5 ms·

As is usually pointed out in these threads, if you're using Chrome anyways, you can do the same thing (and with the same bang syntax, if you want to go to the b

As is usually pointed out in these threads, if you're using Chrome anyways, you can do the same thing (and with the same bang syntax, if you want to go to the bother of customizing them that way) with the location bar in Chrome. Start typing the web address, hit tab, enter the query, and it just goes straight to wikipedia, google, etc with no DDG intermediary. It's slightly different, but you can do almost the same thing with Keywords in the Firefox location bar, and they presumably could support the bang syntax (or whatever) as well.

Legion 13y ago
It's more than "slightly different". By all means, try and replicate this complete list in your Chrome browser: https://duckduckgo.com/bang.html https://duckduckgo.com/bang.html. I'll wait... What makes the DDG !bang system awesome is its enormity. You don't look up what !bang to use to search something. You assume it exists, do it, and 99% of the time, you're right. That's a game changer. I don't write Perl, but I know !cpan exists. I don't even have to look. I don't even know exactly what site it's going to search. But I know if I !cpan twitter, I'm going to be looking at a list of Perl libraries for tweeting. That's the DDG killer feature. You want to do some kind of site-specific search or lookup, you just type in the most logical sounding !bang and assume it will work. You're simply never going to replicate that inside your browser.
- strager 13y ago
  > You're simply never going to replicate that inside your browser. Why not?
- magicalist 13y ago
  You don't have to replicate the list. Why would you want to? If you've visited a site before and it has a search box on it that matches some heuristic, it gets added to your search engine list. Odds are, far more than 99% of the time, you're going to be searching a site you've already visited before. I agree it is very handy.
  - hayksaakian 13y ago
    His main point has to do with finding new sites about specific topics. A different use case not met by Chrome's implementation.
  - Zarel 13y ago
    It's actually a standard, not a heuristic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSearch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSearch If the search box is nonstandard, you can also add it manually by right-clicking the search box and clicking "Add as Search Engine".
- dredmorbius 13y ago
  What makes the DDG !bang system awesome is its enormity. Please don't tell me it's evil. I believe you meant "scope", "scale", or "size".
  - reaperhulk 13y ago
    Enormity has a neutral use as well.
  - minikites 13y ago
    > Usage note > 3. Enormity has been in frequent and continuous use in the sense “immensity” since the 18th century: The enormity of the task was overwhelming. Some hold that enormousness is the correct word in that sense and that enormity can only mean “outrageousness” or “atrociousness”: The enormity of his offenses appalled the public.
  - Zuider 13y ago
    >Please don't tell me it's evil. I am a little confused by your comment - has the word "enormous" come to mean "evil"? If so, maybe this new came about from people referring to the "enormity of a crime". It seems to have followed a similar etymological evolution to the word "gross" as in "gross depravity". But both words just mean "big".
    - dredmorbius 13y ago
      The word "enormity" means generally "evil": The state or quality of exceeding a measure or rule, or of being immoderate, monstrous, or outrageous. (1913 Webster). It's not a general synonym for "enormous" or "having vast size", except by confusion.
      - Zuider 13y ago
        Wow. Maybe it is an American English usage. In British English "enormous" is always used as a synonym for "huge", never for "evil". In fact, a quick google of the word revealed the former usage to be the more prevalent one. For instance, there is a famous children's story called "The enormous turnip" (adapted from a story by Tolstoy). http://www.boomerangbooks.com.au/Enormous-Turnip/Katie-Daynes/book_9780746073353.htm http://www.boomerangbooks.com.au/Enormous-Turnip/Katie-Dayne... Obviously, the children's story uses "enormous" to imply that the turnip is very large, not very wicked. Somehow "the dastardly rutabaga" or "the heinous swede" makes a lot less sense in this context. Edit: Admission - I used DDG (my default search engine), not google.
dredmorbius 13y ago
I've become very used to doing this. The other handy fact is that if you start typing out a URL you can see the expansion, then hit tab to start the search, rather than having to remember the bang syntax for DDG. I'll switch between methods though.
tripzilch 13y ago
I've been doing that for years (Opera was first with this functionality), but simply being setting DDG to the default search versus having to configure all those different keywords, saves me SO much time. If it was just my desktop, and for some reason it only had one browser, okay. Customization is always cool. But I use too many different computers with too many different browsers in too many different locations that DDG's !bangs makes this really convenient and portable, getting the fast browsing workflow I'm used to in just a few clicks.

Legion 13y ago

It's more than "slightly different". By all means, try and replicate this complete list in your Chrome browser: https://duckduckgo.com/bang.html https://duckduckgo.com/bang.html. I'll wait... What makes the DDG !bang system awesome is its enormity. You don't look up what !bang to use to search something. You assume it exists, do it, and 99% of the time, you're right. That's a game changer. I don't write Perl, but I know !cpan exists. I don't even have to look. I don't even know exactly what site it's going to search. But I know if I !cpan twitter, I'm going to be looking at a list of Perl libraries for tweeting. That's the DDG killer feature. You want to do some kind of site-specific search or lookup, you just type in the most logical sounding !bang and assume it will work. You're simply never going to replicate that inside your browser.

strager 13y ago
> You're simply never going to replicate that inside your browser. Why not?
magicalist 13y ago
You don't have to replicate the list. Why would you want to? If you've visited a site before and it has a search box on it that matches some heuristic, it gets added to your search engine list. Odds are, far more than 99% of the time, you're going to be searching a site you've already visited before. I agree it is very handy.
- hayksaakian 13y ago
  His main point has to do with finding new sites about specific topics. A different use case not met by Chrome's implementation.
- Zarel 13y ago
  It's actually a standard, not a heuristic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSearch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSearch If the search box is nonstandard, you can also add it manually by right-clicking the search box and clicking "Add as Search Engine".
dredmorbius 13y ago
What makes the DDG !bang system awesome is its enormity. Please don't tell me it's evil. I believe you meant "scope", "scale", or "size".
- reaperhulk 13y ago
  Enormity has a neutral use as well.
- minikites 13y ago
  > Usage note > 3. Enormity has been in frequent and continuous use in the sense “immensity” since the 18th century: The enormity of the task was overwhelming. Some hold that enormousness is the correct word in that sense and that enormity can only mean “outrageousness” or “atrociousness”: The enormity of his offenses appalled the public.
- Zuider 13y ago
  >Please don't tell me it's evil. I am a little confused by your comment - has the word "enormous" come to mean "evil"? If so, maybe this new came about from people referring to the "enormity of a crime". It seems to have followed a similar etymological evolution to the word "gross" as in "gross depravity". But both words just mean "big".
  - dredmorbius 13y ago
    The word "enormity" means generally "evil": The state or quality of exceeding a measure or rule, or of being immoderate, monstrous, or outrageous. (1913 Webster). It's not a general synonym for "enormous" or "having vast size", except by confusion.
    - Zuider 13y ago
      Wow. Maybe it is an American English usage. In British English "enormous" is always used as a synonym for "huge", never for "evil". In fact, a quick google of the word revealed the former usage to be the more prevalent one. For instance, there is a famous children's story called "The enormous turnip" (adapted from a story by Tolstoy). http://www.boomerangbooks.com.au/Enormous-Turnip/Katie-Daynes/book_9780746073353.htm http://www.boomerangbooks.com.au/Enormous-Turnip/Katie-Dayne... Obviously, the children's story uses "enormous" to imply that the turnip is very large, not very wicked. Somehow "the dastardly rutabaga" or "the heinous swede" makes a lot less sense in this context. Edit: Admission - I used DDG (my default search engine), not google.

dredmorbius 13y ago

I've become very used to doing this. The other handy fact is that if you start typing out a URL you can see the expansion, then hit tab to start the search, rather than having to remember the bang syntax for DDG. I'll switch between methods though.

tripzilch 13y ago

I've been doing that for years (Opera was first with this functionality), but simply being setting DDG to the default search versus having to configure all those different keywords, saves me SO much time. If it was just my desktop, and for some reason it only had one browser, okay. Customization is always cool. But I use too many different computers with too many different browsers in too many different locations that DDG's !bangs makes this really convenient and portable, getting the fast browsing workflow I'm used to in just a few clicks.