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I keep hearing this, but I'm constantly disappointed by the results I get on DDG. Eg, The first page of DDG shows (old) forum posts while Google shows a couple

I keep hearing this, but I'm constantly disappointed by the results I get on DDG. Eg, The first page of DDG shows (old) forum posts while Google shows a couple project sites on GitHub and some relevant stack overflow answers. I'm sure some is personalization, but I've also compared results in incognito and Google is still better. I really want to like it, but I'm not going to sabotage my ability to efficiently find things.

CaptainZapp 8y ago
To be honest: It works for me > 98% of the time. Usually if the search is highly generic then Google definitely fares better and there's always the !g bang if DDG is not good enough for a specific search.
- specialist 8y ago
  Thinking out loud here, trying to articulate a notion (complaint). My two major search use cases are 'technical' (work related, programming, one of my projects) and 'location-based'. (As a not quite sober news junkie, I'm trying reduce my 'events' search activity.) Both DDG and Google work fine for technical stuff. Because I already know where to look, how to ask. YouTube is surprisingly (delightfully) great for my DIY projects (eg how to tile my bathroom). Location based searches still drives me nuts. Both Apple Maps and Google Maps routinely give me ridiculous results. For the love of digital, why aren't closer results ranked higher? So I end up using Yelp to find local stuff. While I like its 'update search results' as a navigate, their map UI/UX widget is terrible. I'd probably leave my laptop home if I felt competent using mobile for location-based searches. Now, I'm lugging it every where, and regret it when I don't.
tannhaeuser 8y ago
My experience has been the opposite of yours; DDG gets me better, and in particular more up-to-date search results recently.
- bjpbakker 8y ago
  This is my experience too. But I hardly ever used Chrome, and wasn't signed in when using Google most of the time. I suspect they don't have a complete profile to improve their results. Still I would take somewhat worse search results over handing out all of my web usage any day :)
chewz 8y ago
DDG search results are even worse in other languages then English. I have been trying for couple of years to use DDG and finally have given up. Pity.

CaptainZapp 8y ago

To be honest: It works for me > 98% of the time. Usually if the search is highly generic then Google definitely fares better and there's always the !g bang if DDG is not good enough for a specific search.

specialist 8y ago
Thinking out loud here, trying to articulate a notion (complaint). My two major search use cases are 'technical' (work related, programming, one of my projects) and 'location-based'. (As a not quite sober news junkie, I'm trying reduce my 'events' search activity.) Both DDG and Google work fine for technical stuff. Because I already know where to look, how to ask. YouTube is surprisingly (delightfully) great for my DIY projects (eg how to tile my bathroom). Location based searches still drives me nuts. Both Apple Maps and Google Maps routinely give me ridiculous results. For the love of digital, why aren't closer results ranked higher? So I end up using Yelp to find local stuff. While I like its 'update search results' as a navigate, their map UI/UX widget is terrible. I'd probably leave my laptop home if I felt competent using mobile for location-based searches. Now, I'm lugging it every where, and regret it when I don't.

tannhaeuser 8y ago

My experience has been the opposite of yours; DDG gets me better, and in particular more up-to-date search results recently.

bjpbakker 8y ago
This is my experience too. But I hardly ever used Chrome, and wasn't signed in when using Google most of the time. I suspect they don't have a complete profile to improve their results. Still I would take somewhat worse search results over handing out all of my web usage any day :)

chewz 8y ago

DDG search results are even worse in other languages then English. I have been trying for couple of years to use DDG and finally have given up. Pity.