5 ms·

I don't think that argument holds very much water. You can test both in sanitized environments, and Google's search is still better. Their algorithm is so much

I don't think that argument holds very much water. You can test both in sanitized environments, and Google's search is still better. Their algorithm is so much more than "surface content based on personal data" but people are so quick to deduce it down to just that. I want DDG to succeed, but their search product sucks, and its not because they don't collect data.

id02009 5y ago
I use DDG for years, and it's at most once a month when I can't find something and need to fall back to Google. Maybe I got used to the suckiness? Or maybe it's relative?
- Forbo 5y ago
  Any time DDG fails me, I just append "!s" to proxy the search through StartPage instead. I've found it scratches the itch pretty well for 99% of my use cases.
  - okay475008 5y ago
    this isn't real. Google has the worst results in comparison to both yandex, baidu, and even ddg/startpage/bing/any other google clone like duckduckgo.
  - dmoy 5y ago
    Which is just google, right?
    - Forbo 5y ago
      In the same sense that "DuckDuckGo is just Bing".
      - wyre 5y ago
        I thought Startpage is literally a privacy layer over Google Search and DDG has their own webcrawler and algorithms built on top of Bing.
        alisonkisk 5y ago
        What is Bing, if not a webcrawler and algorithms?
  - spicybright 5y ago
    I found myself typing !s so much I switched my default to start page. DDG results are really bad imo
- unicornporn 5y ago
  DDG = Bing Startpage = Google Bing/DDG results suck (when localized to Sweden), so I use Startpage. I know it's owned by an ad tech company now, but I haven't seen any proof that will affect me. Its reach can't be compared to Google's, which has its trackers on just about every web page (Google Analytics and Fonts).
  - squarefoot 5y ago
    Looks like Startpage is now what Scroogle was roughly up to a decade ago. https://www.ghacks.net/2012/02/22/scroogle-founder-pulls-the-plug-closes-website/ https://www.ghacks.net/2012/02/22/scroogle-founder-pulls-the...
- bamboozled 5y ago
  I use Google for work DDG for play. Google is just so much better at finding technical related content.
irrational 5y ago
What does better mean? I've never had any trouble finding exactly what I am searching for when using DDG. As long as I find what I want, does it matter if Google is "better"?
chasil 5y ago
The last time that I checked, DDG was buying search results from Bing (as does Ecosia). Is Bing that terrible? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckDuckGo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckDuckGo "It uses various APIs of other websites to show quick results to queries and for traditional links it uses the help of its partners (mainly Bing) and its own crawler."
- Minor49er 5y ago
  Bing isn't too bad. I've actually half-migrated to using it since the results are often relevant and usually even better than Google. From my experience, Google is better at searching for programming-related topics, but anything specific and it starts to fall apart. I can make an exact phrase query on Google and it will drop words out of the phrase for no reason. Bing doesn't do this.
- autoexec 5y ago
  Bing has been caught stealing results from Google too. https://www.wired.com/2011/02/bing-copies-google/ https://www.wired.com/2011/02/bing-copies-google/ It seems like every search engine that isn't google, is still just google but with extra stuff mixed in. It'd be nice to see a competitor that didn't rely on anyone else's search results and only developed and gathered results from their own index.
  - ColinHayhurst 5y ago
    Apologies for self-promotion. Mojeek Independent and no-tracking https://blog.mojeek.com/2021/03/to-track-or-not-to-track.html https://blog.mojeek.com/2021/03/to-track-or-not-to-track.htm... Gigablast is another and one of very few https://blog.mojeek.com/2021/05/no-tracking-search-how-does-it-work.html https://blog.mojeek.com/2021/05/no-tracking-search-how-does-...
  - FridayoLeary 5y ago
    Unfortunately, from what i've learnt from HN that this is not really possible. Most websites ban crawlers\bots with the exception of those run by google and maybe bing. It seems that this market is hermetically sealed.

id02009 5y ago

I use DDG for years, and it's at most once a month when I can't find something and need to fall back to Google. Maybe I got used to the suckiness? Or maybe it's relative?

Forbo 5y ago
Any time DDG fails me, I just append "!s" to proxy the search through StartPage instead. I've found it scratches the itch pretty well for 99% of my use cases.
- okay475008 5y ago
  this isn't real. Google has the worst results in comparison to both yandex, baidu, and even ddg/startpage/bing/any other google clone like duckduckgo.
- dmoy 5y ago
  Which is just google, right?
  - Forbo 5y ago
    In the same sense that "DuckDuckGo is just Bing".
    - wyre 5y ago
      I thought Startpage is literally a privacy layer over Google Search and DDG has their own webcrawler and algorithms built on top of Bing.
      - alisonkisk 5y ago
        What is Bing, if not a webcrawler and algorithms?
- spicybright 5y ago
  I found myself typing !s so much I switched my default to start page. DDG results are really bad imo
unicornporn 5y ago
DDG = Bing Startpage = Google Bing/DDG results suck (when localized to Sweden), so I use Startpage. I know it's owned by an ad tech company now, but I haven't seen any proof that will affect me. Its reach can't be compared to Google's, which has its trackers on just about every web page (Google Analytics and Fonts).
- squarefoot 5y ago
  Looks like Startpage is now what Scroogle was roughly up to a decade ago. https://www.ghacks.net/2012/02/22/scroogle-founder-pulls-the-plug-closes-website/ https://www.ghacks.net/2012/02/22/scroogle-founder-pulls-the...
bamboozled 5y ago
I use Google for work DDG for play. Google is just so much better at finding technical related content.

irrational 5y ago

What does better mean? I've never had any trouble finding exactly what I am searching for when using DDG. As long as I find what I want, does it matter if Google is "better"?

chasil 5y ago

The last time that I checked, DDG was buying search results from Bing (as does Ecosia). Is Bing that terrible? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckDuckGo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckDuckGo "It uses various APIs of other websites to show quick results to queries and for traditional links it uses the help of its partners (mainly Bing) and its own crawler."

Minor49er 5y ago
Bing isn't too bad. I've actually half-migrated to using it since the results are often relevant and usually even better than Google. From my experience, Google is better at searching for programming-related topics, but anything specific and it starts to fall apart. I can make an exact phrase query on Google and it will drop words out of the phrase for no reason. Bing doesn't do this.
autoexec 5y ago
Bing has been caught stealing results from Google too. https://www.wired.com/2011/02/bing-copies-google/ https://www.wired.com/2011/02/bing-copies-google/ It seems like every search engine that isn't google, is still just google but with extra stuff mixed in. It'd be nice to see a competitor that didn't rely on anyone else's search results and only developed and gathered results from their own index.
- ColinHayhurst 5y ago
  Apologies for self-promotion. Mojeek Independent and no-tracking https://blog.mojeek.com/2021/03/to-track-or-not-to-track.html https://blog.mojeek.com/2021/03/to-track-or-not-to-track.htm... Gigablast is another and one of very few https://blog.mojeek.com/2021/05/no-tracking-search-how-does-it-work.html https://blog.mojeek.com/2021/05/no-tracking-search-how-does-...
- FridayoLeary 5y ago
  Unfortunately, from what i've learnt from HN that this is not really possible. Most websites ban crawlers\bots with the exception of those run by google and maybe bing. It seems that this market is hermetically sealed.