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This is amazing. So many people are starting to de-Google their life. It somehow become a popular subject. Earlier this week Fast Company wrote [1] about it, Du

This is amazing. So many people are starting to de-Google their life. It somehow become a popular subject. Earlier this week Fast Company wrote [1] about it, DuckDuckGo reached 1 billion monthly searches [2] and it's a common thing to see in Hacker News' posts lately. I'm personally very happy with the raise of awareness. I'm hoping it's will reach the regular folks. I realized this a few months ago when I started Simple Analytics [3]. I see that advertising is almost done automatically by the press. When Facebook or Google has bad press, it's great for privacy first tools. [1] https://www.fastcompany.com/90300072/its-time-to-ditch-google-analytics https://www.fastcompany.com/90300072/its-time-to-ditch-googl... [2] https://twitter.com/DuckDuckGo/status/1091709578444750849 https://twitter.com/DuckDuckGo/status/1091709578444750849 [3] https://simpleanalytics.io/?ref=news.ycombinator.com https://simpleanalytics.io/?ref=news.ycombinator.com

zavi 8y ago
> So many people are starting to de-Google their life. Is this actually true or just an anecdote? Last time I checked the market share for core Google products was growing everywhere except in China, especially in Europe where EU has been killing off the remaining competition through GDPR et al. I'm all for seeing newcomers take on the incumbent behemoths, but I also like true information.
- harianus 8y ago
  I'm seeing this trend (it is a personal statement), and if I look at Googles popularity in Google Trends [1] it's going down in the last 5 years. It's still huge compared to privacy first products like DuckDuckGo [2]. Again, it's my view around me. I didn't have my business yet so it could be that my eyes are more open to privacy first products. [1] https://g.co/trends/363ud https://g.co/trends/363ud [2] https://g.co/trends/a7kcZ https://g.co/trends/a7kcZ
  - nova22033 8y ago
    >I'm seeing this trend (it is a personal statement) So it's anecdata..
    - harianus 8y ago
      It was based on that, but if I look at market share of Google Search in America [1] it goes down for quite some years already. [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/267161/market-share-of-search-engines-in-the-united-states/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/267161/market-share-of-s...
  - davidcbc 8y ago
    I'm not sure that the trend of fewer people googling Google on Google means fewer people are using Google.
    - harianus 8y ago
      It does: https://www.statista.com/statistics/267161/market-share-of-search-engines-in-the-united-states/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/267161/market-share-of-s...
      - davidcbc 8y ago
        That's closer to the point, but market share dropping only implies fewer users if the total number of users is stagnant. If the search market is still growing it could just mean Google is growing at a slower rate than other search engines.
        harianus 8y ago
        What public metric would you use to prove this (or the opposite of this) point?
- wccrawford 8y ago
  It can be both. They can get new customers in markets while old customers are actively trying to move away from them in higher numbers than ever before. I'm one of them. While I'm not completely de-Google-ing my life, I did set up Firefox at work and use DuckDuckGo for my searches there now. I do not like DDG. Google almost always gave me what I wanted, whereas DDG is about 80% of the time. I often end up wishing I'd just used Google the first time instead. 80% sounds like a good number, but it means that I'm often frustrated with it when I wouldn't have been with Google.
londons_explore 8y ago
DuckDuckGo is really Bing under the covers... People are literally moving from Google back to Microsoft, and feeling good about it because it has different branding. Source: https://www.quora.com/How-is-the-Bing-API-used-by-DuckDuckGo https://www.quora.com/How-is-the-Bing-API-used-by-DuckDuckGo
- delinka 8y ago
  ...and feeling good about it because DDG protects their privacy. I’m not particularly concerned with the backing engine as long as they’re not tracking me and I’m getting acceptable results.
  - hartator 8y ago
    Why not make a wrapper around SerpApi.com/search and use Google behind proxies then?
    - adrianN 8y ago
      Like this? https://www.startpage.com/ https://www.startpage.com/
- harianus 8y ago
  That's not a privacy issue. But indeed, you will support Microsoft when using DuckDuckGo. I believe it's necessary to use a big search engine before building your own. Their ads also run via Bing Ads. This is something they really should change a believe. I tried to run ads for Simple Analytics on DDG but it feels very wrong to use Bing Ads for that. You can't also select "Run on DuckDuckGo only". I think they should move to something of themselves which is likely to happen if they grow bigger.
- xrisk 8y ago
  How is that source credible? He works for neither DuckDuckGo nor Bing. For the record I did the thing he suggests: the same search on DDG and Bing–the results are not identical.
- 8y ago
alexpetralia 8y ago
Really enjoyed the video on your landing page. Seemed initially cheesy but ended up being perfect.
- harianus 8y ago
  Thank you! I fill forward your comment to the creators.
cletus 8y ago
> So many people are starting to de-Google their life I'm sorry to be that guy but... citation needed. What evidence is there that this is anything but a fringe movement within the tech community let alone mainstream in any way, shape or form? And "common thing to see in HN posts lately" isn't evidence of that, sorry. > DuckDuckGo reached 1 billion monthly searches Two questions: 1. How much time do you think it takes for Google to reach 1B searches? and 2. How many DDG users routinely use !g (or otherwise use Google results)? As much as HNers like to bang the drum about "privacy" the term is ill-defined. Take search because its straightforward. Your search results are personalized by a bunch of factors including, but not limited to: - Previous searches - Location - Language - Inferred or actual demographics The fringe privacy element is I guess most concerned with previous searches? Or is it all of the above? And if you say that location is not OK, take a simple search for "bakery". Isn't it better UX to show local bakeries? Another question: the alternative to "free" (ie ad-supported) models is user pays. How exactly does this work for users in the developing world for whom $5/month might be a significant amount of money? Will they value their "privacy" the same way? The assumption (by DDGers and their ilk) that using [Big company products] is some Faustian bargain is hyperbolic and unsubstantiated.
- wolco 8y ago
  In places where $5 a month might be too much they are worth much less to google with fewer people targeting that group. Privacy isn't as big of a concern as access issues. No one targets the 99% percentile directly. It is much cheaper to go non-targeted advertising and hit as many people as possible perhaps targeting at the country/region or language level only.
glenrivard 8y ago
Yet Google market share increases and now 93%. It is not real people but just people that like to scream and yell about leaving Google. http://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share http://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share Google will report numbers later today. But have been growing at 20%+ the last 10 quarters. Obviously Google has nothing to worry about with those type of growth numbers. Versus Apple reported last week declines in both top and bottom lines.
endofcapital 8y ago
I've been looking for other analytics solutions that aren't creepy, your timing is great. Looks promising!

zavi 8y ago

> So many people are starting to de-Google their life. Is this actually true or just an anecdote? Last time I checked the market share for core Google products was growing everywhere except in China, especially in Europe where EU has been killing off the remaining competition through GDPR et al. I'm all for seeing newcomers take on the incumbent behemoths, but I also like true information.

harianus 8y ago
I'm seeing this trend (it is a personal statement), and if I look at Googles popularity in Google Trends [1] it's going down in the last 5 years. It's still huge compared to privacy first products like DuckDuckGo [2]. Again, it's my view around me. I didn't have my business yet so it could be that my eyes are more open to privacy first products. [1] https://g.co/trends/363ud https://g.co/trends/363ud [2] https://g.co/trends/a7kcZ https://g.co/trends/a7kcZ
- nova22033 8y ago
  >I'm seeing this trend (it is a personal statement) So it's anecdata..
  - harianus 8y ago
    It was based on that, but if I look at market share of Google Search in America [1] it goes down for quite some years already. [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/267161/market-share-of-search-engines-in-the-united-states/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/267161/market-share-of-s...
- davidcbc 8y ago
  I'm not sure that the trend of fewer people googling Google on Google means fewer people are using Google.
  - harianus 8y ago
    It does: https://www.statista.com/statistics/267161/market-share-of-search-engines-in-the-united-states/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/267161/market-share-of-s...
    - davidcbc 8y ago
      That's closer to the point, but market share dropping only implies fewer users if the total number of users is stagnant. If the search market is still growing it could just mean Google is growing at a slower rate than other search engines.
      - harianus 8y ago
        What public metric would you use to prove this (or the opposite of this) point?
wccrawford 8y ago
It can be both. They can get new customers in markets while old customers are actively trying to move away from them in higher numbers than ever before. I'm one of them. While I'm not completely de-Google-ing my life, I did set up Firefox at work and use DuckDuckGo for my searches there now. I do not like DDG. Google almost always gave me what I wanted, whereas DDG is about 80% of the time. I often end up wishing I'd just used Google the first time instead. 80% sounds like a good number, but it means that I'm often frustrated with it when I wouldn't have been with Google.

londons_explore 8y ago

DuckDuckGo is really Bing under the covers... People are literally moving from Google back to Microsoft, and feeling good about it because it has different branding. Source: https://www.quora.com/How-is-the-Bing-API-used-by-DuckDuckGo https://www.quora.com/How-is-the-Bing-API-used-by-DuckDuckGo

delinka 8y ago
...and feeling good about it because DDG protects their privacy. I’m not particularly concerned with the backing engine as long as they’re not tracking me and I’m getting acceptable results.
- hartator 8y ago
  Why not make a wrapper around SerpApi.com/search and use Google behind proxies then?
  - adrianN 8y ago
    Like this? https://www.startpage.com/ https://www.startpage.com/
harianus 8y ago
That's not a privacy issue. But indeed, you will support Microsoft when using DuckDuckGo. I believe it's necessary to use a big search engine before building your own. Their ads also run via Bing Ads. This is something they really should change a believe. I tried to run ads for Simple Analytics on DDG but it feels very wrong to use Bing Ads for that. You can't also select "Run on DuckDuckGo only". I think they should move to something of themselves which is likely to happen if they grow bigger.
xrisk 8y ago
How is that source credible? He works for neither DuckDuckGo nor Bing. For the record I did the thing he suggests: the same search on DDG and Bing–the results are not identical.
8y ago

alexpetralia 8y ago

Really enjoyed the video on your landing page. Seemed initially cheesy but ended up being perfect.

harianus 8y ago
Thank you! I fill forward your comment to the creators.

cletus 8y ago

> So many people are starting to de-Google their life I'm sorry to be that guy but... citation needed. What evidence is there that this is anything but a fringe movement within the tech community let alone mainstream in any way, shape or form? And "common thing to see in HN posts lately" isn't evidence of that, sorry. > DuckDuckGo reached 1 billion monthly searches Two questions: 1. How much time do you think it takes for Google to reach 1B searches? and 2. How many DDG users routinely use !g (or otherwise use Google results)? As much as HNers like to bang the drum about "privacy" the term is ill-defined. Take search because its straightforward. Your search results are personalized by a bunch of factors including, but not limited to: - Previous searches - Location - Language - Inferred or actual demographics The fringe privacy element is I guess most concerned with previous searches? Or is it all of the above? And if you say that location is not OK, take a simple search for "bakery". Isn't it better UX to show local bakeries? Another question: the alternative to "free" (ie ad-supported) models is user pays. How exactly does this work for users in the developing world for whom $5/month might be a significant amount of money? Will they value their "privacy" the same way? The assumption (by DDGers and their ilk) that using [Big company products] is some Faustian bargain is hyperbolic and unsubstantiated.

wolco 8y ago
In places where $5 a month might be too much they are worth much less to google with fewer people targeting that group. Privacy isn't as big of a concern as access issues. No one targets the 99% percentile directly. It is much cheaper to go non-targeted advertising and hit as many people as possible perhaps targeting at the country/region or language level only.

glenrivard 8y ago

Yet Google market share increases and now 93%. It is not real people but just people that like to scream and yell about leaving Google. http://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share http://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share Google will report numbers later today. But have been growing at 20%+ the last 10 quarters. Obviously Google has nothing to worry about with those type of growth numbers. Versus Apple reported last week declines in both top and bottom lines.

endofcapital 8y ago

I've been looking for other analytics solutions that aren't creepy, your timing is great. Looks promising!