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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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I've switched away from DDG after many years of use. I have gone to Ghostery Private search. It seems to be better for my search results with a lot less garbage mixed in.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Yes, mostly, except that programming related searches have really gone downhill in DDG for me.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Google is almost unusable for me even with ad block. I've been using DDG for the last 3 or so years now.

[–] Zeppo 2 points 2 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

What do people use google scholar for? Use jstor and other specific databases like arxiv

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Google just got worse.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Compared to a few years ago, it’s better. Some websites still aren’t indexed, and even by entering their name exactly, they don’t show. Google doesn’t have this problem.

Brave search is also pretty good

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

For me they are even better than Google. But I use Qwant now.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

I use StartPage because it does image search, and none of the AI BS.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Nah, the results are still consistently much worse imo (excluding sponsored results from Google), and I use DDG daily

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Wow, it has been some time since I used duck duck go. On my phone I have bing for searches as it is convenient with chatGPT integration (which tbh I only use when coding, for which I have copilot now baked into VScode). On my laptop and work station I use Arc. Its sexy af and really makes a man wonder about himself. I will have to revisit DDG. I do remember enjoying it though only for enhanced privacy. Feature wise it just seemed exactly what chrome was offering

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

It's my primary but Google unfortunately is often a fallback. And Google is tracking the shit out of us these days. Certain obscure searches don't work well on DDG, sad to say.

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