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I'd never heard of Cliqz before, but just did a couple of test searches, and I'm honestly super impressed with the results. I found the result relevancy seemed

I'd never heard of Cliqz before, but just did a couple of test searches, and I'm honestly super impressed with the results. I found the result relevancy seemed to be closer to Google than DDG/Bing

big_chungus 7y ago
Maybe so, but honestly, the name is putting me off more than anything. It just doesn't sound professional, and causes me to perceive it as shady, even if it's not. The name also makes it sound like it's more about marketing "clicks" to advertisers than providing good results. None of that is necessarily true, but it's the impression the name gives. It needs to re-brand.
- tschakkaMarc 7y ago
  It’s the one time where I can honestly say: The discussion we’re having within Cliqz about our brand name are even more heated and controversial than here on Hacker News (and Reddit for that matter) ... but then there is this saying: “Every brand name is shit until you surpass one billion users - than it becomes brilliant”. More seriously: we do think about it a lot - happy to get ideas.
  - big_chungus 7y ago
    Thanks for responding. Honestly, knowing that there are people behind it who read HN and are humans lends it credibility. Glad to hear there may be a viable competitor to google, and I'll check it out. Mostly because the big g has started demanding re captchas on normal searches from my VPN IP, which is clean and I have owned for years. Some of the marketing I've seen mentioned, "AI-powered anti-tracking technology"; could you please elaborate on what that means?
    - sammacbeth_ 7y ago
      This is our anti-tracking tech we include in the Cliqz browser and also in the Ghostery Extension. We have another post lined up in the series on this (in a couple of weeks), but it's also been described in our blog posts[1] and our 2016 paper[2]. [1]: https://whotracks.me/blog/how_cliqz_antitracking_protects_users.html https://whotracks.me/blog/how_cliqz_antitracking_protects_us... [2]: https://static.cliqz.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Cliqz-Studie-Tracking-the-Trackers.pdf https://static.cliqz.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Cliqz-St...
  - liability 7y ago
    How are there even two sides to the discussion internally? I'd sooner cut off my left nut with a spoon than trust any company named 'Cliqz.' You might as well name yourself "Nigerian Princes Inc."
    - tschakkaMarc 7y ago
      Well there are people who believe this and others who believe that ... as I said - very strong opinions (like yours) on both sides of the aisle even internally. Interesting proposal with the Nigerian Inc. - if we ever launch an email service or - better - a Spam filter, I’ll make sure to name the company Nigerian Princes Inc.!
    - NicoJuicy 7y ago
      So what you are saying is that you trust Google more than a German/European company, where the laws are way more strict. Enjoy 1 nut. ( Extreme comment fyi )
      - liability 7y ago
        I don't have to chose between the two. I trust neither.
  - ccleve 7y ago
    Put your contact info here or in your profile and I'll send a really good idea...
    - tschakkaMarc 7y ago
      @MarcAlHames on Twitter
- 725686 7y ago
  Yeah, the name "Google" definitely sounds more professional....not.
  - Aeolun 7y ago
    It does though. There’s a ton of services using a deliberate misspelling in their name and all of them are meh at best in my experience.
    - zaphod12 7y ago
      this is 100% because you've become inured to how strange it is. Google's name was a joke when it started.
      - Aeolun 7y ago
        That may be true, but Google started when I didn’t have similar preconceptions based on name yet. The trend of calling something Trackr, Suprnova etc. didn’t exist. Now any service with a name like that seems shit compared to more readable/writeable names: Stackoverflow, Quora, datadog. Case in point is srht.co, which rebranded to Sourcehut for similar reasons.
      - ben509 7y ago
        Replacing the 'ol' suffix in 'googol' brings 'google' much closer to common English phonetics. These could all be pronounced the same but would have been a harder sell: * gugal -- like frugal * gugle -- like bugle * ghougle -- like ghoul * googull -- like gull
        ExtraServings 7y ago
        So should they rebrand as Clickle?
        big_chungus 7y ago
        That would actually fall within the "goofy name but phonetically consistent" category that would be excusable once big, so maybe.
- dylan604 7y ago
  Like DuckDuckGo is any better? I understand where you are coming from using the "z" for lulz/kool factor. At least they left a vowel in the name.
  - ummonk 7y ago
    Yeah, Cliqz seems well within the range of trendy website names, unlike DuckDuckGo.
- alanbernstein 7y ago
  In 2003, a friend told me she ignored Firefox because "it sounds like it was named by an eight-year-old boy". My response: who cares? Why does that matter in the slightest? Is "Internet Explorer" really better? Would you prefer a search engine called "Web Searcher Site"?
- kome 7y ago
  google is such a stupid name to be honest, and what the hell with amazon, is it some Brazilian website?
  - richardw 7y ago
    Googol can help: "Bezos instead named the business after the river reportedly for two reasons. One, to suggest scale (Amazon.com launched with the tagline "Earth's biggest book store") and two, back then website listings were often alphabetical." https://mashable.com/2011/07/22/facts-amazon-com/ https://mashable.com/2011/07/22/facts-amazon-com/

I'd never heard of Cliqz before, but just did a couple of test searches, and I'm honestly super impressed with the results. I found the result relevancy seemed to be closer to Google than DDG/Bing

big_chungus 7y ago

Maybe so, but honestly, the name is putting me off more than anything. It just doesn't sound professional, and causes me to perceive it as shady, even if it's not. The name also makes it sound like it's more about marketing "clicks" to advertisers than providing good results. None of that is necessarily true, but it's the impression the name gives. It needs to re-brand.

tschakkaMarc 7y ago
It’s the one time where I can honestly say: The discussion we’re having within Cliqz about our brand name are even more heated and controversial than here on Hacker News (and Reddit for that matter) ... but then there is this saying: “Every brand name is shit until you surpass one billion users - than it becomes brilliant”. More seriously: we do think about it a lot - happy to get ideas.
- big_chungus 7y ago
  Thanks for responding. Honestly, knowing that there are people behind it who read HN and are humans lends it credibility. Glad to hear there may be a viable competitor to google, and I'll check it out. Mostly because the big g has started demanding re captchas on normal searches from my VPN IP, which is clean and I have owned for years. Some of the marketing I've seen mentioned, "AI-powered anti-tracking technology"; could you please elaborate on what that means?
  - sammacbeth_ 7y ago
    This is our anti-tracking tech we include in the Cliqz browser and also in the Ghostery Extension. We have another post lined up in the series on this (in a couple of weeks), but it's also been described in our blog posts[1] and our 2016 paper[2]. [1]: https://whotracks.me/blog/how_cliqz_antitracking_protects_users.html https://whotracks.me/blog/how_cliqz_antitracking_protects_us... [2]: https://static.cliqz.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Cliqz-Studie-Tracking-the-Trackers.pdf https://static.cliqz.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Cliqz-St...
- liability 7y ago
  How are there even two sides to the discussion internally? I'd sooner cut off my left nut with a spoon than trust any company named 'Cliqz.' You might as well name yourself "Nigerian Princes Inc."
  - tschakkaMarc 7y ago
    Well there are people who believe this and others who believe that ... as I said - very strong opinions (like yours) on both sides of the aisle even internally. Interesting proposal with the Nigerian Inc. - if we ever launch an email service or - better - a Spam filter, I’ll make sure to name the company Nigerian Princes Inc.!
  - NicoJuicy 7y ago
    So what you are saying is that you trust Google more than a German/European company, where the laws are way more strict. Enjoy 1 nut. ( Extreme comment fyi )
    - liability 7y ago
      I don't have to chose between the two. I trust neither.
- ccleve 7y ago
  Put your contact info here or in your profile and I'll send a really good idea...
  - tschakkaMarc 7y ago
    @MarcAlHames on Twitter
725686 7y ago
Yeah, the name "Google" definitely sounds more professional....not.
- Aeolun 7y ago
  It does though. There’s a ton of services using a deliberate misspelling in their name and all of them are meh at best in my experience.
  - zaphod12 7y ago
    this is 100% because you've become inured to how strange it is. Google's name was a joke when it started.
    - Aeolun 7y ago
      That may be true, but Google started when I didn’t have similar preconceptions based on name yet. The trend of calling something Trackr, Suprnova etc. didn’t exist. Now any service with a name like that seems shit compared to more readable/writeable names: Stackoverflow, Quora, datadog. Case in point is srht.co, which rebranded to Sourcehut for similar reasons.
    - ben509 7y ago
      Replacing the 'ol' suffix in 'googol' brings 'google' much closer to common English phonetics. These could all be pronounced the same but would have been a harder sell: * gugal -- like frugal * gugle -- like bugle * ghougle -- like ghoul * googull -- like gull
      - ExtraServings 7y ago
        So should they rebrand as Clickle?
        big_chungus 7y ago
        That would actually fall within the "goofy name but phonetically consistent" category that would be excusable once big, so maybe.
dylan604 7y ago
Like DuckDuckGo is any better? I understand where you are coming from using the "z" for lulz/kool factor. At least they left a vowel in the name.
- ummonk 7y ago
  Yeah, Cliqz seems well within the range of trendy website names, unlike DuckDuckGo.
alanbernstein 7y ago
In 2003, a friend told me she ignored Firefox because "it sounds like it was named by an eight-year-old boy". My response: who cares? Why does that matter in the slightest? Is "Internet Explorer" really better? Would you prefer a search engine called "Web Searcher Site"?
kome 7y ago
google is such a stupid name to be honest, and what the hell with amazon, is it some Brazilian website?
- richardw 7y ago
  Googol can help: "Bezos instead named the business after the river reportedly for two reasons. One, to suggest scale (Amazon.com launched with the tagline "Earth's biggest book store") and two, back then website listings were often alphabetical." https://mashable.com/2011/07/22/facts-amazon-com/ https://mashable.com/2011/07/22/facts-amazon-com/