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>The Google's search matters less and less as the days go by The HN community is well aware that Google search result quality has fallen off a cliff and DDG's
by Liquix 3y ago
>The Google's search matters less and less as the days go by
The HN community is well aware that Google search result quality has fallen off a cliff and DDG's results keep getting better. But the vast majority of casual internet users still do (perhaps always will) use the former. The amount of people downloading APKs outside of the play store is as low as the amount of people looking up your business through non-Google search engines.
- ravenstine 3y ago> The amount of people downloading APKs outside of the play store is as low as the amount of people looking up your business through non-Google search engines. Outside of software developers, that's pretty doubtful. Judging by how many non-technical people I've spotted using DDG, I'd bet good money that there are more of them than those who would be willing to install a mobile app outside an app store. Even software developers are paranoid about doing that. Also, the point is that at least your site can be seen even if it doesn't appear on a search engine. A business can post hyperlinks on Instagram, Reddit, Tik Tok, blogs, physical ads, and so forth. There's an option with websites. With apps, there's really no meaningful alternative unless you're a big player, and even the big players have largely bent over for Apple and The Google and their respective app stores. Sorry, the incredibly vast majority of people aren't going to explicitly turn on the Android setting to allow installing apps outside the Play Store and then install an APK off some website, and for iOS this isn't even as practical.