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Comment by stewartm | Hacker News Reader

If it is a while since you last tried the switch, startpage is worth a go.

I recently built a new laptop and set it as the default, after several failed attempts in the past. I now rarely find myself struggling with tech related searches as I had done previously. Consequently, it has stuck this time. YMMV obvs.

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I might give it another go. I also really really like the guys behind DuckDuckGo, so I'm still hoping they can get their search algorithm on par (or at least near) Googles'

With DuckDuckGo you can always use the !g syntax to switch to google if first results don't suit you need.

By my experience DDG usually provide way more appropriate answers when you are looking for a reference or a documentation entry. Google still is better for recently pushed contents like news and is still marginally better for finding result inside Q&A sites. After 1-2 years of DDG by default I tend to know in advance which query is best for which search engine and so I half conscientiously add the !g while typing when needed.

I don't know why so many DDG users use '!g' unless they're using Edge or just aren't aware that Chromium and Firefox both let you create an arbitrary keyword like 'g' for a search provider, which is a lot easier to type.

Some of the other bang commands do look useful, though.

Guess I have a "localized" deformation as french keyboard include a ! character accessible without any key modifier, so it's actually pretty straightforward to use.

That won’t take you through DDG’s anonymizing proxy though.

For me, !g just redirects to a normal Google search.

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