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DDG is flattered by GOOG's imitation of Lockable Safe Search
- byrneseyeview 17y agoDuckDuckGo has done an amazing job. It must be weird to basically be the beta version of the beta version of what the bigger search engines are going to try next. One weird thing I've noticed: your normal search is more informational and less commercial than Google's. For example: http://duckduckgo.com/?q=credit+cards&v= http://duckduckgo.com/?q=credit+cards&v= Dmoz and the FTC outrank "creditcards.com"! Are you disregarding a lot of the stuff companies do for SEO? Or what?
- epi0Bauqu 17y agoIt is weird. Yes, where possible we're trying to get links from other, non-commercial and less SEOd sources. Of course, those sources pose their own problems... We also have a non-commercial search type accessible from our home page that further tries to reduce commercial links.
- byrneseyeview 17y agoIs this a business decision or a how-the-world-should-really-work decision?
- epi0Bauqu 17y agoBoth, though the business tie-in was somewhat of an afterthought. That is I started out being fed up with spam, pseudo-spam and SEOd commercial links in Google. Then I slowly realized that when you back all those out, the end result is indeed an interesting alternative worth pursuing in its own right. Hence, the non-commercial ("less shopping sites") view.
- alphageek 17y agoI would take you more seriously if you had a better name and less-kiddish website.
- epi0Bauqu 17y agoPeople seem to either love or hate the branding, which is fine by me because there is love in there. With lockable safe search in particular, it works rather well IMHO.
- jjs 17y agoYes, you need a serious name, like "Google" or "Yahoo". I suggest "Splooploo".
- pclark 17y agolove the service, hate the name. means nothing to me. and is long. and you sound retarded saying it.
- mustpax 17y agoWhy didn't Google use IP addresses too? Because doing so poses its own problems that a big company like Google doesn't want to deal with. For example, shared offices often use one IP address. If someone locks safe search there, it is locked for everyone. This is a cool idea, but, as you admit, exceedingly error prone. There is no reliable way to determine who actually owns an IP address. With dynamic IPs it can even lead to one user blocking search for another user. Lock safe search, renew DHCP license, repeat. How do you plan to deal with these conflicts?
- epi0Bauqu 17y agoUnless and until there is some compelling reason to do so, I don't.
- ggrot 17y agoIt seems like mustpax just presented a compelling reason to do so.
- epi0Bauqu 17y agoNo, a compelling reason is when you have lots of users in the same or similar situation asking you to do so.
- thaumaturgy 17y agoSo how do you handle dynamic IP spaces? Otherwise, it's not all that hard for one Comcast or AT&T user to lock safe search for their neighbors.
- epi0Bauqu 17y agoIt's really meant for schools and businesses. However, if someone locks safe search for their neighbors, that is OK with me.
- thaumaturgy 17y ago
- smiler 17y agoI absolutely love the "mostly info sites" feature. This is so useful when searching for a review of a specific product instead of being spammed with 200 price comparison sites, purporting to offer reviews, but they really don't
- fromage 17y agoDuck Duck Go is now my primary search engine. Google has become such a bloated crap with their local searches, blog searches, video searches, adwords ads and suggestions.
- rgrove 17y agoYahoo! Search had lockable SafeSearch settings long before either DDG or Google (although, like Google's new implementation, it's cookie-based).
- dschobel 17y agoFor example, shared offices often use one IP address. If someone locks safe search there, it is locked for everyone. But as a small company that strives to offer a real alternative to Google, we can deal with an IP based implementation. So how does the DDG solution actually solve the problem?
- epi0Bauqu 17y agoIt doesn't.
- sgk284 17y agoWhat about parents who don't want filtered sites on their own computers, just on their kids? I think Google's approach is really reasonable. If you know how to clear cookies, you know how to go to a different search engine to find what you want. The colored balls also make it easy to check from a distance what your child is up to. I wouldn't want to be blocked based on IP, especially since it appears your implementation doesn't allow it to be undone. People search for porn, including parents. I like what DDG is up to, but this implementation is majorly flawed.
- colinplamondon 17y agoI know it comes up in every thread, but your name is really, really terrible.