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I don't know if DuckDuckGo counts as "lesser known" but I find it incredibly useful. The !wa bang command is great for weird conversions. (Ex: Sometimes watchi

I don't know if DuckDuckGo counts as "lesser known" but I find it incredibly useful. The !wa bang command is great for weird conversions. (Ex: Sometimes watching mad men I might plug in "!wa 100 dollars 1960" and out pops an inflation adjusted figure) !fake can check a given amazon product for fake reviews Stuff like Wikipedia (!w), reddit (!r) etc. Some people complain the results aren't as good as Google but I think they have either forgotten and/or never learned how to search. Since the engine has no PII on you, it can't handle ambiguity well. A good heuristic is if your query would give you a disambiguation page on Wikipedia, add a few terms. I've been using it exclusively for a while, and the only time I really go back to Google is for their maps.

Insanity 8y ago
Yeah I have some friends who say ddg is unusable for them. I really wonder what kind of exotic things they search for, I have been using DDG for a couple of years now and rarely need Google. (!gi for their images I use sometimes)
- karmakaze 8y ago
  I've repeatedly tried to use DDG for technical searches and it's often missing the results I can google. That would be fine except that it's often the only result with the answer and not duplicated in another result. Maybe adding !stackoverflow (or somesuch) might work but not if the result was a blog. I wouldn't call my searches exotic but merely specific.
  - ball_of_lint 8y ago
    I feel this often enough to notice, but I think it comes from mostly having used google for so long. After learning the little tricks (even unconsciously) moving to any new search engine will leave you missing them.
    - nullterminator 8y ago
      I think this is exactly it. As someone who has been using solely DuckDuckGo for a couple years, including for technical searches (I'm a software developer), I find using Google noticeably frustrating because Google doesn't give me the results I'm looking for but DDG does. I think I'm just used to the nuances of DDG where others (who currently use Google) are used to the nuances of Google. You get used to crafting search queries in a specific way, and having to change it is noticeable.
- marmaduke 8y ago
  I tried to use it for search stuff in France, as an English speaker, and Google works way better especially when I’m using the wrong words
Jemm 8y ago
I wish DuckDuckGo had the minus operator to exclude keywords from the results. Otherwise it is my daily driver.
- jimbosis 8y ago
  I think it does have the minus operator. Compare: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=linux&t=h_&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?q=linux&t=h_&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?q=linux+-ubuntu&t=h_&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?q=linux+-ubuntu&t=h_&ia=web
z3phyr 8y ago
I have been using Raspberry pi for minimal computing, and ddg is the default one. Can't complain :)
freediver 8y ago
Every time ddg is mentioned on hn, it receives a lot of praise in the form I use this or that bang - in essence negating its usefulness as a search engine and making it a glorified shortcut app.
- save_ferris 8y ago
  I'd counter that with the fact that DDG returns SO answer cards and various cheatsheets when searched (i.e. "tmux cheatsheet".) I think Google beats DDG in some ways (better news search results, for example.) But DDG is a much better programmer-focused search engine IMO, they just don't market themselves that way. Back to your bang feature point, I really appreciate that DDG makes it easy to search Google instead by simply using !g. Tech companies don't always make it easy to use a competitor, and there's something to be said for DDG not creating barriers to using other search engines.
  - dontbenebby 8y ago
    >Back to your bang feature point, I really appreciate that DDG makes it easy to search Google instead by simply using !g. Or you can use !s to use StartPage, which uses Google's results to seed it's own and is more privacy respecting
- dontbenebby 8y ago
  >Every time ddg is mentioned on hn, it receives a lot of praise in the form I use this or that bang - in essence negating its usefulness as a search engine and making it a glorified shortcut app. A huge chunk of what people do on search engines is essentially using them to query databases. If I know which database my answer is in, why add an extra step? It's actually a point in DDG's favor that they forgo a chance at ad impressions and allow the user to jump directly to what is wanted. (Though to be fair I suspect a big chunk of their income comes from Amazon referrals, which will give them income whether you search on the site or use a bang command)
- swsieber 8y ago
  I'd now days say google is mostly a shortcut app too. 90%+ of the time I'm really just loozing for data from a well known aggregator (wikipedia, reddit, stack overflow, rotten tomatoes, etc.) Google basically enhances that in three ways: * It takes away the choice/effort behind selecting a source. * It combines multiple sources in an ok way * It gives ok results for things that aren't really just shortcut queries
agumonkey 8y ago
I used to abuse the !sh bang but it's been "deprecated". Nowadays my favorite are !wbm : wayback machine (buggy but still useful) !cache : google cache (as a super crude text only view)
- dontbenebby 8y ago
  What did !sh point to? I can't find it in the list of bang commands. PS: How do you generate monospaced font on HN?
  - malikolivier 8y ago
    Prepend two white spaces before the line you want to format as monospace. like this
    - dontbenebby 8y ago
      thanks for the tip friend :)
  - agumonkey 8y ago
    sh ~ scihub
    - dontbenebby 8y ago
      thanks!
webmobdev 8y ago
Prefer Yandex - faster than DDG, better results and you can easily search on Bing or Google from the same search result page if you don't find the result satisfactory (they provide links at the bottom of the results).

Insanity 8y ago

Yeah I have some friends who say ddg is unusable for them. I really wonder what kind of exotic things they search for, I have been using DDG for a couple of years now and rarely need Google. (!gi for their images I use sometimes)

karmakaze 8y ago
I've repeatedly tried to use DDG for technical searches and it's often missing the results I can google. That would be fine except that it's often the only result with the answer and not duplicated in another result. Maybe adding !stackoverflow (or somesuch) might work but not if the result was a blog. I wouldn't call my searches exotic but merely specific.
- ball_of_lint 8y ago
  I feel this often enough to notice, but I think it comes from mostly having used google for so long. After learning the little tricks (even unconsciously) moving to any new search engine will leave you missing them.
  - nullterminator 8y ago
    I think this is exactly it. As someone who has been using solely DuckDuckGo for a couple years, including for technical searches (I'm a software developer), I find using Google noticeably frustrating because Google doesn't give me the results I'm looking for but DDG does. I think I'm just used to the nuances of DDG where others (who currently use Google) are used to the nuances of Google. You get used to crafting search queries in a specific way, and having to change it is noticeable.
marmaduke 8y ago
I tried to use it for search stuff in France, as an English speaker, and Google works way better especially when I’m using the wrong words

Jemm 8y ago

I wish DuckDuckGo had the minus operator to exclude keywords from the results. Otherwise it is my daily driver.

jimbosis 8y ago
I think it does have the minus operator. Compare: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=linux&t=h_&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?q=linux&t=h_&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?q=linux+-ubuntu&t=h_&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?q=linux+-ubuntu&t=h_&ia=web

z3phyr 8y ago

I have been using Raspberry pi for minimal computing, and ddg is the default one. Can't complain :)

freediver 8y ago

Every time ddg is mentioned on hn, it receives a lot of praise in the form I use this or that bang - in essence negating its usefulness as a search engine and making it a glorified shortcut app.

save_ferris 8y ago
I'd counter that with the fact that DDG returns SO answer cards and various cheatsheets when searched (i.e. "tmux cheatsheet".) I think Google beats DDG in some ways (better news search results, for example.) But DDG is a much better programmer-focused search engine IMO, they just don't market themselves that way. Back to your bang feature point, I really appreciate that DDG makes it easy to search Google instead by simply using !g. Tech companies don't always make it easy to use a competitor, and there's something to be said for DDG not creating barriers to using other search engines.
- dontbenebby 8y ago
  >Back to your bang feature point, I really appreciate that DDG makes it easy to search Google instead by simply using !g. Or you can use !s to use StartPage, which uses Google's results to seed it's own and is more privacy respecting
dontbenebby 8y ago
>Every time ddg is mentioned on hn, it receives a lot of praise in the form I use this or that bang - in essence negating its usefulness as a search engine and making it a glorified shortcut app. A huge chunk of what people do on search engines is essentially using them to query databases. If I know which database my answer is in, why add an extra step? It's actually a point in DDG's favor that they forgo a chance at ad impressions and allow the user to jump directly to what is wanted. (Though to be fair I suspect a big chunk of their income comes from Amazon referrals, which will give them income whether you search on the site or use a bang command)
swsieber 8y ago
I'd now days say google is mostly a shortcut app too. 90%+ of the time I'm really just loozing for data from a well known aggregator (wikipedia, reddit, stack overflow, rotten tomatoes, etc.) Google basically enhances that in three ways: * It takes away the choice/effort behind selecting a source. * It combines multiple sources in an ok way * It gives ok results for things that aren't really just shortcut queries

agumonkey 8y ago

I used to abuse the !sh bang but it's been "deprecated". Nowadays my favorite are !wbm : wayback machine (buggy but still useful) !cache : google cache (as a super crude text only view)

dontbenebby 8y ago
What did !sh point to? I can't find it in the list of bang commands. PS: How do you generate monospaced font on HN?
- malikolivier 8y ago
  Prepend two white spaces before the line you want to format as monospace. like this
  - dontbenebby 8y ago
    thanks for the tip friend :)
- agumonkey 8y ago
  sh ~ scihub
  - dontbenebby 8y ago
    thanks!

webmobdev 8y ago

Prefer Yandex - faster than DDG, better results and you can easily search on Bing or Google from the same search result page if you don't find the result satisfactory (they provide links at the bottom of the results).