Comment by kevlar1818 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kevlar1818 | Hacker News Reader

I switched to DDG from Google about one and half years ago. DDG is my daily driver.

DDG is excellent for programming questions/how-tos. It shows popular StackOverflow questions inline[1]. For Python, it shows Python/NumPy/SciPy documentation inline as well[2]. It may do this for other languages, but I have not witnessed it.

DDG also has a great inline weather "app" using DarkSky (which is an underrated weather site, IMO)[3]. Searching for businesses/restaurants shows a mini map ala OpenStreetMap (or other providers if you choose) and business information from Yelp[4].

DDG also has a community-driven program to add more search features, called DuckDuckHack[5]. I believe all (at least most) of the features I shared above came through that program. A list of all "Instant Answers" can be found here[6].

Need to fallback to Google? (I personally never have.) There's "bangs" for alternative search engines and popular sites[7].

Make the switch. You'll be pleasantly surprised how easy and refreshing it will be.

[1]: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=python+sort+a+list+of+strings

[2]: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=numpy+sum

[3]: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=weather

[4]: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=exploratorium+sf

[5]: https://duckduckhack.com/

[6]: https://duck.co/ia

[7]: https://duckduckgo.com/bang

I too switched over to DDG around the same time, and I mostly agree - but I've had the exact opposite experience specifically with programming questions.

I can't even count the number of times I've searched for something (usually semi-obscure errors) on DDG and come up dry, only to enter the exact same query on Google and the first or second result will have the answer I needed :(

Exact same experience here. Search for an error message or unique name and DDG comes up with very little, if anything.

When in doubt, bang (!g) it out.

or just !so ...which will take you directly to stack overflow

Problem is that's my default ddg search at this point. I have no faith in DDG to actually give me the thing I want, so I rarely give it the change. It'd make more sense to just make google my default at this point..

Same here, for obscure programming questions. Sometimes I do eventually find good results on DDG if I keep scrolling, but on the Goog it's front and center.

I often fall back to Google as well, but I love that 80% of my questions/searches never touch Google. DDG is well worth it for me.

The inline documentation works for a number of languages. C++ for example shows inline info from cppreference. Javascript shows inline results from MDN ecc.

Moreover, you can type in things like "git cheatsheet" or "tmux cheatsheet" and it will show you inline a whole lot of basic commands with short descriptions that you can just keep there and reference.

Make no mistake, Google Search is absolute shit. The larger issue though is that in general search is absolute shit.

I have a sizable library in my 1 bedroom apartment. It's about 1500 books. For the record I'll say if you find a local carpenter to work with, you can store a ton of books no matter the space you have. Also use Thriftbooks, I love Amazon but it's amazing how cheap things are on Thriftbooks.

Anyway I am also a DevOps Engineer which means I live and breath technology. I have every Apple product, including Carplay and an Apple Router (hah i view those as pretty niche), I also have a Windows computer because I think the Surface does some cool things. Despite all this tech, I am CONSTANTLY AMAZED how much faster I find answers in books, and particularly reference books. It will really shock you and make you question your world once you realize how much info Google hides from you.

A GREAT field to look into is "Information Architecture". These people are really amazing and you'll see all of them, the entire field (which is extraordinary for an academic discipline) look down on Google. The analogy that comes up time and again is Google is to information what McDonalds is for food, a poor / quick substitute.

Additionally you need to realize that unlike your local library or other sources, Search has been so polluted by marketers (which to be fair is understandable, they go where the customers are) that you really have to question all of the info you've found. Literally every time you search there are literally 10 million marketers trying to get you something else than what you wanted.

I had a friend tell me the other day that "the real Google is Google Scholar". If you're looking for high quality info you can't go wrong there, and you can then head over to www.sci-hub.io or whatever it is and pick up the PDF. Google Scholar gave me tremendous respect for the research colleges and universities put out, and the benefits they've accrued by taking the business out of information.

Are you old enough to remember Altavista or Excite? I'm guessing not.

Using a search engine used to require quite a bit of skill to find what you were searching for. I got pretty good at crafting my searches.

Are you actually saying you can find the answers to questions in your single bedroom library/apartment than just about any human using a search engine?

Interesting. I have had the opposite experience with DDG and tech-related queries (which are most of my queries) and find the UI is clunky and often gets in the way. I have also on more than one occasion went looking for software by name and found that a malware / scam site sat higher in the results than the real source. This is something I have contacted DDG about before.

I have been looking into Searx but it doesn't seem that great, either. I really need to ditch Google though.

And.. do not forget it shows inline cheat sheets for programming languages [1].

However, it is way behind Google in localized searches. Unlike you, I am not satisfied with its results for finding places in my location, but this can be also related to localization.

Other problems I have experienced are with ambiguous search phrases and or with special formattings. Google is smarter on understanding the context of the search, but unfortunately I cannot give you an example now.

[1] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=python+cheatsheet&ia=cheatsheet

Thanks for the comment! I'll definitely give DDG another try because of it.

About a year ago I tried switching to DDG, but I ended up using the !g operator so often that I just moved back to Google. I never felt comfortable about being so lazy in relation to my convictions (which drive me away from Google), and this is a good impetus to give DDG another serious try.

>DDG also has a great inline weather "app" using DarkSky (which is an underrated weather site, IMO)[3]. Searching for businesses/restaurants shows a mini map ala OpenStreetMap (or other providers if you choose) and business information from Yelp

Do you know a way to get inline dusk and dawn times (like weather has) for a specific zip code?

I try to use DDG when I can, but my problem is when it comes down to searching for GitHub stuff. Google is much, much better at handling that.

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