it to work (the same for startpage.com). Even my stationary workplace PC with static IP occasionally asks for captcha in google search. It says something like "we suspect you're a robot that abuses google search, back off". Sometimes solving series of 4 captchas is still not enough so I back off and beep twice.