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DuckDuckGo is good, I've used it for a few months at a time in the past. Always end up switching back to Google because of local results (I live in the UK, DDG

DuckDuckGo is good, I've used it for a few months at a time in the past. Always end up switching back to Google because of local results (I live in the UK, DDG's results are very US-centric even when local results are turned on). Maybe it's gotten better recently. I've seen lots of billboards for DuckDuckGo recently around my hometown in Paisley, Scotland; not a very techie place so they're clearly trying to gain a reach! I've been using Bing for the past few months and been quite happy with it, only switching to use Google for Maps results and the odd very niche query. The bonus of Bing is that it pays you in supermarket shopping vouchers where Google doesn't. Sold!

kd913 6y ago
Funny you said that, today I noticed DDG seems to have changed some location thing. At the top bar, it seems to state specifically the UK being the location. Searching for things like amazon seems to also return amazon.co.uk rather than amazon.com.
- benbristow 6y ago
  Searching Amazon, on DDG, in UK local mode, I get as my first results: - Amazon.co.uk (UK) - Amazon.com (US) - Amazon.in (India) - Amazon.com / prime (US Prime) - Amazon.ca (Canada) On Bing conversely I get: - Amazon.co.uk (with links to sections of the site like books/today's deals etc. etc. underneath) - Amazon.com/uk (US site but redirects to UK site) - Amazon.co.uk Your Account Section - Amazon Prime (UK) - Amazon Deals (UK) Bing's results are clearly more UK centric and therefore more relevant to me as a British citizen. For that reason I can't really make the full-time switch to DDG as I keep !g'ing to get UK results and it becomes a pain.
  - jdmichal 6y ago
    If you're happy with Bing's direct results, you can !b instead of !g also.
    - benbristow 6y ago
      I'm aware of that. But it's the same issue of having to do an extra step every time. It grinds after a while and the amount of times you end up doing it you realise you may as well just use Google/Bing!
duckkg5 6y ago
I've (unexpectedly) seen billboards in western North Carolina for DDG in the last few weeks.
- karmelapple 6y ago
  Same in the greater Boston area.
  - coddle-hark 6y ago
    They were running ads at a mall where we live in Sweden. Not even in Stockholm!
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- Vinnl 6y ago
  Huh, interesting. I've seen them here in the Netherlands as well (and heard they were present in France too), but I'd assumed that that was in preparation of being shown in the choice screens in the EU soon, to get them top of mind when relevant. If it's in the US as well, then it seems like it's just a regular ad campaign.
Hamuko 6y ago
>I live in the UK, DDG's results are very US-centric even when local results are turned on Are the local results even supposed to do anything? I tried finding a store carrying a certain video game. I turned on the local filter from under the search bar and nothing. All of the results are the exact same as without. I could not find a single result that was actually local to my country even after going through the pages. Advanced search on Google definitely brings up local results for me with the same term, so it's not that there are zero results.
eitland 6y ago
Two interesting things I've noticed about Google lately (as a logged in user in Norway): - less breaking news stories (I realized this the other day as I was looking for a breaking news story that would typically have been at Google a year ago, with link to local newspapers, but I cannot say exactly when this change happened since I mostly left Google behind as default search engine a good while ago. ) - more relevant search results when I search for technical content. The last two or three months search results has actually been improving for me for the first time since probably somewhere between 2007 and 2009
wolco 6y ago
Billboards last few months? While everyone was inside? Feels like a bad approach..
- benbristow 6y ago
  Probably cheaper. And people still need to go outside for essentials etc.
dmoy 6y ago
The other day I was trying to remember a specific children's song - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alouette_(song) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alouette_(song). At the time I forgot that it was about a lark, and thought that it was about a goose. (In my defense, I'm pretty sure this is because a parent told me it was about a goose when I was little because they didn't want to explain wtf a lark was) So I went bing.com, ddg, and tried something like nursery rhyme about plucking a goose Both were filled with pages and pages mother goose links, none of which had anything to do with what I wanted. Typed that into google and it had an immediate answer, because it correctly surmised that I'm a dumbass and forgot that it wasn't a goose all along.
- yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
  > Typed that into google and it had an immediate answer, because it correctly surmised that I'm a dumbass and forgot that it wasn't a goose all along. The problem with Google is that it will always assume that you didn't mean what you asked, and when you did actually mean exactly what you said this gets old really fast.

kd913 6y ago

Funny you said that, today I noticed DDG seems to have changed some location thing. At the top bar, it seems to state specifically the UK being the location. Searching for things like amazon seems to also return amazon.co.uk rather than amazon.com.

benbristow 6y ago
Searching Amazon, on DDG, in UK local mode, I get as my first results: - Amazon.co.uk (UK) - Amazon.com (US) - Amazon.in (India) - Amazon.com / prime (US Prime) - Amazon.ca (Canada) On Bing conversely I get: - Amazon.co.uk (with links to sections of the site like books/today's deals etc. etc. underneath) - Amazon.com/uk (US site but redirects to UK site) - Amazon.co.uk Your Account Section - Amazon Prime (UK) - Amazon Deals (UK) Bing's results are clearly more UK centric and therefore more relevant to me as a British citizen. For that reason I can't really make the full-time switch to DDG as I keep !g'ing to get UK results and it becomes a pain.
- jdmichal 6y ago
  If you're happy with Bing's direct results, you can !b instead of !g also.
  - benbristow 6y ago
    I'm aware of that. But it's the same issue of having to do an extra step every time. It grinds after a while and the amount of times you end up doing it you realise you may as well just use Google/Bing!

duckkg5 6y ago

I've (unexpectedly) seen billboards in western North Carolina for DDG in the last few weeks.

karmelapple 6y ago
Same in the greater Boston area.
- coddle-hark 6y ago
  They were running ads at a mall where we live in Sweden. Not even in Stockholm!
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
Vinnl 6y ago
Huh, interesting. I've seen them here in the Netherlands as well (and heard they were present in France too), but I'd assumed that that was in preparation of being shown in the choice screens in the EU soon, to get them top of mind when relevant. If it's in the US as well, then it seems like it's just a regular ad campaign.

Hamuko 6y ago

>I live in the UK, DDG's results are very US-centric even when local results are turned on Are the local results even supposed to do anything? I tried finding a store carrying a certain video game. I turned on the local filter from under the search bar and nothing. All of the results are the exact same as without. I could not find a single result that was actually local to my country even after going through the pages. Advanced search on Google definitely brings up local results for me with the same term, so it's not that there are zero results.

eitland 6y ago

Two interesting things I've noticed about Google lately (as a logged in user in Norway): - less breaking news stories (I realized this the other day as I was looking for a breaking news story that would typically have been at Google a year ago, with link to local newspapers, but I cannot say exactly when this change happened since I mostly left Google behind as default search engine a good while ago. ) - more relevant search results when I search for technical content. The last two or three months search results has actually been improving for me for the first time since probably somewhere between 2007 and 2009

wolco 6y ago

Billboards last few months? While everyone was inside? Feels like a bad approach..

benbristow 6y ago
Probably cheaper. And people still need to go outside for essentials etc.

dmoy 6y ago

The other day I was trying to remember a specific children's song - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alouette_(song) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alouette_(song). At the time I forgot that it was about a lark, and thought that it was about a goose. (In my defense, I'm pretty sure this is because a parent told me it was about a goose when I was little because they didn't want to explain wtf a lark was) So I went bing.com, ddg, and tried something like nursery rhyme about plucking a goose Both were filled with pages and pages mother goose links, none of which had anything to do with what I wanted. Typed that into google and it had an immediate answer, because it correctly surmised that I'm a dumbass and forgot that it wasn't a goose all along.

yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
> Typed that into google and it had an immediate answer, because it correctly surmised that I'm a dumbass and forgot that it wasn't a goose all along. The problem with Google is that it will always assume that you didn't mean what you asked, and when you did actually mean exactly what you said this gets old really fast.