5 ms·

No mention of a sale? That seems so strange. I cant think of any other times that a business has given charity to a direct competitor like this.

by brink 8y ago

TomMarius 8y ago
Is it really a competitor? IMO from the point of Google's view DuckDuckGo is a very small niche service that doesn't really endanger them and they can win a few bonus points with their community.
- fosco 8y ago
  also some people use bangs [0] like !g !b !yt and other bang's to redirect search another website directly from ddg. (I use this when I do not like the responses and want to check another search engine) sort of like google giving money to wikipedia, I suspect they do infact collect information on ddg searches and can aggregate it and make something useful from the information. in fact, they can probably infer that ddgs initial response was poor and determine their weaknesses etc [0] https://duckduckgo.com/bang https://duckduckgo.com/bang
chadash 8y ago
I wonder if Google wants them around so that they can point to them as a competitor when anti-trust suits come up in court.
- Phr0ztByte 8y ago
  And get some positive optics.
- pentae 8y ago
  Ding ding ding.. we have a winner
  - hoffs 8y ago
    Bing exists?
    - setquk 8y ago
      Does it?
      - Spivak 8y ago
        I mean it's bigger than DDG?
        setquk 8y ago
        Well only because DDG aggregates some of their stuff plus Microsoft ship everything to glue into Bing (windows login screens / default browser config / Cortana / XBox). I know no one who consciously uses it to do anything other than my mother who uses it search for Google. If none of the other default integrations exist it'd be dead on it's arse.
        TheCraiggers 8y ago
        There are memes out there about people using it to search for porn and I've seen it referenced in forums, so there's at least one use case. Although why anybody has to actively /search/ for porn is beyond me.
        setquk 8y ago
        Well it's not like you find it in a bush these days so you have to put some effort in.
        Semaphor 8y ago
        > There are memes out there about people using it to search for porn and I've seen it referenced in forums From what I've heard their video search is superior. > Although why anybody has to actively /search/ for porn is beyond me. Specific tastes?
- bborud 8y ago
  Sure, there's that, but Google really need competition for their own sake. The US would not have put a man on the moon if it wasn't for the Soviet Union trying to do the same. Not having credible competition is bad from a purely professional point of view because you need someone to spur you on. Since about 2003-2004 search has not really been a real competition in the west. Google has had an unhealthy dominance. I have worked for three search engine companies (Fast, Yahoo and Google) and I can remember how inspiring the early days were when there was half a dozen search engines to compete against. I particularly enjoyed trying to figure out how the competition did things. At the time you had narrow problems people worked on that perhaps only a dozen other people in the world cared deeply about. Published research hadn't always caught up with what was happening so you spent some amount of time trying to read between the lines and measure things to figure out what the competition was up to. One of my fondest memories is a lunch I had with Jeff Dean when I slid a napkin over the table with a graph on it. He took one look at it, smiled and said "did you figure it out?". I said "no, did you?". And he said "I have no idea". Today search just exists and I no longer give a shit about it. It doesn't strike me as fun anymore. Because there is no real competition. I'm pretty sure that at least the engineers at Google would soil themselves with joy if they got a real competitor.
- utopcell 8y ago
  What constitutes competition ? If I put up a site serving Wikipedia, that nobody visits, am I a competitor to Wikipedia or Google ? Last time I checked, DuckDuckGo had < 0.2% market share. Aren't Bing and Yahoo enough already to justify competition ?
dwighttk 8y ago
Macworld Boston 1997
- samwillis 8y ago
  "At the 1997 Macworld Expo, Steve Jobs announced that Apple would be entering into partnership with Microsoft. Included in this was a five-year commitment from Microsoft to release Microsoft Office for Macintosh as well a US$150 million investment in Apple. It was also announced that Internet Explorer would be shipped as the default browser on the Macintosh. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates appeared at the expo on-screen, further explaining Microsoft’s plans for the software they were developing for Mac, and stating that he was very excited to be helping Apple return to success" Apple was about to go under and Microsoft saved it in order to have a competitor. https://www.mac-history.net/apple-history-tv/2008-07-19/macworld-boston-1997-steve-jobs-returns-bill-gates-appeares-on-screen https://www.mac-history.net/apple-history-tv/2008-07-19/macw...
luckydata 8y ago
It's more reminiscent of Batman giving one of his batrangs to a kid dressed like him.
- utopcell 8y ago
  :-)
trumped 8y ago
not exactly charity but something similar happened between Microsoft and Apple: https://www.wired.com/2009/08/dayintech-0806/ https://www.wired.com/2009/08/dayintech-0806/ (Aug. 6, 1997: Apple Rescued — by Microsoft)
jerf 8y ago
There's no reasonable amount of money that Google can charge for this that will make up for the amount of meetings they'd need to correctly determine the amount and get all the signoffs for it, and charging for it would also negatively impact the PR for it.
Jyaif 8y ago
This is indeed weird; a 4 letter domain name that also happens to be an english word is worth a couple millions.
- nailer 8y ago
  How do we know Duck didn't pay for it?

No mention of a sale? That seems so strange. I cant think of any other times that a business has given charity to a direct competitor like this.

by brink 8y ago

No mention of a sale? That seems so strange. I cant think of any other times that a business has given charity to a direct competitor like this.

TomMarius 8y ago

Is it really a competitor? IMO from the point of Google's view DuckDuckGo is a very small niche service that doesn't really endanger them and they can win a few bonus points with their community.

fosco 8y ago
also some people use bangs [0] like !g !b !yt and other bang's to redirect search another website directly from ddg. (I use this when I do not like the responses and want to check another search engine) sort of like google giving money to wikipedia, I suspect they do infact collect information on ddg searches and can aggregate it and make something useful from the information. in fact, they can probably infer that ddgs initial response was poor and determine their weaknesses etc [0] https://duckduckgo.com/bang https://duckduckgo.com/bang

chadash 8y ago

I wonder if Google wants them around so that they can point to them as a competitor when anti-trust suits come up in court.

Phr0ztByte 8y ago
And get some positive optics.
pentae 8y ago
Ding ding ding.. we have a winner
- hoffs 8y ago
  Bing exists?
  - setquk 8y ago
    Does it?
    - Spivak 8y ago
      I mean it's bigger than DDG?
      - setquk 8y ago
        Well only because DDG aggregates some of their stuff plus Microsoft ship everything to glue into Bing (windows login screens / default browser config / Cortana / XBox). I know no one who consciously uses it to do anything other than my mother who uses it search for Google. If none of the other default integrations exist it'd be dead on it's arse.
        TheCraiggers 8y ago
        There are memes out there about people using it to search for porn and I've seen it referenced in forums, so there's at least one use case. Although why anybody has to actively /search/ for porn is beyond me.
        setquk 8y ago
        Well it's not like you find it in a bush these days so you have to put some effort in.
        Semaphor 8y ago
        > There are memes out there about people using it to search for porn and I've seen it referenced in forums From what I've heard their video search is superior. > Although why anybody has to actively /search/ for porn is beyond me. Specific tastes?
bborud 8y ago
Sure, there's that, but Google really need competition for their own sake. The US would not have put a man on the moon if it wasn't for the Soviet Union trying to do the same. Not having credible competition is bad from a purely professional point of view because you need someone to spur you on. Since about 2003-2004 search has not really been a real competition in the west. Google has had an unhealthy dominance. I have worked for three search engine companies (Fast, Yahoo and Google) and I can remember how inspiring the early days were when there was half a dozen search engines to compete against. I particularly enjoyed trying to figure out how the competition did things. At the time you had narrow problems people worked on that perhaps only a dozen other people in the world cared deeply about. Published research hadn't always caught up with what was happening so you spent some amount of time trying to read between the lines and measure things to figure out what the competition was up to. One of my fondest memories is a lunch I had with Jeff Dean when I slid a napkin over the table with a graph on it. He took one look at it, smiled and said "did you figure it out?". I said "no, did you?". And he said "I have no idea". Today search just exists and I no longer give a shit about it. It doesn't strike me as fun anymore. Because there is no real competition. I'm pretty sure that at least the engineers at Google would soil themselves with joy if they got a real competitor.
utopcell 8y ago
What constitutes competition ? If I put up a site serving Wikipedia, that nobody visits, am I a competitor to Wikipedia or Google ? Last time I checked, DuckDuckGo had < 0.2% market share. Aren't Bing and Yahoo enough already to justify competition ?

dwighttk 8y ago

Macworld Boston 1997

samwillis 8y ago
"At the 1997 Macworld Expo, Steve Jobs announced that Apple would be entering into partnership with Microsoft. Included in this was a five-year commitment from Microsoft to release Microsoft Office for Macintosh as well a US$150 million investment in Apple. It was also announced that Internet Explorer would be shipped as the default browser on the Macintosh. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates appeared at the expo on-screen, further explaining Microsoft’s plans for the software they were developing for Mac, and stating that he was very excited to be helping Apple return to success" Apple was about to go under and Microsoft saved it in order to have a competitor. https://www.mac-history.net/apple-history-tv/2008-07-19/macworld-boston-1997-steve-jobs-returns-bill-gates-appeares-on-screen https://www.mac-history.net/apple-history-tv/2008-07-19/macw...

luckydata 8y ago

It's more reminiscent of Batman giving one of his batrangs to a kid dressed like him.

utopcell 8y ago
:-)

trumped 8y ago

not exactly charity but something similar happened between Microsoft and Apple: https://www.wired.com/2009/08/dayintech-0806/ https://www.wired.com/2009/08/dayintech-0806/ (Aug. 6, 1997: Apple Rescued — by Microsoft)

jerf 8y ago

There's no reasonable amount of money that Google can charge for this that will make up for the amount of meetings they'd need to correctly determine the amount and get all the signoffs for it, and charging for it would also negatively impact the PR for it.

Jyaif 8y ago

This is indeed weird; a 4 letter domain name that also happens to be an english word is worth a couple millions.

nailer 8y ago
How do we know Duck didn't pay for it?