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“I don’t find their actual search engine very useful at all.” (me in 2009) I'm quoted on here so I thought I should give an update! :-) I still don't think DD

“I don’t find their actual search engine very useful at all.” (me in 2009) I'm quoted on here so I thought I should give an update! :-) I still don't think DDG was very useful in 2009. A noble idea, but the quality wasn't there for the searches I did. In the past several years, I've found it to give Google a good run for its money, both through DDG's index getting better and Google's getting worse. I'm delighted they've made a real go of it.

embedding-shape 8mo ago
Same, I tried DDG a bunch of times over the years, maybe once every 2 years or so, but never got to the point where it felt it could replace Google. Tried Kagi when it launched, and I'm not sure if it was because Google had deteriorated so much at that point, or Kagi was simply better, but I got way better results in Kagi, and still do. Kagi ended up being what I thought DDG was aiming for, but was never able to reach.
- PacificSpecific 8mo ago
  I tried kagi started years ago. It had some really interesting and deep results when I was planning my wedding but failed elsewhere. I should try it again.
  - sfink 8mo ago
    With the same spouse or ...? Surely your criteria for a life partner extend beyond the desire to test search engines? (Sorry)
    - PacificSpecific 8mo ago
      It's ok! It was a mutual arrangement :p
- Imustaskforhelp 8mo ago
  I think Kagi is neat/fantastic but I also feel like unless you want extreme customizability, DDG is absolutely amazing and I really love DDG. I also think that though its name might've hold it back a little bit but its absolutely great right now the way it is. I mean I am trying to remember the google proxy of sorts thing and I remembered it in way longer time than DDG (Mentioning https://www.startpage.com/ https://www.startpage.com/) So to me I remember duckduckgo a 1000x times more than startpage. Honestly not that big of a deal when you think about it as well but for what its worth, it was valid concern at the time. Imagine if I create frogfrogjump as say idk an openrouter alternative and uploaded it as show HN. People would reasonably question its name don't you think. Though to be fair frogfrogjump is sounding a lil cool when I am thinking about it... Also an interesting story that I found trying to find the name origin behind DDG which I want to share which I found on wiki page of DDG "We didn't invest in it because we thought it would beat Google. We invested in it because there is a need for a private search engine. We did it for the Internet anarchists, people that hang out on Reddit and Hacker News." - Fred Wilson, 2012 TechCrunch Disrupt Conference in New York[34] (Wikipedia) This is pretty cool when one thinks about it and actually made me want to use DDG even more just seeing a mention of someone investing in DDG because they wanted people of hackernews wanting/seeing they might use it. Although I think that people of HN love both DDG/kagi and I think both are acceptable decisions imho.
- danesparza 8mo ago
  There is nothing on Google I can't also find on duckduckgo.
selbyk 8mo ago
I do also think its name _has_ held it back.
PacificSpecific 8mo ago
I've tried so many times to make DDG work. In fact I'm currently commenting via Android DDG browser and still I find myself switching to Chrome/Google more than half of the time because the DDG search is just not working for me. I suspect the problem is I do a lot of geospatial type searches. I understand why the results are worse but that doesn't really matter to the general populace. I wish them the best though. We need search market fragmentation.
Fnoord 8mo ago
The blacklisting feature of Kagi is a killer feature to me. I also like to pin Wikipedia to the top. It baffles my mind this ain't possible in Google. And while I pay for using Kagi, I still have to say the most interesting (and most expensive) part of alternative search engines is when they have their own search index instead of being a glorified proxy with UI and branding slapped on top of it.

embedding-shape 8mo ago

Same, I tried DDG a bunch of times over the years, maybe once every 2 years or so, but never got to the point where it felt it could replace Google. Tried Kagi when it launched, and I'm not sure if it was because Google had deteriorated so much at that point, or Kagi was simply better, but I got way better results in Kagi, and still do. Kagi ended up being what I thought DDG was aiming for, but was never able to reach.

PacificSpecific 8mo ago
I tried kagi started years ago. It had some really interesting and deep results when I was planning my wedding but failed elsewhere. I should try it again.
- sfink 8mo ago
  With the same spouse or ...? Surely your criteria for a life partner extend beyond the desire to test search engines? (Sorry)
  - PacificSpecific 8mo ago
    It's ok! It was a mutual arrangement :p
Imustaskforhelp 8mo ago
I think Kagi is neat/fantastic but I also feel like unless you want extreme customizability, DDG is absolutely amazing and I really love DDG. I also think that though its name might've hold it back a little bit but its absolutely great right now the way it is. I mean I am trying to remember the google proxy of sorts thing and I remembered it in way longer time than DDG (Mentioning https://www.startpage.com/ https://www.startpage.com/) So to me I remember duckduckgo a 1000x times more than startpage. Honestly not that big of a deal when you think about it as well but for what its worth, it was valid concern at the time. Imagine if I create frogfrogjump as say idk an openrouter alternative and uploaded it as show HN. People would reasonably question its name don't you think. Though to be fair frogfrogjump is sounding a lil cool when I am thinking about it... Also an interesting story that I found trying to find the name origin behind DDG which I want to share which I found on wiki page of DDG "We didn't invest in it because we thought it would beat Google. We invested in it because there is a need for a private search engine. We did it for the Internet anarchists, people that hang out on Reddit and Hacker News." - Fred Wilson, 2012 TechCrunch Disrupt Conference in New York[34] (Wikipedia) This is pretty cool when one thinks about it and actually made me want to use DDG even more just seeing a mention of someone investing in DDG because they wanted people of hackernews wanting/seeing they might use it. Although I think that people of HN love both DDG/kagi and I think both are acceptable decisions imho.
danesparza 8mo ago
There is nothing on Google I can't also find on duckduckgo.

selbyk 8mo ago

I do also think its name _has_ held it back.

PacificSpecific 8mo ago

I've tried so many times to make DDG work. In fact I'm currently commenting via Android DDG browser and still I find myself switching to Chrome/Google more than half of the time because the DDG search is just not working for me. I suspect the problem is I do a lot of geospatial type searches. I understand why the results are worse but that doesn't really matter to the general populace. I wish them the best though. We need search market fragmentation.

Fnoord 8mo ago

The blacklisting feature of Kagi is a killer feature to me. I also like to pin Wikipedia to the top. It baffles my mind this ain't possible in Google. And while I pay for using Kagi, I still have to say the most interesting (and most expensive) part of alternative search engines is when they have their own search index instead of being a glorified proxy with UI and branding slapped on top of it.