3 ms·

I think it's worth mentioning that DDG does not do it's own crawling, they are using Bing API and therefore don't need that much infrastrcuture (except the pres

by mikkom 6y ago

I think it's worth mentioning that DDG does not do it's own crawling, they are using Bing API and therefore don't need that much infrastrcuture (except the presentation layer). This means that they just need to sell enough advertising (which I think bing provides / forces them to use) so basically for DDG, more visitors = more revenue and breakeven means that the traffic pays for the costs they have.

Zhyl 6y ago
Understandable, and also a reason why I'd be interested to know if the infra is already being covered or is being stood up with runway. If I were to create a privacy first search engine, I would likely not go general purpose and would instead try to focus on specific use cases first for specific audiences (that would be willing to pay). In practice this would look more like an extended version of DDG's instant answers than a Google-alike, but I think the world is convinced that general purpose web search is a) necessary and b) the only valid approach to finding answers to questions.
- monsieurbanana 6y ago
  How did you come to 'b' conclusion? Many search engines already exists for specific use cases: - www.bailii.org for UK law related searches like court verdicts - tachiyomi.org for searching manga Etc. Generally speaking, search engines that cater for a specific use case are simply called "aggregators".
  - Zhyl 6y ago
    b) is an oversimplification, but I'd consider it to be a thought experiment whenever a story about Google or Duckduckgo comes up. You will always find: ><Search Engine> is <bad/good> and the results are way <worse/better> than <Another search engine>. ><Search Engine> is only a frontend for <Parent search engine> <but/and> does(n't) do their own indexing. >Results for <Topic (usually technical)> (in <country>)? on <search engine> are garbage. Search results for <purpose> are poor. What you will see as a response: >You should use <search engine> instead! It uses <different parent search> instead so the results are better! >I agree, I didn't like <search engine> so I had to go back to Google. What you won't see: >Nowadays I only use <search engine> for some search, most of the time I use <specific source(s)>. >Maybe you should use specific searches for specific purposes? The two that you cited are very valid, and I'm sure many people use specific sources for specific things (most doing it unknowingly via apps). The main thing seems to be that (on especially desktop) the single purpose all-encompassing web portal seems to be the way to find something. The phrase "Google it" is a catch all for 'do your research'.
Ndymium 6y ago
DDG does have its own crawler in addition to Bing results: https://help.duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/duckduckbot/ https://help.duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/du...
- dredmorbius 6y ago
  Very minimally, and DDG are quite cagey about it. My understanding is that it largely feeds Instant Answers, though I may be wrong. DDG also uses Yandex for web search (mostly Russian content). I've used DDG near-excusively since 2013.
sim_card_map 6y ago
what's the point in DDG then?
- mkl 6y ago
  Privacy. They don't do personal tracking: https://duckduckgo.com/ https://duckduckgo.com/

by mikkom 6y ago

Zhyl 6y ago

Understandable, and also a reason why I'd be interested to know if the infra is already being covered or is being stood up with runway. If I were to create a privacy first search engine, I would likely not go general purpose and would instead try to focus on specific use cases first for specific audiences (that would be willing to pay). In practice this would look more like an extended version of DDG's instant answers than a Google-alike, but I think the world is convinced that general purpose web search is a) necessary and b) the only valid approach to finding answers to questions.

monsieurbanana 6y ago
How did you come to 'b' conclusion? Many search engines already exists for specific use cases: - www.bailii.org for UK law related searches like court verdicts - tachiyomi.org for searching manga Etc. Generally speaking, search engines that cater for a specific use case are simply called "aggregators".
- Zhyl 6y ago
  b) is an oversimplification, but I'd consider it to be a thought experiment whenever a story about Google or Duckduckgo comes up. You will always find: ><Search Engine> is <bad/good> and the results are way <worse/better> than <Another search engine>. ><Search Engine> is only a frontend for <Parent search engine> <but/and> does(n't) do their own indexing. >Results for <Topic (usually technical)> (in <country>)? on <search engine> are garbage. Search results for <purpose> are poor. What you will see as a response: >You should use <search engine> instead! It uses <different parent search> instead so the results are better! >I agree, I didn't like <search engine> so I had to go back to Google. What you won't see: >Nowadays I only use <search engine> for some search, most of the time I use <specific source(s)>. >Maybe you should use specific searches for specific purposes? The two that you cited are very valid, and I'm sure many people use specific sources for specific things (most doing it unknowingly via apps). The main thing seems to be that (on especially desktop) the single purpose all-encompassing web portal seems to be the way to find something. The phrase "Google it" is a catch all for 'do your research'.

Ndymium 6y ago

DDG does have its own crawler in addition to Bing results: https://help.duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/duckduckbot/ https://help.duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/du...

dredmorbius 6y ago
Very minimally, and DDG are quite cagey about it. My understanding is that it largely feeds Instant Answers, though I may be wrong. DDG also uses Yandex for web search (mostly Russian content). I've used DDG near-excusively since 2013.

sim_card_map 6y ago

what's the point in DDG then?

mkl 6y ago
Privacy. They don't do personal tracking: https://duckduckgo.com/ https://duckduckgo.com/