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Comment by neonhomer | Hacker News Reader

I was going to ask the same thing. But also why are people still using Google? I've been using DuckDuckGo for years and only use Google when I'm forced to (like in Chrome on iOS).

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Because the vast majority of users never change the default. Among the rest a significant part has an habit and it is harder to unlearn something than learn something new.

Because fairly frequently, I'll search for something on DDG, not find what I was expecting, and try on Google as a backup. And because in many people's minds, Google is search.

I thought the same thing, then I realized there was a significant selection bias: I was only looking at events where half the hypothesis (DDG fails & Google succeeds) is true. For example, how does DDG perform when Google fails?

That's true, but I wasn't thinking in that direction. I was just trying to answer "why are people still using Google?".

But honestly, if Google doesn't have it (down below whichever ad-driven first results I have to skip), it's a good bet that I'm not going to find it on other search engines either, unless some specific site indexes its own content better than the search engines do (archive.org comes to mind, for some things).

Of course, this is all colored by my search style and the topics I'm usually looking for information on.

If Google fails doubt it will be found on other choices. I will post something on a smaller site and Google will pick it up while the other search engines will not. So for me just easy choice is to use Google.

Put a !g in the front of your search.

DuckDuckGo is awesome.

Suppose I might as well configure my browser to use that pattern, instead of going directly to Google search, too. That would make it a bit more convenient to remember.

!g google

!gi google images

!define the free dictionary

!r reddit

There are a lot more, and I find them quite useful.

The one I use all the time is !m for Google Maps.

Can you give an example? I've seen this comment before but never have an issue with DDG.

DDG's fine for some kinds of searches, but for search involving you as context (which can be useful) it is obviously not useful.

Because it works better.

asking why people "still use Google" is like asking why people "still drink water".

I support google because they are enemies of microsoft/apple/facebook.

You are deeply mistaken if you really think those are enemies.

First apple is a hardware vendor of overpriced gadgets, totally unrelated to google market which is an advertising network.

Second the ship has long sailed on the feud between Google and Facebook, they now have ceased fighting and are each back on focusing on their own thing.

Do you have a recent example of google fighting microsoft ? heck even apple was friend with microsoft behind the scene, the fight was just for show. Remember how bill gates gave money to help apple stay afloat ?

Two mobile platforms Android and iOS and you think Google does not compete against Apple?

Tell that to Tim Cooks high school

https://9to5google.com/2016/06/20/chromebooks-taking-over-ma... At Apple CEO Tim Cook's old high school, they are selling their ...

Google is moving stuff from the Microsoft controlled desktop to the browser.

What are you referring to ?

google docs happened a while ago and it's been some time since microsoft has started moving its office suite to the cloud with office365.

Actually microsoft has been moving from the desktop to cloud for a few years now.

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