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I tried it and went back to google because google saves me time. As a dev, I google a lot to figure out how to do X. My experience with DuckDuckGo was that it

by Garlef 5y ago

I tried it and went back to google because google saves me time. As a dev, I google a lot to figure out how to do X. My experience with DuckDuckGo was that it added 2-10 minutes of filtering for usable results every time.

stephc_int13 5y ago
I am using DuckDuckGo and my experience is completely different, but I might be missing something. Do you have an example of a search you've done where the results were much better from Google Search than from DuckDuckGo?
- mrweasel 5y ago
  My experience is that we reached a point where if DuckDuckGo can’t find something, then neither can Google. For local search Google is still a little better, but they choosen to drown out actual results with ads.
  - Garlef 5y ago
    This might be true. But my point was that DuckDuckGo costs me too much time. To rephrase it: DuckDuckGo is more expensive to use. (At least for me).
  - greshario 5y ago
    Not my experience for dev related searches. I assume this is because Google has learned I always search for JS stuff and I've gotten used to that so I'm not specific enough in my searches on DDG.
- Garlef 5y ago
  > Do you have an example of a search ... Due to the very topic this HN post is about, I don't think this is a good method - your results might be vastly different from mine. But let's look at the number of relevant results among the top 5 results for some thing I recently wanted to learn about. "Comprehension categories" - a rather specific term from category theory https://www.google.com/search?q=comprehension+category https://www.google.com/search?q=comprehension+category https://duckduckgo.com/?q=comprehension+category https://duckduckgo.com/?q=comprehension+category Google: 5/5 (for me) DuckDuckGo: 1/5 (for me)
  - mdpye 5y ago
    You have to be explicit about the context if you've chosen to dump the implicit bundle of context. "comprehension categories category theory" 5/5 I'd hardly say it's 2 to 10 minutes extra work, especially for such an obvious example
    - smichel17 5y ago
      "Comprehension categories theory" works as well.
- lehi 5y ago
  > Do you have an example of a search you've done where the results were much better from Google Search than from DuckDuckGo? Here you go: https://imgur.com/a/CssDXS3 https://imgur.com/a/CssDXS3
MandieD 5y ago
Google for tech stuff, Startpage/DDG for anything else. Google doesn’t need to know every single infant-related concern I have.
smsm42 5y ago
Have been using DDG for years, needed to call to Google maybe once per month in a particularly tough queries, on those I get about 50% success ratio - sometimes Google helps, sometimes doesn't. For the vast majority of routine queries DDG is more than enough.

by Garlef 5y ago

stephc_int13 5y ago

I am using DuckDuckGo and my experience is completely different, but I might be missing something. Do you have an example of a search you've done where the results were much better from Google Search than from DuckDuckGo?

mrweasel 5y ago
My experience is that we reached a point where if DuckDuckGo can’t find something, then neither can Google. For local search Google is still a little better, but they choosen to drown out actual results with ads.
- Garlef 5y ago
  This might be true. But my point was that DuckDuckGo costs me too much time. To rephrase it: DuckDuckGo is more expensive to use. (At least for me).
- greshario 5y ago
  Not my experience for dev related searches. I assume this is because Google has learned I always search for JS stuff and I've gotten used to that so I'm not specific enough in my searches on DDG.
Garlef 5y ago
> Do you have an example of a search ... Due to the very topic this HN post is about, I don't think this is a good method - your results might be vastly different from mine. But let's look at the number of relevant results among the top 5 results for some thing I recently wanted to learn about. "Comprehension categories" - a rather specific term from category theory https://www.google.com/search?q=comprehension+category https://www.google.com/search?q=comprehension+category https://duckduckgo.com/?q=comprehension+category https://duckduckgo.com/?q=comprehension+category Google: 5/5 (for me) DuckDuckGo: 1/5 (for me)
- mdpye 5y ago
  You have to be explicit about the context if you've chosen to dump the implicit bundle of context. "comprehension categories category theory" 5/5 I'd hardly say it's 2 to 10 minutes extra work, especially for such an obvious example
  - smichel17 5y ago
    "Comprehension categories theory" works as well.
lehi 5y ago
> Do you have an example of a search you've done where the results were much better from Google Search than from DuckDuckGo? Here you go: https://imgur.com/a/CssDXS3 https://imgur.com/a/CssDXS3

MandieD 5y ago

Google for tech stuff, Startpage/DDG for anything else. Google doesn’t need to know every single infant-related concern I have.

smsm42 5y ago

Have been using DDG for years, needed to call to Google maybe once per month in a particularly tough queries, on those I get about 50% success ratio - sometimes Google helps, sometimes doesn't. For the vast majority of routine queries DDG is more than enough.