Duckduckgo gets more than 10M direct queries per day in 2016

Agree. Also it seems to me that +term and -term don't really have any effect anymore, you just get whatever results Google thinks you are looking for.

I've seen the same thing! I wondered if that was just me.

This. I feel they are "smartening" their results with machine learning and crowding in ML ads and crowding out appropriate results. It feels more and more like Alta Vista before Google ate their lunch. Their ML isn't people-smart yet so those generated results often seem odd (or blatently ad-driven). They may get more and more clicks on ads (and keep optimising for that).

However, there will be a tipping point where the part they can't measure -- annoyance at the results -- turns into people jumping ship. DDG's exponential growth will continue through that and Google will be forced to take notice. I don't know whether that means blocking !g or abandoning some of the smarts on Google results (if possible by that point) or both.

Also, as a side note, I am tired of yelling "ok Google" multiple times at my phone before I get a response.

I agree. I routinely have to use the date filter because they favor older content too much.

> where gaining knowledge about the physical world that immediately surrounds then isnt important or useful.

It's not only not important or useful - it's actively harmful, in 'that confusing information leads to worse decisions' way.

I get deeply annoyed every time Google translates my searches in foreign languages, or gives me only local stories when I want to buy something overseas (and even replaces my search when the product isn't available locally).

Yes, some times I want to look some local stuff - funny thing is that text search has always the worst results for this case. There are plenty of geographical search engines available (even from Google) that will give you much more information in a glance than the main Google results will give after analysis.

Anyway, DDG has localized search too. You just have to click on a knob.

I just visit the website of the local cinema, but I see your point. I wouldn't mind actively opting for some sort of local search whenever localized information is exactly what I want, but with Google I seem to have no choice in the matter.