4 ms·

> "!g" is a constant companion. May I recommend an alternative bang? "!s" (for startpage.com) is my companion. It doesn't always work perfectly, but in theory

> "!g" is a constant companion. May I recommend an alternative bang? "!s" (for startpage.com) is my companion. It doesn't always work perfectly, but in theory [0] Startpage offers the same (edit: non-bubbled[1]) results as big G, while retaining your privacy. !s usually works for me. I always use !s before begrudgingly doing a !g. I have no other affiliation to Startpage or DDG. And to be fair, I think we have to simply accept Startpage's assertion that they preserve your privacy. [0] https://support.startpage.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/158/0/what-is-the-relationship-between-startpagecom-and-google https://support.startpage.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Artic... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_bubble https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_bubble

bobwaycott 8y ago
Oh, thank you, kind stranger. I’ve long disliked that !g is a constant companion, and didn’t know about !s. You are my hero of the day.
jressey 8y ago
Thank you! I had never heard of startpage. I am a notorious !g-er.
vanadium 8y ago
Definitely going to put more muscle memory into !s, thanks!
eipi-1 8y ago
When I decided to move away from Google Search I went with DDG for some time, since it seemed to be the more independent / open approach, compared to Startpage. I found myself switching back to Google way to often, for either performance and / or relevance of results. I then switched to Startpage and used it as primary search for well over a year - only switching back to google for image search. I still feel like DDG would be the philosophical superior option and with !s in mind I will give it another try, to see how far it came. I'd be interested in more concrete reasons to use DDG over Startpage. First thing that comes to my mind is that with Startpage, Google still "reads" your search queries, which might leak info. What else?
- npongratz 8y ago
  Upsides: 1) I came to like DDG's grouping of results by site. See a result and think that page's site might have more results? Click the favicon. 2) DDG is faster now than it was a few years ago. (At least it seems that way, for me and the things I typically search for). 3) Extensive bang shortcuts: https://duckduckgo.com/bang https://duckduckgo.com/bang 4) Different, non-personalized search bubble. I like the idea of non-monocultures, which I guess extends to my search results. Downsides: -1) Some time ago DDG changed to requiring the same stupid quoting behavior Big G began mandating for required search terms, replacing +.
  - FabHK 8y ago
    Upsides 5) might come in handy, if you're a keyboard person: you can use cursor down/up to scroll through the search results, and Return to select (go to) one.

bobwaycott 8y ago

Oh, thank you, kind stranger. I’ve long disliked that !g is a constant companion, and didn’t know about !s. You are my hero of the day.

jressey 8y ago

Thank you! I had never heard of startpage. I am a notorious !g-er.

vanadium 8y ago

Definitely going to put more muscle memory into !s, thanks!

eipi-1 8y ago

When I decided to move away from Google Search I went with DDG for some time, since it seemed to be the more independent / open approach, compared to Startpage. I found myself switching back to Google way to often, for either performance and / or relevance of results. I then switched to Startpage and used it as primary search for well over a year - only switching back to google for image search. I still feel like DDG would be the philosophical superior option and with !s in mind I will give it another try, to see how far it came. I'd be interested in more concrete reasons to use DDG over Startpage. First thing that comes to my mind is that with Startpage, Google still "reads" your search queries, which might leak info. What else?

npongratz 8y ago
Upsides: 1) I came to like DDG's grouping of results by site. See a result and think that page's site might have more results? Click the favicon. 2) DDG is faster now than it was a few years ago. (At least it seems that way, for me and the things I typically search for). 3) Extensive bang shortcuts: https://duckduckgo.com/bang https://duckduckgo.com/bang 4) Different, non-personalized search bubble. I like the idea of non-monocultures, which I guess extends to my search results. Downsides: -1) Some time ago DDG changed to requiring the same stupid quoting behavior Big G began mandating for required search terms, replacing +.
- FabHK 8y ago
  Upsides 5) might come in handy, if you're a keyboard person: you can use cursor down/up to scroll through the search results, and Return to select (go to) one.