this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
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Not because DDG got better, but just because google got worse.

google is still better for site-specific searches, and google scholar still has minimal AI slop

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[–] fibojoly 4 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Have been using it for 8 years now. I never felt the need to switch back honestly. Only Google thing I really love is Maps and that's it.

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[–] yata 4 points 13 hours ago

I switched to it a couple of years ago, with the expectation that I had to resort to google in more complex search instances. But very soon I found out that ddg did the job, and my "alternative" google searches did not turn up anything better, quite the contrary in fact, and I haven't been back since.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Duckduckgo mostly uses Bing for its search results. It also uses yahoo, yandex, and it's own crawler, but for the most part you're getting Bing.

So what you really want to know is if Bing is just as good as Google. If you think it is, you should definitely use ddg because they're the least intrusive.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 17 hours ago

It's much better than Bing.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 20 hours ago (3 children)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

...........Oh, sorry.

Hell no. If anything, it's gotten worse.

In their defense, however, it's probably largely not their fault. In my admittedly one-person-sample-size experience, 90% of the searchable Web is either Reddit threads or articles, and with Reddit going officially with Google (meaning DDG doesn't catch as many Reddit threads as they used to), that leaves most of the searchable Web being articles. Because SEO has to ruin everything.

So, it's not really that DDG is shitty (mostly), but that all searches are shitty. Though, with the whole Google-and-Reddit thing, I find Google's results are noticeably less shitty (though still shitty).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (2 children)

The killer for me has to be that it doesn't support searching for phrases within websites I need. Latest example: github. I can be on the project page, copy a phrase from the code and search ddg with it in double quotemarks, and get 0 results. Copy - google.com - paste - enter - loads of results.

Also the search function broke for about a day, a few days ago

[–] [email protected] 2 points 16 hours ago

That's a bit surprising, given DDG uses Bing, Bing is Microsoft and Microsoft owns Github.

Did you try the same search with Bing, or have an example to share?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

To be honest with you, I didn't even know that was a feature. (Unless I'm misunderstanding you.) Sounds cool!

If I need to search a website, I use either Ctrl+F or the site: search engine operator.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Google kind of went downhill

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[–] Zeppo 2 points 14 hours ago

I use it for almost everything. I only resort to Google if I can't find what I'm looking for, which is rare and typically it's something obscure. Google has also steadily made their service worse over the years. I don't feel like I am missing much.

[–] FRYD 34 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I’ve been using DDG exclusively for something like 8 years. It works great for regular text search and I use bing for image searches. I really don’t understand the reluctance of people to switch to it. To me, Google has been borderline unusable garbage for a long time.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

DDG is slow. Like noticeably slower than other search engines. I have been using DDG exclusively for 2 months at this point and it is wild how much faster brave search is not even mentioning google search.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 19 hours ago

Same here, although I don’t know how long I’ve been on DDG exactly. I never not find what I’m looking for.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Cherry on the shit sundae was a couple months ago when Google started to require JavaScript be enabled for search.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 23 hours ago

Okay, so this wasn't just me! I installed NoScript for Chrome on my work laptop as a stop gap for no more ublock origin and thought something was fishy w/ Google's search page.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 17 hours ago

I used it for a few years, realized that I had to use bangs every other search, and reluctantly switched back to Google. But now Google is way worse than it was, so I think I might as well try switching back again, see how it feels now.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Not really. If you focus purely on just searching, yeah DDG is decent. But, I find its maps inferior and trying to find answers to some questions can get tedious. DDG I guess is just for people who want guilt-free searching.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)

ddg maps is just a no-frills apple maps.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

yes, it is. but between it and graphhopper (or osm), it's "enough" for me.

i don't need a feature-filled "app" (my phone is 'dumb'), and the only time i end up on something else like bing or google maps is if a site i need to use embeds and relies upon them.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

my problem with apple maps is how frequently it has something's location completely wrong because osm addresses use the European addressing system everywhere when i don't live in europe

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

OpenStreetMap contributor here. What address format isn't supported? Maybe I can help

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

I find it's actually better at this point because it just gives results without AI summaries and ads, also I find it's just straight up better at actually finding what you're looking for

[–] [email protected] 3 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

i find ddg sufficient for nearly everything. occasionally i will go to startpage or ecosia or mojeek for a different 'perspective', but that is not very often at all. i also use wolframalpha almost daily for some sort of calculation or conversion.

i haven't used google or bing except by accident when using someone else's browser or device (that is, when i forget to go to duck.com first).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 17 hours ago

Is ddg on mobile just a facade and still uses google?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago

I just realized the other day that I haven't typed !g in months.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 23 hours ago

So far its still less bloated

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Google is mostly adverts. Wouldn’t take much to be better than that.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I finally left Google a month or so ago and its amazing how little I miss it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 hours ago

Yeah. I search for things all the time. Thousands of searches each month. I thought I’d miss it a lot, but I’ve not used Google for two years or so and it’s not really a problem.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

76% of their Q2 2024 revenue came from adverts. I'd rather pay with capitalist-consumerist shit on my screen than pay with money, but as everyone knows it's far too invasive rn. Ergo, I use uBlock, sponsorblock and I don't care about cookies.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 day ago (5 children)

My thought always was that DDG was good to set as my default, and if I'm not happy with the results then it's not a big deal to use Google once in awhile.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 day ago (2 children)

"just as good"? No, I feel it is (and has been for years) vastly superior but I mostly use it to find documentation or Stack Overflow answers so consistent UI and concise summaries are high priority to me. Take that as you will

I don't think anybody can dethrone Google Maps yet but that's another story

[–] [email protected] 3 points 23 hours ago

I don't think anybody can dethrone Google Maps

I wonder how the whole "AI is more important than copyright" thing could play into this... Someone could totally program an "AI" map assistant right?

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago (2 children)

i switched from DDG to ecosia because of Lemmy and i gotta say it's even better

[–] [email protected] 2 points 17 hours ago

Private browsing We protect your data and privacy so you can surf safely

This true?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 23 hours ago

No. DDG still puts less priority in small blogs over Reddit posts. All bigger search engines put way too much stock & rank in corpo social media.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 12 hours ago

I use Kagi, I really like how it's AI answer gives sources for statements.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

DuckDuckGo AKA Bing is complete dog doo. When you are looking for news it only tries to shove in the Microsoft MSN news page. The algorithm manipulation in favor of Western MSM bias is even heavier than Google. When you search certain terms it refuses to show articles containing those exact terms.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Yeah saying "DDG is as good as Google" means saying that DDG is worthless garbage lol

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

DDG does the job. Hopefully, I won't have to switch engines soon.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

isn't it just a bing wrapper?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago (2 children)

No and kinda yes. Duckduckgo has its own webcrawler, but also adds in results from other sources including Bing, Yahoo and others.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

Last time I checked, it matched Bing results exactly.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 23 hours ago

Yahoo is Bing too

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

100%. I have not used google in about roughly 15 years. DDG has been my daily driver since 2010

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I've had to use !g way too much lately, so no.

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