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DDG user for nearly 11 years (IIRC). Switched almost immediately to it after it launched. I prefer the results I get to Google. Maybe I've mastered DDG-fu or s

DDG user for nearly 11 years (IIRC). Switched almost immediately to it after it launched. I prefer the results I get to Google. Maybe I've mastered DDG-fu or something but I also cannot stand looking at Google results anymore, especially not if there is page upon page from the same site (e.g. if the thing I'm searching for has results on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, experts-exchange, etc, etc - it often has page upon page of mild variations of the same link) which DDG doesn't seem to do. The bangs are what wins me though. Their value to me dwarfs that of the privacy concerns (which is really important to me, anyway) it's like a curated list of specific searches available to me as long as I can get online, and I don't need to sync anything. So good.

input_sh 6y ago
I'm not that old of a user, but I've been using somewhere between 6-8 years now. It basically boils down to two things: a) bangs, and b) just seeing the same results as everyone else does. Usually when I can't find stuff on DDG, I can't find them with !g neither. I don't see myself switching to anything else unless I'm forced to (if it goes out of business or something).
- codyb 6y ago
  This seems to gel with my experience. I probably end up trying Google maybe once or twice a month, and generally I don’t find much. I don’t use bangs frequently although they are neat. I don’t think I’m some search savante, or a hardcore purist/idealist despite moving to DDG for the privacy reasons. Maybe it’s because generally I’m looking for docs rather than specific answers these days.
godshatter 6y ago
Search engines have been aiming for the lowest common denominator for a long time now. It's all about asking a vague question and letting it's knowledge of you and people like you lead you to the answer. I prefer telling it exactly what I want. Like every other piece of software these days, I keep fighting it because it tries to out-think me. Not a hard task some days, but still. Does DDG allow "and", "or", parens, etc? I tried a query of the form A and (B or C) and it brought back things but I can't tell if it just ignored the parens and "and" and "or" keywords or if it actually used them. Does it honor double-quotes and plus and minus signs? I tend to give DDG more information than it needs, such as "c programming enum" instead of just "enum" for example. I'd love to be able to treat it as a pseudo sql query instead.

input_sh 6y ago

I'm not that old of a user, but I've been using somewhere between 6-8 years now. It basically boils down to two things: a) bangs, and b) just seeing the same results as everyone else does. Usually when I can't find stuff on DDG, I can't find them with !g neither. I don't see myself switching to anything else unless I'm forced to (if it goes out of business or something).

codyb 6y ago
This seems to gel with my experience. I probably end up trying Google maybe once or twice a month, and generally I don’t find much. I don’t use bangs frequently although they are neat. I don’t think I’m some search savante, or a hardcore purist/idealist despite moving to DDG for the privacy reasons. Maybe it’s because generally I’m looking for docs rather than specific answers these days.

godshatter 6y ago

Search engines have been aiming for the lowest common denominator for a long time now. It's all about asking a vague question and letting it's knowledge of you and people like you lead you to the answer. I prefer telling it exactly what I want. Like every other piece of software these days, I keep fighting it because it tries to out-think me. Not a hard task some days, but still. Does DDG allow "and", "or", parens, etc? I tried a query of the form A and (B or C) and it brought back things but I can't tell if it just ignored the parens and "and" and "or" keywords or if it actually used them. Does it honor double-quotes and plus and minus signs? I tend to give DDG more information than it needs, such as "c programming enum" instead of just "enum" for example. I'd love to be able to treat it as a pseudo sql query instead.