5 ms·

> it needs a gradient mode add !g somewhere in your ddg query to search google

by noja 7y ago

whalesalad 7y ago
Yeah that’s the problem. If I need to add that to all my queries why use it at all?
- Thaxll 7y ago
  For privacy.
  - whalesalad 7y ago
    Privacy is useless if I can’t do my job.
    - Bekwnn 7y ago
      You can do your job and type two extra characters, or you could just use it for personal use and not at work. DDG is actually better than google in many cases when it comes to searching for code related things. After a month or so you start to have a sense of what sort of searches need to fall back to using !g (which is pretty much only obscure questions/answers, I find). If you don't care about your privacy and don't want to dealing with learning a new search engine to the level you've learned google, then this article probably isn't for you. The idea you wouldn't be able to do your job or that it would be impacted in a nontrivial way by switching to a different search bar in your browser seems ridiculous, correct me if I'm wrong.
      - whalesalad 7y ago
        > The idea you wouldn't be able to do your job or that it would be impacted in a nontrivial way by switching to a different search bar in your browser seems ridiculous, correct me if I'm wrong. Personally I would absolutely consider this to be wrong. There is only so much cognitive energy we all have during the day. You have to spend it wisely. There are certain groups of people on the fringe (early adopters, Linux desktop folks, the people who run their own mail servers, etc...) who have the willpower (and can afford!) to trudge through the transition from one tool to another. Sometimes you can see the value of that transition before you make it, and so it's easier to push through. Other times, there is no light at the end of the tunnel or it's not very bright. The same thing happens when people switch operating systems or programming languages. So there is always a cost to switching tools. That cost is either going to pay for itself in the end or it's not. I do not see DDG ever paying for itself.
  - blondin 7y ago
    if you sign in using your google account (or perhaps use chrome) they still know and record your searches. typing "!g" in ddg just sends the query to google. everything else applies i think.
- namirez 7y ago
  Because you can also add "!b" for bing, "!w" for wikipedia, "!a" for Amazon, etc. Unless you think typing URLs in google's search box is easier.
  - whalesalad 7y ago
    I can type 'ama' + enter and get Amazon instantly. If I need something on wikipedia I can just search for it and the wiki page will generally be in the top 10 results from Google. As for bing... I have never knowingly or consciously used it to search for something.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - disconnected 7y ago
      You are missing the point. The point is that with DDG, you have a uniform syntax for searching multiple services that doesn't require any special cooperation from your browser or those services, doesn't require any setup apart from using DDG and only requires you to learn one new concept. And this will work anywhere where webpages work (like, say, lynx), and will work consistently. There are thousands of !bangs, from things ranging from amazon, to wikipedia, to maps, to dictionary definitions... You aren't limited to a handful of hand picked services that your browser decided to support out of the box, or that you decided to manually configure. Also, there is generally decent support to switch languages and regions for services that support it. For example, "!w" gets you "wikipedia", "!wsimple" gets you the "Simple English" version and "!wpt" gets you the Portuguese version. IMHO, this is all extremely convenient.
  - unicornporn 7y ago
    You don't have to route all your searches through DDG to achieve that. https://support.mozilla.org/sv/kb/assign-shortcuts-search-engines https://support.mozilla.org/sv/kb/assign-shortcuts-search-en... https://www.startpage.com/ https://www.startpage.com/ works. DDG does not.
    - 7y ago
- CivBase 7y ago
  Because you shouldn't need it for most queries.
- nilkn 7y ago
  I don't need to apply it to all my queries, maybe only 5-10% of them. It's a big win if I can easily complete 90-95% of my online queries without needing to worry about Google. Plus I'm used to all the other bang patterns at this point. At the end of the day, though, it's a personal choice I make. I put in a small sliver of extra effort and get in return a big boost in privacy. It's worth it for me, but perhaps not for everyone.
- noja 7y ago
  for the gradient mode.

> it needs a gradient mode add !g somewhere in your ddg query to search google

by noja 7y ago

> it needs a gradient mode add !g somewhere in your ddg query to search google

whalesalad 7y ago

Yeah that’s the problem. If I need to add that to all my queries why use it at all?

Thaxll 7y ago
For privacy.
- whalesalad 7y ago
  Privacy is useless if I can’t do my job.
  - Bekwnn 7y ago
    You can do your job and type two extra characters, or you could just use it for personal use and not at work. DDG is actually better than google in many cases when it comes to searching for code related things. After a month or so you start to have a sense of what sort of searches need to fall back to using !g (which is pretty much only obscure questions/answers, I find). If you don't care about your privacy and don't want to dealing with learning a new search engine to the level you've learned google, then this article probably isn't for you. The idea you wouldn't be able to do your job or that it would be impacted in a nontrivial way by switching to a different search bar in your browser seems ridiculous, correct me if I'm wrong.
    - whalesalad 7y ago
      > The idea you wouldn't be able to do your job or that it would be impacted in a nontrivial way by switching to a different search bar in your browser seems ridiculous, correct me if I'm wrong. Personally I would absolutely consider this to be wrong. There is only so much cognitive energy we all have during the day. You have to spend it wisely. There are certain groups of people on the fringe (early adopters, Linux desktop folks, the people who run their own mail servers, etc...) who have the willpower (and can afford!) to trudge through the transition from one tool to another. Sometimes you can see the value of that transition before you make it, and so it's easier to push through. Other times, there is no light at the end of the tunnel or it's not very bright. The same thing happens when people switch operating systems or programming languages. So there is always a cost to switching tools. That cost is either going to pay for itself in the end or it's not. I do not see DDG ever paying for itself.
- blondin 7y ago
  if you sign in using your google account (or perhaps use chrome) they still know and record your searches. typing "!g" in ddg just sends the query to google. everything else applies i think.
namirez 7y ago
Because you can also add "!b" for bing, "!w" for wikipedia, "!a" for Amazon, etc. Unless you think typing URLs in google's search box is easier.
- whalesalad 7y ago
  I can type 'ama' + enter and get Amazon instantly. If I need something on wikipedia I can just search for it and the wiki page will generally be in the top 10 results from Google. As for bing... I have never knowingly or consciously used it to search for something.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - disconnected 7y ago
    You are missing the point. The point is that with DDG, you have a uniform syntax for searching multiple services that doesn't require any special cooperation from your browser or those services, doesn't require any setup apart from using DDG and only requires you to learn one new concept. And this will work anywhere where webpages work (like, say, lynx), and will work consistently. There are thousands of !bangs, from things ranging from amazon, to wikipedia, to maps, to dictionary definitions... You aren't limited to a handful of hand picked services that your browser decided to support out of the box, or that you decided to manually configure. Also, there is generally decent support to switch languages and regions for services that support it. For example, "!w" gets you "wikipedia", "!wsimple" gets you the "Simple English" version and "!wpt" gets you the Portuguese version. IMHO, this is all extremely convenient.
- unicornporn 7y ago
  You don't have to route all your searches through DDG to achieve that. https://support.mozilla.org/sv/kb/assign-shortcuts-search-engines https://support.mozilla.org/sv/kb/assign-shortcuts-search-en... https://www.startpage.com/ https://www.startpage.com/ works. DDG does not.
  - 7y ago
CivBase 7y ago
Because you shouldn't need it for most queries.
nilkn 7y ago
I don't need to apply it to all my queries, maybe only 5-10% of them. It's a big win if I can easily complete 90-95% of my online queries without needing to worry about Google. Plus I'm used to all the other bang patterns at this point. At the end of the day, though, it's a personal choice I make. I put in a small sliver of extra effort and get in return a big boost in privacy. It's worth it for me, but perhaps not for everyone.
noja 7y ago
for the gradient mode.