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I dislike Google as a company but their search results are orders of magnitude better than the competition. DDG or Bing are, to me, very bad (aren't they almost

by bambax 6y ago

I dislike Google as a company but their search results are orders of magnitude better than the competition. DDG or Bing are, to me, very bad (aren't they almost the same anyway?) It's unclear why that is, and why search is so hard, but obviously it is.

itsspring 6y ago
Well, it's kind of obvious Google tracks you, and your previous searches, and uses that data to personify your next result. DDG doesn't track you. https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/04/google-incognito-search-results-still-vary-from-person-to-person-ddg-study-finds/ https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/04/google-incognito-search-re...
- worble 6y ago
  The offshoot from this as well is: go to someone elses PC and do a query in google. You might find the results are just nowhere near what you want or expect. Or tell someone to google something while on a call and click the 1st or 2nd link. You might be lucky and they're the same as yours, but more than likely than not they won't be. DDG on the other hand, so long as I make the same query within a given timeframe, I'm relatively certain to get the same results back, regardless of which browser profile or PC I'm on. That reliability is (at least to me) a feature, and a damned useful one at that.
  - reaperducer 6y ago
    Or have a guest use your wifi, and see Google ads tied to their searches for six months after they leave.
naibafo 6y ago
Do you have an example or generally what kind of searches you are referring to? My experience with ddg has been "good enough" at least. The few times I don't find anything usable on ddg I ususally end up not finding anything on Google either
- chris_f 6y ago
  Not the poster, but here is an example. Elsewhere in this thread I posted a fact that I knew, but wanted to double check. It was about the LexisNexis news database containing 35k sources. Here are the queries for "lexis news 35000" on Google and DDG: https://www.google.com/search?q=lexis%20news%2035000 https://www.google.com/search?q=lexis%20news%2035000 https://duckduckgo.com/?q=lexis+news+35000&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?q=lexis+news+35000&ia=web The information I was looking for is in the first Google results. I didn't see it on the first page of DDG at all. This was just my last search as an example without even trying too hard to come up with one. I like DDG, but Bing (where the majority of DDG's organic results come from) is not as good as Google for organic web results IMO.
  - test1235 6y ago
    >Nexis : | LexisNexis >[Search domain www.lexisnexis.com.my/en-my/products/nexis.page] www.lexisnexis.com.my/en-my/products/nexis.page >Nexis is an online service for your strategic news and business research. Search for content from 35,000 publications. Conduct accurate searches of the 35,000 international sources in the Nexis online service. Make informed business decisions after getting the latest news and market reports. this was the 8th result for me in DDG, with no filters or customisation or anything
    - chris_f 6y ago
      this was the 8th result for me in DDG, with no filters or customisation or anything So that link was 9th for me in DDG, but that exactly proves the point. Google returned a relevant result in the first position. In addition, look at the result snippet from DDG: The world is moving fast - Nexis news alerts help you keep up by delivering current news and information related to companies, trends, and events that matter to you. Set a Nexis alert related to a particular topic and get updates online or via email. I wouldn't know that page had the information I was looking for unless I visited the page and reviewed the content. That's a lot of effort, when Google has the information in the top result and the snippet clearly indicates it is on the page. (Edit: I also just looked at the content on that page, and it doesn't provide the information I was looking for. It provides the number of sources across all Nexis' searches. I was only looking for information on the news library.) Also, half of the Lexis results on the DDG SERP are about Lexus the car. Like I said, I like the mission of DDG, but in this and many other examples the organic SERP relevance is worse for multiple reasons.
jl2718 6y ago
I think google has gotten really terrible recently. Seems like SEO hacking is back with a vengeance.
t_sawyer 6y ago
Yes. DDG actually pulls search results from Bing and a few other searches. They don’t actually scrape the web.

by bambax 6y ago

itsspring 6y ago

Well, it's kind of obvious Google tracks you, and your previous searches, and uses that data to personify your next result. DDG doesn't track you. https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/04/google-incognito-search-results-still-vary-from-person-to-person-ddg-study-finds/ https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/04/google-incognito-search-re...

worble 6y ago
The offshoot from this as well is: go to someone elses PC and do a query in google. You might find the results are just nowhere near what you want or expect. Or tell someone to google something while on a call and click the 1st or 2nd link. You might be lucky and they're the same as yours, but more than likely than not they won't be. DDG on the other hand, so long as I make the same query within a given timeframe, I'm relatively certain to get the same results back, regardless of which browser profile or PC I'm on. That reliability is (at least to me) a feature, and a damned useful one at that.
- reaperducer 6y ago
  Or have a guest use your wifi, and see Google ads tied to their searches for six months after they leave.

naibafo 6y ago

Do you have an example or generally what kind of searches you are referring to? My experience with ddg has been "good enough" at least. The few times I don't find anything usable on ddg I ususally end up not finding anything on Google either

chris_f 6y ago
Not the poster, but here is an example. Elsewhere in this thread I posted a fact that I knew, but wanted to double check. It was about the LexisNexis news database containing 35k sources. Here are the queries for "lexis news 35000" on Google and DDG: https://www.google.com/search?q=lexis%20news%2035000 https://www.google.com/search?q=lexis%20news%2035000 https://duckduckgo.com/?q=lexis+news+35000&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?q=lexis+news+35000&ia=web The information I was looking for is in the first Google results. I didn't see it on the first page of DDG at all. This was just my last search as an example without even trying too hard to come up with one. I like DDG, but Bing (where the majority of DDG's organic results come from) is not as good as Google for organic web results IMO.
- test1235 6y ago
  >Nexis : | LexisNexis >[Search domain www.lexisnexis.com.my/en-my/products/nexis.page] www.lexisnexis.com.my/en-my/products/nexis.page >Nexis is an online service for your strategic news and business research. Search for content from 35,000 publications. Conduct accurate searches of the 35,000 international sources in the Nexis online service. Make informed business decisions after getting the latest news and market reports. this was the 8th result for me in DDG, with no filters or customisation or anything
  - chris_f 6y ago
    this was the 8th result for me in DDG, with no filters or customisation or anything So that link was 9th for me in DDG, but that exactly proves the point. Google returned a relevant result in the first position. In addition, look at the result snippet from DDG: The world is moving fast - Nexis news alerts help you keep up by delivering current news and information related to companies, trends, and events that matter to you. Set a Nexis alert related to a particular topic and get updates online or via email. I wouldn't know that page had the information I was looking for unless I visited the page and reviewed the content. That's a lot of effort, when Google has the information in the top result and the snippet clearly indicates it is on the page. (Edit: I also just looked at the content on that page, and it doesn't provide the information I was looking for. It provides the number of sources across all Nexis' searches. I was only looking for information on the news library.) Also, half of the Lexis results on the DDG SERP are about Lexus the car. Like I said, I like the mission of DDG, but in this and many other examples the organic SERP relevance is worse for multiple reasons.

jl2718 6y ago

I think google has gotten really terrible recently. Seems like SEO hacking is back with a vengeance.

t_sawyer 6y ago

Yes. DDG actually pulls search results from Bing and a few other searches. They don’t actually scrape the web.