8 ms·

I use duckduckgo mainly, because I like what they are doing. From time to time I will get search results that aren't very relevant. In these cases, I just prepe

I use duckduckgo mainly, because I like what they are doing. From time to time I will get search results that aren't very relevant. In these cases, I just prepend '!google' to my search.

joosters 12y ago
You can also use !sp to get Google results without Google tracking.
- dmdeller 12y ago
  You can now also use !s which is the same as !sp. Note that it works as either a prefix or a suffix - it might be easier to put the insertion point at the end of the text box. If you're using Safari, you can use my Safari extension to do this with a toolbar button or keyboard shortcut: http://horizon-nigh.org/re-search/ http://horizon-nigh.org/re-search/
glaslong 12y ago
Now that I've gotten used to them, I really like the !bang operators. They're incredibly convenient. A few of the ones I abuse constantly: !g - google !bi - bing image !yt - youtube !so - stackoverflow !w - wikipedia !py - python docs The exhaustive list is here: https://duckduckgo.com/bang.html https://duckduckgo.com/bang.html
- jgallag8 12y ago
  Didn't know you could just use '!g'. Very cool!
- arca_vorago 12y ago
  !images goes straight to google images.
- mattmanser 12y ago
  Why are bangs good? Why not just go to the site? Also Stackoverflow's search and many other site searches are totally rubbish. Not a bit, but totally rubbish. Here's an example: "!so c# read file" => this delivers useless results, the top result being "Reading Excel files from C#" Compare that to "stackoverflow c# read file" on google, which delivers what you actually want, with the question "Reading From a Text File in C#".
  - vacri 12y ago
    You don't have to load the site (trivial, but not negligible), throwing a bang in front of an already written search is simpler than rewriting the search, and google doesn't build a profile around you as another entity is doing the search.
    - icebraining 12y ago
      another entity is doing the search. What? It redirects your browser to Google, it's you doing the search, not any other entity. They don't proxy or anything.
      - ripdog 12y ago
        He means that, for example, "!hn rust" would search hacker news directly for rust, whereas "hacker news rust" on google would do a similar job but via google, informing google of your search.
        wutbrodo 12y ago
        That's definitely not what his comment says. He's quite clearly talking about !g (not other bangs) and saying (incorrectly) that another entity (DDG) is doing the Google search so Google can't build a profile around you.
        vacri 12y ago
        Sorry, ripdog and icebraining - I got it wrong. I hadn't played with ddg for a while and my memory was in error - I recalled !g returning google results in the ddg interface. My mistake. I couldn't correct it because of HN's stupid 5-comment policy that applies to comments made in all threads combined, and couldn't edit the original comment with a correction as it had been more than an hour. :/
- pbhjpbhj 12y ago
  I tried DDG for a while (a month, but probably a year ago now) but found I was always doing "!g <search terms>". So I just went back to using the address bar for searching and just the standard FF shortcuts (called "search engine keywords" IIRC) + a few extras I've added over the years. On Firefox I have g - google ddg - duckduckgo yt - youtube w - wikipedia etc. easy to type without the bang at the front (Google and Wikipedia are defaults, not sure what the other ones are). I gather on DDG you can use them at the end so you need the ! as a delimiter.
  - Ar-Curunir 12y ago
    you can use startpage if you want Google's results with none of the privacy leakage.
    - icebraining 12y ago
      I wonder how they got that deal.
      - Ar-Curunir 12y ago
        They pass your queries through a proxy, so you have to trust startpage, I guess.
        icebraining 12y ago
        No, I mean, I wonder how Startpage got a deal from Google to proxy their results. What's in it for Google?
  - jimmaswell 12y ago
    A nice thing about these is that they work on Firefox Mobile if you sync it.

I use duckduckgo mainly, because I like what they are doing. From time to time I will get search results that aren't very relevant. In these cases, I just prepend '!google' to my search.

joosters 12y ago

You can also use !sp to get Google results without Google tracking.

dmdeller 12y ago
You can now also use !s which is the same as !sp. Note that it works as either a prefix or a suffix - it might be easier to put the insertion point at the end of the text box. If you're using Safari, you can use my Safari extension to do this with a toolbar button or keyboard shortcut: http://horizon-nigh.org/re-search/ http://horizon-nigh.org/re-search/

glaslong 12y ago

Now that I've gotten used to them, I really like the !bang operators. They're incredibly convenient. A few of the ones I abuse constantly: !g - google !bi - bing image !yt - youtube !so - stackoverflow !w - wikipedia !py - python docs The exhaustive list is here: https://duckduckgo.com/bang.html https://duckduckgo.com/bang.html

jgallag8 12y ago
Didn't know you could just use '!g'. Very cool!
arca_vorago 12y ago
!images goes straight to google images.
mattmanser 12y ago
Why are bangs good? Why not just go to the site? Also Stackoverflow's search and many other site searches are totally rubbish. Not a bit, but totally rubbish. Here's an example: "!so c# read file" => this delivers useless results, the top result being "Reading Excel files from C#" Compare that to "stackoverflow c# read file" on google, which delivers what you actually want, with the question "Reading From a Text File in C#".
- vacri 12y ago
  You don't have to load the site (trivial, but not negligible), throwing a bang in front of an already written search is simpler than rewriting the search, and google doesn't build a profile around you as another entity is doing the search.
  - icebraining 12y ago
    another entity is doing the search. What? It redirects your browser to Google, it's you doing the search, not any other entity. They don't proxy or anything.
    - ripdog 12y ago
      He means that, for example, "!hn rust" would search hacker news directly for rust, whereas "hacker news rust" on google would do a similar job but via google, informing google of your search.
      - wutbrodo 12y ago
        That's definitely not what his comment says. He's quite clearly talking about !g (not other bangs) and saying (incorrectly) that another entity (DDG) is doing the Google search so Google can't build a profile around you.
      - vacri 12y ago
        Sorry, ripdog and icebraining - I got it wrong. I hadn't played with ddg for a while and my memory was in error - I recalled !g returning google results in the ddg interface. My mistake. I couldn't correct it because of HN's stupid 5-comment policy that applies to comments made in all threads combined, and couldn't edit the original comment with a correction as it had been more than an hour. :/
pbhjpbhj 12y ago
I tried DDG for a while (a month, but probably a year ago now) but found I was always doing "!g <search terms>". So I just went back to using the address bar for searching and just the standard FF shortcuts (called "search engine keywords" IIRC) + a few extras I've added over the years. On Firefox I have g - google ddg - duckduckgo yt - youtube w - wikipedia etc. easy to type without the bang at the front (Google and Wikipedia are defaults, not sure what the other ones are). I gather on DDG you can use them at the end so you need the ! as a delimiter.
- Ar-Curunir 12y ago
  you can use startpage if you want Google's results with none of the privacy leakage.
  - icebraining 12y ago
    I wonder how they got that deal.
    - Ar-Curunir 12y ago
      They pass your queries through a proxy, so you have to trust startpage, I guess.
      - icebraining 12y ago
        No, I mean, I wonder how Startpage got a deal from Google to proxy their results. What's in it for Google?
- jimmaswell 12y ago
  A nice thing about these is that they work on Firefox Mobile if you sync it.