The fact that DDG is grossly inferior to Google is a pretty strong incentive.
Barring C-level change at Google I’m expecting the gap to disappear in a year or two.
My impression is that Google Search is worse now than it was in the past. They've gotten complacent. So if they had to fight for users instead of taking them for granted through paying off Apple and Mozilla, then maybe Google would have to perform better. Everyone wins? (Except AAPL stockholders.)
If you Google '$PRODUCT review' and only get Amazon-affiliate scam sites pretending to be review sites, it's not because Google has been SEOed but rather because there are no actual reviews of $PRODUCT.
Aside from a botched update last year, where Google would only return results that were selling things, Google Search is still very good at finding information that exists.
When looking at a web page you nowadays have to wonder 'what is the purpose of this page?'. Unfortunately even sites like wirecutter exist more and more to drive revenue, rather than inform the user. The only types of pages where purpose is still non-commercial (in most cases) are discussions.
It is the pointer to monopolistic behavior: Being so influent that nothing exists outside the Google Search. We can’t affirm honest reviews don’t exist: I’m sure there are authentic comparators, in fact in France UFC Que Choisir is a pretty leftist comparison organization who explores products, compares them and even regularly sends companies to trial, a pretty good sign that they couldn’t care less for those companies in a way that is awesomely aligned with authenticity. I’m sure there are millions of other people writing reviews for pleasure.
Google chose not to show them, and to orient their search in the way they wanted, whatever it is, maybe they’re showing corporate sites first, or commercial sites first, making it impossible for amateurs to exist, making them « don’t exist ». It turns out it makes you feel like nothing is authentic. Therefore we turn back to Amazon or Google and buy any of the list, just trusting the biggest vendor. This probably innocuous wording of yours may be the key to the whole problem here.
Google and DDG, however, are very good at finding authentic reviews in niche market segments where authentic reviews are still common. The fact that search engines can find these reviews suggests that the lack of authentic reviews for mainstream products is much more due to a lack of authentic reviews on the web rather than a problem with search engines.
Whenever I use DDG, I just have to remember that DDG does not have my personal profile, and adjust accordingly. Then the results are fine, and even better if I'm searching outside my normal profile.
It is. I haven't accepted cookies from google in many years, and when I get frustrated enough to !g bang on ddg it never finds me anything better.
It’s on par or better for 99% of what I use it for (tech, real estate, and advocacy).
DDG won't even return Stack ("Your question has been deleted as a duplicate") Overflow results for technical questions.
For any other search term, Google generally spams me with "answer boxes" that are universally slightly besides the point, while DDG gives me a clean page of relevant links.