Yes I have noticed that ddg is extremely inconsistent over time, sometimes for what I think are almost the same queries. It's also highly variable in its speed

Yes I have noticed that ddg is extremely inconsistent over time, sometimes for what I think are almost the same queries. It's also highly variable in its speed - Google is almost always instant, but ddg can vary from the same speed as Google one day, to taking many seconds to load a result the next.