6 ms·

Apple Considered Switch to Search Engine DuckDuckGo from Google

39 points by jedwhite 3y ago

jedwhite 3y ago
https://archive.ph/dFd7A https://archive.ph/dFd7A
hindsightbias 3y ago
And they probably talked to Bing and Altavista. Smart thinking to cover yourself for an antitrust case when Google is a $10B/yr golden egg.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
rho138 3y ago
I just wish they’d let end-users set their own search engines natively vs the current walled garden.
- ksec 3y ago
  Um... What? You can already set your own preferred Search Engine on both iOS and macOS.
  - bsparker 3y ago
    Yeah I guess anything is possible but it takes effort
    - EduardoBautista 3y ago
      How much easier can it get than the current dropdown allowing you to choose a search engine?
      - eviks 3y ago
        The current dropdown actually allowing you to choose any search engine (and add search options to any of them as well)
    - supriyo-biswas 3y ago
      It’s a single click on the search icon in the omnibar. Can’t get easier than that.
  - latexr 3y ago
    You can set a search engine from a short predefined list. If your preferred engine is Kagi or Brave Search or a myriad of others, you have to resort to trickery or extensions.
- faizmokh 3y ago
  They do and they provide a lot of options too. Right now there's Google, Yahoo, Bing, DDG and Ecosia.
k310 3y ago
That's the first mod I make to a new OS. But people take defaults. DuckDuckGo is indistinguishable from Bing the times I have compared, but I obviously prefer the privacy policy.
- konspence 3y ago
  Indistinguishable from Bing because aside from the 'instant answers' they provide, DuckDuckGo leans very heavily on Bing, per their FAQ: [1] > Of course, we have more traditional links and images in our search results too, which we largely source from Bing. [1]: https://duckduckgo.github.io/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/sources/ https://duckduckgo.github.io/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/s...
dpkonofa 3y ago
I love DuckDuckGo but Apple needs to invest a lot into it if they want it to be anywhere on par with Google. I use DDG primarily as much search engine on all my devices but the lack of customization in the search input and the fact that the results are objectively worse than Google's for the same terms means I find myself using Google often enough to where I think this is a bad idea for most users. I say this as someone who really hates Google's data and privacy stances and who has to reluctantly admit that their tool is simply better for the job.
- jjtheblunt 3y ago
  all you wrote I did too, but i tried Kagi a few months back and it works really well. i pay to subscribe to kagi, and it's been worth it, and affordable.
- Voultapher 3y ago
  I use DDG as my main search engine for several years now. It used to be that google results were better, but for more than a year now I've found the google results to be worse. I hardly ever do !g these ays. Recently I did a comparison between google, DDG and Kagi and to my surprise for the handful of terms the results were very similar, where DDG with ads turned off usually gave the best results. That included searches for stuff like Kreditkarte which I guess is a lucrative search term. I live in Germany, that does affect things.
- atraac 3y ago
  > fact that the results are objectively worse than Google's for the same terms By what metric? For around a year now I use primarily DDG and I often find much better results, for both work/programming-related stuff as well as day to day stuff(assuming I enabled search in context of a country). They also added a lot of utilities I often used in google like currency converters, calculator, date stuff, I don't know what's the last time I had to switch to google for anything really.
  - eviks 3y ago
    By the number of times you have to switch back to google and find it more relevant :) (but don't know about objective metrics)
demi56 3y ago
[dead]
datavirtue 3y ago
Apple can't just copy DDG in a year?
faizmokh 3y ago
I'm using DDG as the primary browser on iOS. Using Google as the primary search engine with Private Relay and content blockers turned on is a terrible experience. I had to identify so many traffic lights and buses.
aneutron 3y ago
Part of me thinks the world would be better if Apple bought Kagi and pumped enough money and talent into them to make them the next Google Search
- whatevaa 3y ago
  As a recent Kagi user, no thanks, cause it would be Apple only then.

39 points by jedwhite 3y ago

https://archive.ph/dFd7A https://archive.ph/dFd7A

And they probably talked to Bing and Altavista. Smart thinking to cover yourself for an antitrust case when Google is a $10B/yr golden egg.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

rho138 3y ago

I just wish they’d let end-users set their own search engines natively vs the current walled garden.

ksec 3y ago
Um... What? You can already set your own preferred Search Engine on both iOS and macOS.
- bsparker 3y ago
  Yeah I guess anything is possible but it takes effort
  - EduardoBautista 3y ago
    How much easier can it get than the current dropdown allowing you to choose a search engine?
    - eviks 3y ago
      The current dropdown actually allowing you to choose any search engine (and add search options to any of them as well)
  - supriyo-biswas 3y ago
    It’s a single click on the search icon in the omnibar. Can’t get easier than that.
- latexr 3y ago
  You can set a search engine from a short predefined list. If your preferred engine is Kagi or Brave Search or a myriad of others, you have to resort to trickery or extensions.
faizmokh 3y ago
They do and they provide a lot of options too. Right now there's Google, Yahoo, Bing, DDG and Ecosia.

k310 3y ago

That's the first mod I make to a new OS. But people take defaults. DuckDuckGo is indistinguishable from Bing the times I have compared, but I obviously prefer the privacy policy.

konspence 3y ago
Indistinguishable from Bing because aside from the 'instant answers' they provide, DuckDuckGo leans very heavily on Bing, per their FAQ: [1] > Of course, we have more traditional links and images in our search results too, which we largely source from Bing. [1]: https://duckduckgo.github.io/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/sources/ https://duckduckgo.github.io/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/s...

dpkonofa 3y ago

I love DuckDuckGo but Apple needs to invest a lot into it if they want it to be anywhere on par with Google. I use DDG primarily as much search engine on all my devices but the lack of customization in the search input and the fact that the results are objectively worse than Google's for the same terms means I find myself using Google often enough to where I think this is a bad idea for most users. I say this as someone who really hates Google's data and privacy stances and who has to reluctantly admit that their tool is simply better for the job.

jjtheblunt 3y ago
all you wrote I did too, but i tried Kagi a few months back and it works really well. i pay to subscribe to kagi, and it's been worth it, and affordable.
Voultapher 3y ago
I use DDG as my main search engine for several years now. It used to be that google results were better, but for more than a year now I've found the google results to be worse. I hardly ever do !g these ays. Recently I did a comparison between google, DDG and Kagi and to my surprise for the handful of terms the results were very similar, where DDG with ads turned off usually gave the best results. That included searches for stuff like Kreditkarte which I guess is a lucrative search term. I live in Germany, that does affect things.
atraac 3y ago
> fact that the results are objectively worse than Google's for the same terms By what metric? For around a year now I use primarily DDG and I often find much better results, for both work/programming-related stuff as well as day to day stuff(assuming I enabled search in context of a country). They also added a lot of utilities I often used in google like currency converters, calculator, date stuff, I don't know what's the last time I had to switch to google for anything really.
- eviks 3y ago
  By the number of times you have to switch back to google and find it more relevant :) (but don't know about objective metrics)

demi56 3y ago

[dead]

datavirtue 3y ago

Apple can't just copy DDG in a year?

faizmokh 3y ago

I'm using DDG as the primary browser on iOS. Using Google as the primary search engine with Private Relay and content blockers turned on is a terrible experience. I had to identify so many traffic lights and buses.

aneutron 3y ago

Part of me thinks the world would be better if Apple bought Kagi and pumped enough money and talent into them to make them the next Google Search

whatevaa 3y ago
As a recent Kagi user, no thanks, cause it would be Apple only then.