Questions about DuckDuckGo's Future

In the past, I have performed searches on Bing and DuckDuckGo, and the results were identical, or nearly so.

A small test just now makes me think not much has changed.

DuckDuckGo might consider their search question outsourced to Microsoft, and that their branding efforts are best directed elsewhere.

I'm still paying for Kagi and it's certainly better than DDG for search, privacy, and overall features.

DDG was never a search company and that's why you will notice it never talked much about quality of search results, just privacy. It was a middle-man between the user and Bing / Yandex, with a branding focused on privacy. They didn't really have much control over search quality because they never had an index.

So it's not surprising that they are going all in on their privacy branding with other paraphernalia instead of focusing on improving search quality.

Also privacy and search quality are often unrelated, but sometimes opposed to each other. If I have more data about you I might be able to serve slightly more relevant results.

But the enshittification of Google search quality wasn't due to privacy-related reasons. It's because the internet itself is shittier. Organic search is a reflection of that.

DuckDuckGo is just Bing with a few location-based ads inserted into the bottom of your search results.

I can't say about comparable quality of search results as I use default DDG search across all my devices for many years, so I'm in my own echo chamber here.

What I can say that, with current tendency of mass enshittification of available content, and noticeable decline of other major players in this space (from time to time I accidentally search via Google\bing or specialized engines), if DDG would just keep the current levels of search quality and modesty of interface with rich !bang syntax - it will be totally fine by me.

I don't need AI generated results, I don't need widgetry, ads, previews, helpers rampage on my search page. I like that they haven't changed their search page colours, css classes, layouts and everything else what compounds into UX for ages. Every now and then when I search something with different engines - I feel like I'm in the IE6 era when everything tries to install a toolbar into your browser, tries to steal your attentions or those old link portals riddled with flashy banners And then google was born with clear and simple search results page

So it's not so much of a best search quality or ever changing landscape, it's the consistency of experience from DDG I'm after.

DDG is my daily driver, I used to it's style, results, visuals, syntax. In some way I mastered DDG search like one can master regex syntax or programming language. I used to it how someone used to their old tools. I don't want a new "shiny" hammer or a screwdriver, I want the one that is stable and I can adapt to it and master.

And if/when they would ask for small donation or a subscription - I'd happily help them, same way as one would help an old reliable friend in need, rather than flock away to some new hype-driven,money-burning,born-in-AI vendor locked native application.

Being predictably reliable in last few years of internet-worsening landscape - is not a bad thing really. It's a great perk (and kudos to DDG team) that some people value much more, than a fire-hose of degenerative AI novelty.

DDG have built a world class team and IMO are wasting it. I commend them to the fullest extent for their mission and incredible work they’ve put in, but they are capable of so much more.

Imagine a DDG IdP built using their principles or a DDG data custody tracker. If they only looked to expand beyond the browser space, I think DDG could be huge.

I'm less concerned than the OP. It seems like they are using the revenue from search to fund other endeavors. Same model as Google, fundamentally.

The author raises very valid points about DuckDuckGo and I would go further and say k don’t trust their privacy policy, but I think there’s lack of any better alternative.

I was frustrated with the quality of DDG searches over the past few years. The “good” news is that the quality of Google has been nose-diving to meet it.

My guess is that the root causes are

- organic web results are dwindling because the OS and browser try to answer the question first

- users spend more time in mobile apps compared to browsers

- the best content moved behind paywalls

That is, the same things that plague the whole industry

It’s sad because I still like the organic search model, but it’s clearly not working for everyone involved