I really, really want to like DuckDuckGo. But every single time I’ve switched from Google, I’ve found them to be much worse at returning the best results for what I’m looking for.
For example, let’s say I want to look up “ear infection”. Google will spit out a bunch of info right on their results page, often saving me the trouble of even going to another site. DDG however will just give me 10 webmd links.
If they want to compete, the privacy angle isn’t enough. They need comparable functionality as well.
Try startpage.com. I moved away from google a year ago and never looked back. I've never once needed to fall back to google. That's probably because startpage.com is basically anonymized google.
I know we're supposed to root for the entrepreneurs here on HN, but DDG honestly seems like more hype / marketing than a decent product. You never hear anything about startpage.com (maybe because it has a boring name?) but it just works.
Thanks for the suggestion. I just gave them a try with my "ear infection" search, and found that while they provide similar links, they don't give the additional info (like the summary of what it is and the "People also ask" dropdown box) right on the results page that google search does. This is especially important to me on mobile, especially when I have a weak cell signal.
Do you know how they monetize? I know it's a bit of a cliche asking that (you're the product etc.) but I'm really curious - using the Google API for search isn't cheap at scale.
If they are using a video of Snowden, they may have some philanthropic money - or it may be something nefarious. I'd love to give them the benefit of doubt though.
For example, let’s say I want to look up “ear infection”. Google will spit out a bunch of info right on their results page, often saving me the trouble of even going to another site. DDG however will just give me 10 webmd links.
If they want to compete, the privacy angle isn’t enough. They need comparable functionality as well.