>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

>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)