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I'm all for a good story, and the one-man DDG going up against Google is certainly a great one. However, considering the number of armchair business analysts on

I'm all for a good story, and the one-man DDG going up against Google is certainly a great one. However, considering the number of armchair business analysts on HN I'm shocked that nobody seems to call out Gabriel for appearing to fall into a cliched trap: "we don't track you" isn't a product, it's a feature. I genuinely wonder what DDG would do if Google simply addressed all of their referrer privacy issues. Then what, exactly? Would DDG simply pack up and go home? It's a fair question.

epi0Bauqu 16y ago
Privacy is just but one aspect of DuckDuckGo: http://duckduckgo.com/about.html http://duckduckgo.com/about.html http://duckduckgo.com/goodies.html http://duckduckgo.com/goodies.html I spend the vast majority of my time improving the search experience. I would welcome you trying it for a week and giving me your feedback! I would love it if Google reacted to this by stopping this search leakage.
- peteforde 16y ago
  Deal!
- jonknee 16y ago
  I changed to Duck Duck Go in Chrome a couple weeks ago to do just this and didn't make it past three days. I was looking forward to getting rid of content mills (which was the reason I wanted to try DDG for a week), but the lack of things like local results and search completion drove me absolutely batty.
  - epi0Bauqu 16y ago
    Thx -- both of those things we're actively working on and should have something for this year (probably earlier than later).
    - jonknee 16y ago
      Great to hear. I like what you're doing and will definitely continue to check it out when you add new features. I don't agree with your stance on referrers (which isn't a Google problem any more than it's a HN problem), but I like rooting for the little guy.
      - epi0Bauqu 16y ago
        Thank you, and I can appreciate that position. However, I think it is a search engine problem because search terms often contain sensitive personal information and they're embedded in the referrer, whereas HN links don't contain such info.
- gawker 16y ago
  My mates installed it for me and I didn't make it past the first day. Search results wasn't accurate enough for me so I went back to Google.
  - epi0Bauqu 16y ago
    Thx--would appreciate you sending me queries that didn't work for you (if you can recall any you're willing to share): http://duckduckgo.com/feedback.html http://duckduckgo.com/feedback.html Always trying to improve!
    - gawker 16y ago
      Sure! While I can't recall any on the top of my head (I'll be sure to send you some if I come across it again - will make an effort to try again at a later date), it's usually more to deal with very specific technical terms. Maybe overly specific? Will report if I have any issues.
onwardly 16y ago
I'm assuming the goal of this billboard was to attract attention to DuckDuckGo, not to live up to the marketing "cliche traps" you mention. By attacking Google on Google's turf, not only will he put himself in front of a lot of influencers, but also was able to make the billboard itself a news item. If the billboard had said "Find what you need faster" (a benefit of special search syntax), it wouldn't be a story. But this billboard is a story. P.S. Kind of reminds me of when the local KFC put an ad on the billboard that towered over the local Boston Market. It said: "They don't know beans about chicken in Boston." (This was in SC, btw.)

epi0Bauqu 16y ago

Privacy is just but one aspect of DuckDuckGo: http://duckduckgo.com/about.html http://duckduckgo.com/about.html http://duckduckgo.com/goodies.html http://duckduckgo.com/goodies.html I spend the vast majority of my time improving the search experience. I would welcome you trying it for a week and giving me your feedback! I would love it if Google reacted to this by stopping this search leakage.

peteforde 16y ago
Deal!
jonknee 16y ago
I changed to Duck Duck Go in Chrome a couple weeks ago to do just this and didn't make it past three days. I was looking forward to getting rid of content mills (which was the reason I wanted to try DDG for a week), but the lack of things like local results and search completion drove me absolutely batty.
- epi0Bauqu 16y ago
  Thx -- both of those things we're actively working on and should have something for this year (probably earlier than later).
  - jonknee 16y ago
    Great to hear. I like what you're doing and will definitely continue to check it out when you add new features. I don't agree with your stance on referrers (which isn't a Google problem any more than it's a HN problem), but I like rooting for the little guy.
    - epi0Bauqu 16y ago
      Thank you, and I can appreciate that position. However, I think it is a search engine problem because search terms often contain sensitive personal information and they're embedded in the referrer, whereas HN links don't contain such info.
gawker 16y ago
My mates installed it for me and I didn't make it past the first day. Search results wasn't accurate enough for me so I went back to Google.
- epi0Bauqu 16y ago
  Thx--would appreciate you sending me queries that didn't work for you (if you can recall any you're willing to share): http://duckduckgo.com/feedback.html http://duckduckgo.com/feedback.html Always trying to improve!
  - gawker 16y ago
    Sure! While I can't recall any on the top of my head (I'll be sure to send you some if I come across it again - will make an effort to try again at a later date), it's usually more to deal with very specific technical terms. Maybe overly specific? Will report if I have any issues.

onwardly 16y ago

I'm assuming the goal of this billboard was to attract attention to DuckDuckGo, not to live up to the marketing "cliche traps" you mention. By attacking Google on Google's turf, not only will he put himself in front of a lot of influencers, but also was able to make the billboard itself a news item. If the billboard had said "Find what you need faster" (a benefit of special search syntax), it wouldn't be a story. But this billboard is a story. P.S. Kind of reminds me of when the local KFC put an ad on the billboard that towered over the local Boston Market. It said: "They don't know beans about chicken in Boston." (This was in SC, btw.)