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The bugs around Exact match and text/content (not site!) exclusion operators not working at all are what keeps me from using it as an actual substitute for Goog

The bugs around Exact match and text/content (not site!) exclusion operators not working at all are what keeps me from using it as an actual substitute for Google or Bing. I hope that getting that stuff fixed is a high priority. DDG is the default in a lot of privacy-oriented browsers and forks, but it gives users a really bad first impression when their first search just doesn't work. But I suppose that the average mobile search engine user these days doesn't use most search modifiers or operators so maybe they aren't the things to prioritize.

rurp 3y ago
I strongly second this. Respecting exact terms was the main factor that got me to switch from Google search. The functionality has been declining for a while now and seems particularly bad lately.
reaperducer 3y ago
The bugs around Exact match and exclusion operators not working at all are what keeps me from using it as an actual substitute for Google or Bing. Duck used to be great for only searching for what you asked for. But in the last few months, it's fallen into the Google trap of showing me things it thinks I want, and not what I asked for. And no method of punctuation seems to get around that. At this point, the only reason I still use Duck is because the other option is Google.
- anonymousab 3y ago
  I think in this case, the functionality outright broke - that is, this is a bug - due to how their indexing works. The CEO (HN user yegg) talked about it a bit in another post - they modified their READMEs to remove mention of some operators because they're malfunctioning. So they still get the benefit of the doubt (as you say, the other choices are just Google) but the real test will be in how they communicate about this going forward and whether they fix it.
  - yegg 3y ago
    We are working on it. We also updated the README again to reflect that.
    - anonymousab 3y ago
      Oh, I hadn't looked at the page since then. That is great to hear. Thank you!
MayeulC 3y ago
Ah, I've hit this several times in the past few years, with quotes and minus not working as expected, I wasn't aware that was a bug, thanks for pointing this out.

rurp 3y ago

I strongly second this. Respecting exact terms was the main factor that got me to switch from Google search. The functionality has been declining for a while now and seems particularly bad lately.

reaperducer 3y ago

The bugs around Exact match and exclusion operators not working at all are what keeps me from using it as an actual substitute for Google or Bing. Duck used to be great for only searching for what you asked for. But in the last few months, it's fallen into the Google trap of showing me things it thinks I want, and not what I asked for. And no method of punctuation seems to get around that. At this point, the only reason I still use Duck is because the other option is Google.

anonymousab 3y ago
I think in this case, the functionality outright broke - that is, this is a bug - due to how their indexing works. The CEO (HN user yegg) talked about it a bit in another post - they modified their READMEs to remove mention of some operators because they're malfunctioning. So they still get the benefit of the doubt (as you say, the other choices are just Google) but the real test will be in how they communicate about this going forward and whether they fix it.
- yegg 3y ago
  We are working on it. We also updated the README again to reflect that.
  - anonymousab 3y ago
    Oh, I hadn't looked at the page since then. That is great to hear. Thank you!

MayeulC 3y ago

Ah, I've hit this several times in the past few years, with quotes and minus not working as expected, I wasn't aware that was a bug, thanks for pointing this out.