Bing/yahoo/duckduckgo are gaining on Google?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15065909

by elid1979 • 9 years ago

19 27 9 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

my blog's organic traffic has 80% google, 12% bing, 5% yahoo, 3% duckduck

kpwags• 9 years ago

About 2 months ago I switched to DuckDuckGo and have been happy with the results I get back

hdhzy2• 9 years ago

I've switched 6 months ago and despite the fact that I use !g at least once per day I'm positivity surprised by the quality of results. If they improve by 10% I'd be able to leave Google Search completely.

DDG's added benefit is official Tor hidden service that performs very well.

leojg• 9 years ago

The problem I have with ddg is that their non english and local searches are lacking. Those are the only reasons why I stick with google.

Anywats, I used to use ddg for english non location dependant queries for a while

hdhzy2• 9 years ago

Interesting because that was one of benefits of DDG for me. 80% of my time I do not want local searches because I'm looking for the best IT results and local often has subpar quality. Google thinks I value local better than English and prioritizes local over quality English.

Of course when I do want local Google is the best :)

tinus_hn2• 9 years ago

A problem I have with Google is that its results are heavily skewed towards local sites while these are often far less useful.

fenwick67• 9 years ago

DDG is my go-to, and if I need Google results for some reason it's just a `!g` away.

mod• 9 years ago

I'm disappointed that DDG doesn't show a map w/ directions on a normal search like this:

"atlanta, ga to tampa, fl"

Google does, and that's been my way to search for a long time. Typically I'm looking up travel time for craigslist items.

Maybe there's a bang for it, I haven't looked.

crispytx2• 9 years ago

I use DuckDuckGo as my default search engine aswell, even though I use Google too. I like checking both to compare their results. I think DuckDuckGo could rival Google if they were a little more innovative. I actually tried to contact Gabriel Weinberg to pitch him my idea but he didn't respond. If you happen to read this Mr. Weinberg, hit me up!

ajc-sorin• 9 years ago

I know most people on this aren't a fan of the subreddit /r/The_Donald, but there is a tremendous push on that sub for people to use alternatives to major tech giants.

Google, Facebook, and Amazon (due to the connection with Washington Post) are vilified, and multiple posts reach the top each week outlining alternatives - Duckduckgo is a major one, firefox/brave are suggested browsers, and in general people on that sub talk about completely disconnecting from facebook, or minimizing use to messenger only.

I can see a pretty sizeable opportunity for platforms to come out that are truly tolerant of all speech/perspectives. I'm not criticizing, nor expressing favor towards, any of the services I've mentioned, but it seems like someone could make a solid earning in a lifestyle company aimed at servicing individuals who want privacy and uninhibited freedom of speech.

For reference, T_D is in the top 125 of subreddits by subscriber base and activity. If you exclude default subreddits, they're probably in the top 50 subs. Considering they probably have even more penetration through the amount of lurkers (like me), I wouldn't be surprised if they drove a sizeable chunk of users away from Big-Tech.

Edit (for personal reasons): I'm not on T_D because I support Trump. I go there to get a perspective of people who I don't completely understand, in order to better understand their needs/fears. Also, their memes are dank.

nrhk• 9 years ago

I'm not sure why everyone is for tolerating the intolerant. To me, that just leads to a society where little cancerous spots can thrive and even grow.

Then when a catastrophe or a period of unrest hits these little spots of cancer get the opportunity to grow into the general populace by spreading their fear, uncertainty and blame first mentalities.

I get the slippery slope of censorship but when a group/ideology processes itself to be only intolerant and hateful then should we really encourage or even tolerant its existence?

As an aside, obviously when it comes to bigger groups (religious groups) then it's harder to generalize that every participant espouses every belief.

pattrn• 9 years ago

I'm not sure why everyone is for tolerating the intolerant. To me, that just leads to a society where little cancerous spots can thrive and even grow.

Living in a swing state puts me in front of quite a few Trump supporters and Clinton supporters. I haven't met any intolerant Trump or Clinton supporters yet, so I'm not sure it's fair to generalize either group as intolerant. They must exist in some capacity, but it's far from the norm, at least around here.

I don't really take internet forums as any indication of the norm, as they tend to draw extremists from both sides. Most people don't browse political forums all day or comment on news articles (I can't cite this, but I can research it if you doubt the claim), so I don't connect dots between them and the general voters. They certainly don't represent the people I know in person.

tinalumfoil• 9 years ago

I'm not sure why everyone is for tolerating the intolerant.

If you accept intolerance towards intolerance then why bother caring about tolerance in the first place. Everyone's just intolerant. The "good" aren't the people who shout the loudest, they're the people who extend goodwill towards their enemies.

Then when a catastrophe or a period of unrest hits these little spots of cancer get the opportunity to grow into the general populace by spreading their fear, uncertainty and blame first mentalities.

Same thing with fear. If people should fear fear what's the point of caring about fear in the first place? Everyone's already afraid.

I get the slippery slope of censorship but when a group/ideology processes itself to be only intolerant and hateful then should we really encourage or even tolerant its existence?

As for censorship and speech, there is worldwide consensus that humans should be permitted to speak freely without fear [0]. In, at least the US, I believe (and sincerely hope) this human right continues to be recognized in the long term.

As an aside, obviously when it comes to bigger groups (religious groups) then it's harder to generalize that every participant espouses every belief.

Debates are probably better focused on individual arguments than on groups anyway.

[0] "...the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people..." - https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/

EDIT: a word

tinus_hn2• 9 years ago

Keep in mind that many of these subscribers are probably bots for vote manipulation and subscriber count inflation purposes.

sergiotapia• 9 years ago

If anything the subscriber and online active count has been demonstrated to be tampered with multiple times by reddit staff. Even the CEO edited users comments - I have never seen that done ever or since. I say this as someone who has visit the_d since it had ~900 subscribers.

s3r3nity• 9 years ago

Isn't Yahoo still powered by Bing? Or did they move back to their own engine?

gesman• 9 years ago

For a fact I was able to pull competitive docs from website with the help of Duck that Goog won't provide.

Name kinda sucks - i always typing duckgogo and ending up at spammy site. WTF is duckduckgo?

Can't we do a brandy shortcut or so?

crispytx2• 9 years ago

Duck duck goose.

mejin• 9 years ago

ddg.gg redirects you to duckduckgo

mollusk• 9 years ago

They could rebrand to merely Duck, but duck.com is already registered... to Google [0].

[0] https://www.whois.com/whois/duck.com

Bing/yahoo/duckduckgo are gaining on Google?

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