4 ms·

From the sound of the comments alot of people don't know how to search in DDG. I have absolutely no problem finding the information I need and would say I'm a p

From the sound of the comments alot of people don't know how to search in DDG. I have absolutely no problem finding the information I need and would say I'm a pretty serious power user. Or I've just been using it for so long I don't know what I'm missing.

zigzaggy 7y ago
My thoughts exactly. I always hear these complaints but I never have an issue. If I’m going technical I’ll use the bang feature (! g) and I’m all set. I’m not going back to ggle
- Skunkleton 7y ago
  > If I’m going technical I’ll use the bang feature (! g) and I’m all set. I’m not going back to ggle So you are going to not go back to google by using google?
  - zigzaggy 7y ago
    Ha. Yes it sounds ridiculous on it’s face. But... It’s the privacy thing I’m concerned about. If google the tool was all Google is, then I’d have no problem with it. It’s the rest of Google I have an issue with. I can bang google the tool along with wiki or whatever and still avoid the invasive practices the company uses. I don’t think that’s a complicated concept.
    - Vomzor 7y ago
      !g redirects to google. How does that help your privacy?
      - zigzaggy 7y ago
        So it does. My mistake. Haven’t used the bang feature in a long time. Either way, I use DDG by default on all my devices. I support as many companies as I can that don’t sell my data.
        Vomzor 7y ago
        It didn’t redirect in the past?
        zigzaggy 7y ago
        I don’t remember it redirecting. But I forget the past all the time.
- edgyquant 7y ago
  My problem is that everytime I try to make the switch I just end up !g'ing everything which defeats the purpose.
  - zigzaggy 7y ago
    Not if privacy is your end goal.
hombre_fatal 7y ago
If you have to "know how to search" in DDG, e.g. do something different than your intuition (which Google handles very well), then it's simply a worse search engine. For example, I shouldn't need to add extra context to "elm dict" to get to Elm's Dict package documentation. And I'm not even sure what I need to add to get DDG to know what I'm talking about. Google knows. DDG is pretty much always worse query-for-query than Google in my experience especially for anything long-tail or in a different language. I don't think there's any nuance to add here. Presumably you're using DDG for other perfectly valid reasons which is where I'd focus my evangelism than "it's just as good if you know how to use it" which is simply wrong because it (basically Bing) is just not as good.
- PopeDotNinja 7y ago
  "elm dict": - Google - first hit - Yandex - first hit - DDG - Not on first page - Bing - Not on first page
  - osamagirl69 7y ago
    Did you include the quotes? I get elm-lang.org as the 4th hit on ddg (but not bing, bing it is on the second page) without quotes. Curiously, putting the canonical partner string in puts elm-lang.org as the first hit! https://duckduckgo.com/?q=elm+dict https://duckduckgo.com/?q=elm+dict - 4th hit vs https://duckduckgo.com/?q=elm+dict&t=canonical https://duckduckgo.com/?q=elm+dict&t=canonical - 1st hit Maybe it is a coincidence? ddg does sometime return inconsistent ordering of search results for reasons that I have not been able to sort out.
  - kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
    "computer" Google - 99.9% ads
- Karrot_Kream 7y ago
  > If you have to "know how to search" in DDG, e.g. do something different than your intuition (which Google handles very well), then it's simply a worse search engine. I'd have to disagree here. Search can be a great example of a power tool. Sure you may have to learn a bit of search knowledge, but the added flexibility can make you a much more efficient searcher.
smadurange 7y ago
I use Duck Duck Go and I actually find it better than Google Search (better in the sense that there's something refreshing about the results I get as opposed to the stuff I see on Google Search, I can't comment on accuracy). I never read any documentation or a blog on how to use it. Just downloaded it and started typing
- dx034 7y ago
  To be fair, DDG also has ads. I have them enabled as I realize they have to somehow pay their bills. And the design is somewhat similar to Google's ads (pure text, no images). In case you meant search results that are ads: When I google for "computer", I get Wikipedia first, some quick answers (no ads there), a B.Sc. in computer sciences from a local university and only after that some results of online shops to buy computers. But I guess if someone googles "computer", they are maybe looking to buy one.

zigzaggy 7y ago

My thoughts exactly. I always hear these complaints but I never have an issue. If I’m going technical I’ll use the bang feature (! g) and I’m all set. I’m not going back to ggle

Skunkleton 7y ago
> If I’m going technical I’ll use the bang feature (! g) and I’m all set. I’m not going back to ggle So you are going to not go back to google by using google?
- zigzaggy 7y ago
  Ha. Yes it sounds ridiculous on it’s face. But... It’s the privacy thing I’m concerned about. If google the tool was all Google is, then I’d have no problem with it. It’s the rest of Google I have an issue with. I can bang google the tool along with wiki or whatever and still avoid the invasive practices the company uses. I don’t think that’s a complicated concept.
  - Vomzor 7y ago
    !g redirects to google. How does that help your privacy?
    - zigzaggy 7y ago
      So it does. My mistake. Haven’t used the bang feature in a long time. Either way, I use DDG by default on all my devices. I support as many companies as I can that don’t sell my data.
      - Vomzor 7y ago
        It didn’t redirect in the past?
        zigzaggy 7y ago
        I don’t remember it redirecting. But I forget the past all the time.
edgyquant 7y ago
My problem is that everytime I try to make the switch I just end up !g'ing everything which defeats the purpose.
- zigzaggy 7y ago
  Not if privacy is your end goal.

hombre_fatal 7y ago

If you have to "know how to search" in DDG, e.g. do something different than your intuition (which Google handles very well), then it's simply a worse search engine. For example, I shouldn't need to add extra context to "elm dict" to get to Elm's Dict package documentation. And I'm not even sure what I need to add to get DDG to know what I'm talking about. Google knows. DDG is pretty much always worse query-for-query than Google in my experience especially for anything long-tail or in a different language. I don't think there's any nuance to add here. Presumably you're using DDG for other perfectly valid reasons which is where I'd focus my evangelism than "it's just as good if you know how to use it" which is simply wrong because it (basically Bing) is just not as good.

PopeDotNinja 7y ago
"elm dict": - Google - first hit - Yandex - first hit - DDG - Not on first page - Bing - Not on first page
- osamagirl69 7y ago
  Did you include the quotes? I get elm-lang.org as the 4th hit on ddg (but not bing, bing it is on the second page) without quotes. Curiously, putting the canonical partner string in puts elm-lang.org as the first hit! https://duckduckgo.com/?q=elm+dict https://duckduckgo.com/?q=elm+dict - 4th hit vs https://duckduckgo.com/?q=elm+dict&t=canonical https://duckduckgo.com/?q=elm+dict&t=canonical - 1st hit Maybe it is a coincidence? ddg does sometime return inconsistent ordering of search results for reasons that I have not been able to sort out.
- kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
  "computer" Google - 99.9% ads
Karrot_Kream 7y ago
> If you have to "know how to search" in DDG, e.g. do something different than your intuition (which Google handles very well), then it's simply a worse search engine. I'd have to disagree here. Search can be a great example of a power tool. Sure you may have to learn a bit of search knowledge, but the added flexibility can make you a much more efficient searcher.

smadurange 7y ago

I use Duck Duck Go and I actually find it better than Google Search (better in the sense that there's something refreshing about the results I get as opposed to the stuff I see on Google Search, I can't comment on accuracy). I never read any documentation or a blog on how to use it. Just downloaded it and started typing

dx034 7y ago
To be fair, DDG also has ads. I have them enabled as I realize they have to somehow pay their bills. And the design is somewhat similar to Google's ads (pure text, no images). In case you meant search results that are ads: When I google for "computer", I get Wikipedia first, some quick answers (no ads there), a B.Sc. in computer sciences from a local university and only after that some results of online shops to buy computers. But I guess if someone googles "computer", they are maybe looking to buy one.