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Microsoft 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
by frank2 7y ago
Microsoft 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.