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

  • shaggyb@lemmy.world
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    33 minutes ago

    I can turn off the horseshit firehose that we call AI, making it far better than google

  • yata@sh.itjust.works
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    47 minutes 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.

  • Zeppo@sh.itjust.works
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    1 hour 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.

  • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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    6 hours ago

    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.

  • EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    8 hours ago

    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).

    • Lyra_Lycan@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      7 hours ago

      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

      • flux@lemmy.ml
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        3 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?

      • EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        6 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.

  • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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    10 hours ago

    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

    • adarza@lemmy.ca
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      7 hours ago

      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).

  • FRYD@sh.itjust.works
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    14 hours ago

    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.

    • CarbonBasedNPU@lemm.ee
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      5 hours ago

      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.

    • 0ops@lemm.ee
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      5 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.

    • serendipity@aussie.zone
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      6 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.

    • toastal@lemmy.ml
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      11 hours ago

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

      • yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.ml
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        10 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.

    • Lyra_Lycan@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      7 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.

  • toastal@lemmy.ml
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    11 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.

  • Match!!@pawb.social
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    16 hours ago

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

    • Maeve@kbin.earth
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      4 hours ago

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

      This true?

    • JustAnotherKay@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      Yeah I think I’m headed in this direction. I’ve also been thinking about one of them self-hostable search engines a lot

  • venotic@kbin.melroy.org
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    19 hours ago

    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.

  • ceenote@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    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.