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I find myself more and more using DDG. When I use Google I am mostly finding spam nowadays. Even if I try to filter results by date or add very specific keyword

I find myself more and more using DDG. When I use Google I am mostly finding spam nowadays. Even if I try to filter results by date or add very specific keywords, I get mostly garbage. I have a feeling that also results that don't support current narratives are disappearing from search. Now when I find something useful, I am now bookmarking it where I didn't have to do that a year or so ago.

Duneode 5y ago
Do you use DDG for code related searches? If so do you have any advice on how you search because I can't seem to get relevant results with that engine 70% of the time. Usually when I search to debug issues Google has a way better contextual understanding of what I'm looking for, whilst DDG would love to show me the official docs page or something. It does seem like DDG works for a lot of people though so I'm sure I have to rethink how I am searching and what keywords to use.
- skinkestek 5y ago
  See my answer next to your. My experience too is that DDG is slightly different but just as useless as Google. Use Kagi (or even marginalia although that might take some getting used to if you didn't use engines before Google.) Use quoted strings for what you want exact matches for. Terminate quotes before terms you are usure about and maybe even remove them - in particular if it is local variable names, dates, folder paths etc. Sometimes this work in DDG to but do yourself a favour and test out Kagi. (No, I'm not paid to write this but I can admit I have been heavily encouraged by Google over the last decade and Ddg over the last three years to write about how painfully broken they are.)
  - Multicomp 5y ago
    I think I will be subscribing to kagi for their better code search alone. Also not paid etc just a happy user
    - skinkestek 5y ago
      > I think I will be subscribing to kagi for their better code search alone. Agree, an absolute no brainer for me as an engineer in tbe west at least. Even if Kagi just keep their current quality it saves hours and tons of frustration every month for me. My fear is either Google will throw a wrench in their gears or they'll start optimizing for the masses just like Google did and I'll be stuck another decade with Fisher Price tools instead of power tools.
skinkestek 5y ago
I've used DDG as my primary search engine for a couple of years but after a promising start it became just as useless as Google. I still used it since I liked their stance on privacy but after discovering Kagi I have abandoned both of them. (And even on Kagi I have to use doublequotes all the time because it defaults to second guessing me all the time. Still unlike the others it works with enough fiddling.)
dusted 5y ago
I've found the same thing, my default is still google, but it seems that where DDG is sometimes incompetent, google is now often flat out malicious in simply not showing results that i KNOW are there, like, sites I vaguely recall visiting but didn't bookmark.

Duneode 5y ago

Do you use DDG for code related searches? If so do you have any advice on how you search because I can't seem to get relevant results with that engine 70% of the time. Usually when I search to debug issues Google has a way better contextual understanding of what I'm looking for, whilst DDG would love to show me the official docs page or something. It does seem like DDG works for a lot of people though so I'm sure I have to rethink how I am searching and what keywords to use.

skinkestek 5y ago
See my answer next to your. My experience too is that DDG is slightly different but just as useless as Google. Use Kagi (or even marginalia although that might take some getting used to if you didn't use engines before Google.) Use quoted strings for what you want exact matches for. Terminate quotes before terms you are usure about and maybe even remove them - in particular if it is local variable names, dates, folder paths etc. Sometimes this work in DDG to but do yourself a favour and test out Kagi. (No, I'm not paid to write this but I can admit I have been heavily encouraged by Google over the last decade and Ddg over the last three years to write about how painfully broken they are.)
- Multicomp 5y ago
  I think I will be subscribing to kagi for their better code search alone. Also not paid etc just a happy user
  - skinkestek 5y ago
    > I think I will be subscribing to kagi for their better code search alone. Agree, an absolute no brainer for me as an engineer in tbe west at least. Even if Kagi just keep their current quality it saves hours and tons of frustration every month for me. My fear is either Google will throw a wrench in their gears or they'll start optimizing for the masses just like Google did and I'll be stuck another decade with Fisher Price tools instead of power tools.

skinkestek 5y ago

I've used DDG as my primary search engine for a couple of years but after a promising start it became just as useless as Google. I still used it since I liked their stance on privacy but after discovering Kagi I have abandoned both of them. (And even on Kagi I have to use doublequotes all the time because it defaults to second guessing me all the time. Still unlike the others it works with enough fiddling.)

dusted 5y ago

I've found the same thing, my default is still google, but it seems that where DDG is sometimes incompetent, google is now often flat out malicious in simply not showing results that i KNOW are there, like, sites I vaguely recall visiting but didn't bookmark.