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I've switched from Google and Chrome to DDG and Firefox. Very happy with the switch. I've started recommending to my non-techie relatives to switch as well. We

by milesf 13y ago

I've switched from Google and Chrome to DDG and Firefox. Very happy with the switch. I've started recommending to my non-techie relatives to switch as well. We've seen this sort of thing before. I've gone from no search engines, to Webcrawler, to Lycos, to AltaVista, to Google, and now DuckDuckGo. No biggie.

teaneedz 13y ago
I've made the exact same switch. I'm loving the combination of FF & DDG. I've also set DDG as the default search engine in Chrome and use it on iOS from the app and Mercury browser. DuckDuckGo deserves all the great publicity it's receiving.
- ams6110 13y ago
  DDG is my default search engine, I do find myself needing to occasionally throw in !g if I'm not finding what I'm looking for. Results are generally decent though, and the trend seems to be that they are getting better and better (though I have not objectively measured that in any way). The other ! shortcuts are worth reviewing, as they can dramatically improve the results if you're doing a focused search.
  - teaneedz 13y ago
    So true. One of the nice things about the !bang syntax is that it's pretty intuitive. Although one can accomplish something similar in the browser via smart keywords, the DDG way lets anyone jump right on to any machine and focus a search on a particular site. By picking the first letter or a two letter combination, e.g. !hn=hackernews, I don't have to look up the exact !bang for a site.
bsullivan01 13y ago
Same here, FF and DDG. Might have to use Bing or Google a few times but Google isn't /wasn't perfect on every search either. I now do get referrals from DDG on a few on my websites so anecdotally and from a very small sample I see the increase. Google has become very commercialized and too tied up with the FED big boys now.
fetbaffe 13y ago
Firefox must make it easier to switch the default Google search engine for the address bar.
- kbart 13y ago
  It's really easy, only few mouse clicks, doesn't even require to restart Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/duckduckgo-for-firefox/?src=search https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/duckduckgo-fo...
  - fetbaffe 13y ago
    I have used that addon for a while but on every Firefox overwrites it every update.
- Svip 13y ago
  They've changed the behaviour of that in the address bar now. Perhaps I have done something wrong, but it appears that what you type in the address bar searches by the search bar's choice. So if I have Wikipedia selected, it searches on Wikipedia from the address bar. This behaviour was initially very confusing. At first I thought I had done something strange to my Firefox (on Linux), but then I noticed both on my workstation (Windows) at work, and on my laptop (Linux and Windows). I hope someone else can confirm this.
  - therealunreal 13y ago
    https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=873734#c2 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=873734#c2
weslly 13y ago
Same here, both Firefox and DDG improved a lot in the last couple of years. I don't think I'll switch back to Chrome + Google again.

by milesf 13y ago

teaneedz 13y ago

I've made the exact same switch. I'm loving the combination of FF & DDG. I've also set DDG as the default search engine in Chrome and use it on iOS from the app and Mercury browser. DuckDuckGo deserves all the great publicity it's receiving.

ams6110 13y ago
DDG is my default search engine, I do find myself needing to occasionally throw in !g if I'm not finding what I'm looking for. Results are generally decent though, and the trend seems to be that they are getting better and better (though I have not objectively measured that in any way). The other ! shortcuts are worth reviewing, as they can dramatically improve the results if you're doing a focused search.
- teaneedz 13y ago
  So true. One of the nice things about the !bang syntax is that it's pretty intuitive. Although one can accomplish something similar in the browser via smart keywords, the DDG way lets anyone jump right on to any machine and focus a search on a particular site. By picking the first letter or a two letter combination, e.g. !hn=hackernews, I don't have to look up the exact !bang for a site.

bsullivan01 13y ago

Same here, FF and DDG. Might have to use Bing or Google a few times but Google isn't /wasn't perfect on every search either. I now do get referrals from DDG on a few on my websites so anecdotally and from a very small sample I see the increase. Google has become very commercialized and too tied up with the FED big boys now.

fetbaffe 13y ago

Firefox must make it easier to switch the default Google search engine for the address bar.

kbart 13y ago
It's really easy, only few mouse clicks, doesn't even require to restart Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/duckduckgo-for-firefox/?src=search https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/duckduckgo-fo...
- fetbaffe 13y ago
  I have used that addon for a while but on every Firefox overwrites it every update.
Svip 13y ago
They've changed the behaviour of that in the address bar now. Perhaps I have done something wrong, but it appears that what you type in the address bar searches by the search bar's choice. So if I have Wikipedia selected, it searches on Wikipedia from the address bar. This behaviour was initially very confusing. At first I thought I had done something strange to my Firefox (on Linux), but then I noticed both on my workstation (Windows) at work, and on my laptop (Linux and Windows). I hope someone else can confirm this.
- therealunreal 13y ago
  https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=873734#c2 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=873734#c2

weslly 13y ago

Same here, both Firefox and DDG improved a lot in the last couple of years. I don't think I'll switch back to Chrome + Google again.