4 ms·
It's the cycle of search engines. We saw this with AltaVista et.al. back in the Web 1.0 days, which crufted up their user interfaces only for a neat new upstart
by flyinghamster 7y ago
It's the cycle of search engines. We saw this with AltaVista et.al. back in the Web 1.0 days, which crufted up their user interfaces only for a neat new upstart to come along: Google. What set Google apart was that it had a simple, effective, and above all clean user interface, with minimal cruft.
Inevitably, Google has succumbed to the same temptation that AltaVista did, and now there's a neat new upstart to come along, with a clean user interface and minimal cruft: DuckDuckGo.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
- adventured 7y ago> and now there's a neat new upstart to come along DuckDuckGo is 12 years old. They're far away from being a new upstart. To put that into perspective, AltaVista's prime years only lasted six or seven years (~1996-2002; sold off in 2003). DDG is now one of the oldest independent search engines in Internet history. Their very long-term, very slow, grinding upwards is one of the most amazing aspects of what they're accomplishing. It's incredibly difficult to do versus an entrenched monopoly (and one of the most powerful brands and corporations in the world at that). You almost never see it happen in tech once a monopoly is stable.
- frank2 7y agoMicrosoft could decide to terminate their access to Bing APIs at any time resulting in DDG’s immediately losing most of their users. DDG does not have their own crawler or index.
- FabHK 7y agoAnd until then, I’ll happily use DDG.
- frosted-flakes 7y agoDuckDuckGo do have their own crawler (DuckDuckBot), and they augment their results with other search providers other than Bing, including Yandex.
- Kiro 7y agohttps://help.duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/sources/ https://help.duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/so... They seem to only use their crawler for Instant Answer type results while all their "traditional links" come from "a variety of partners, including Verizon Media (formerly Yahoo) and Bing".
- IndexPointer 7y agoThe text in their help is confusing, but it kind of implies that their crawler is for answers only, and that web results come from Bing and yahoo (which is powered by Bing).
- skinnymuch 7y agoIt’s not augmenting when almost all their results are from Bing. Most people on HN seem to try to spin it that way. Which isn’t correct.
- IndexPointer 7y agoI don't know why they would, though. They get paid and it doesn't steal traffic from them. Unless Bing releases its own anonymous mode and DDG becomes a competitor. Then they could charge more or force DDG to display "powered by Bing" in the logo. That would be the end of DDG.
- mda 7y agoDetails of their deal with bing is unknown. It could be that Microsoft is giving it for free or they may have even better terms. There is zero transparency.
- auiya 7y agoOr they could do what Microsoft typically does, and just buy them out. Embrace, extend, extinguish.