DuckDuckGo is top result for "new search engine"

http://www.google.com/search?q=new+search+engine

by pclark • 17 years ago

27 51 17 years ago

jacquesm• 17 years ago

I'm all for diversity, let's hope this duck doesn't go the way of the dodo!

If anybody out there wants to pit their might against google then I wish them good luck, as long as you find that your relevance for 'new search engine' on your competitors website is of major importance I think you have a ways to go.

Coincidentially duckduckgo gives 'cuil' as the first result for 'new search engine', I'm not sure how to interpret that :)

thorax• 17 years ago

Now that you mention it. Am I the only one seeing this?

For the past month or so, Google has been less satisfying in their search results for me. I've been an avid Google search addict since 1998, I really sense a palpable drop in result quality since before the holidays.

Maybe it's a bad index refresh? Maybe they've got some little issue? Maybe it's my discomfort with the invasion of the top search results with "Did you mean BLAH" results?

Or I'm losing my mind? Or maybe they're losing a bit of their touch?

Recently I had 2-3 technical search results that returned much better hits from Yahoo and Live than from Google. This almost never has happened for me-- certainly never before did I start to think "maybe I'm missing out by using Google exclusively".

For a business perspective, I believe this might be adding to why we're seeing increased traffic for our error search engine (http://bug.gd). Our search results differe substantially from Google's because we optimize for errors across our own web index, our community results, and BOSS. Google used to do a better job of finding these errors in haystacks, too.

Is anyone else feeling this drop in Google search results quality lately? Or is it just me?

mojonixon• 17 years ago

You're not alone. I think it's the suggested search results. Almost never useful. I've switched over to yahoo in my toolbar. I think the top search engines are close enough in quality that their results are only distinguishable by interface (there's been research, though I can't remember where). When they change the presentation with that "did you mean" they do more damage to the brand than improvement to the results. It's Google's version of Clippy.

mattmaroon4• 17 years ago

This site is going to have to change it's name to get to the next level. I can't ever see anyone saying "just duckduckgo it".

truebosko2• 17 years ago

"Just duck it." :)

ericb• 17 years ago

duckit?

seano• 17 years ago

Maybe, but 15 years ago "just google it" would have sounded strange too.

mattmaroon4• 17 years ago

There's strange and then there's overly long. Google rolls off the tongue.

Also, Google is fun, maybe even a little silly. DuckDuckGo is childish. It makes me think it's a search engine for toddlers.

I'm willing to admit I may be wrong, but I think that name will hold them back.

prakash• 17 years ago

would you be talking about it if the name was something else? Brand is a BIG part of any new search engine, one portion of it is remembering the name -- kinda hard to forget one with the name DuckDuckGo.

paul7986• 17 years ago

Yeah what seems silly, odd & out of the ordinary often becomes successful. Gets people talking!

Look at the Snuggie craze, which keeps you warm yet looks totally ridiculous!

mattmaroon4• 17 years ago

I would if it were on Hacker News. Other than this thread, I'll have forgotten about it by tomorrow.

axod4• 17 years ago

Very easy to forget IMHO, and hard to remember if it's duckduckgo, duckgoduck, gogoduck, duckgo, goduck, etc etc

fallentimes4• 17 years ago

Duck it, duck yourself, go ducking - I bet something will stick.

dmoney• 17 years ago

It's worse in past tense: "I googled it" vs. "I duckduckgoed/duckduckwent it". Not everything has to be verbed though.

truebosko2• 17 years ago

DuckDuckGo gets some interesting results on an ego search compared to Google. I wonder how it ranks results compared to other search engines.

markessien5• 17 years ago

Speaking of new search engines, is there any search engine that just returns a single result for each query typed in?

mkuhn4• 17 years ago

yes, google. The "I'm Feeling Lucky" button is your friend :-)

breily• 17 years ago

Also, you could set the num parameter: http://www.google.com/search?q=asdf&num=1

tokenadult• 17 years ago

"We label official sites, and always put them on top."

How would we torture-test this product claim?

This claim is a lie as to an ego search on my own name. There is an "official" page (one I maintain), but it's not the top result. Do we consider Paul Graham, to give a familiar example, to have an official site?

epi0Bauqu6• 17 years ago

paulgraham.com, which is labeled Official site at http://duckduckgo.com/Paul_Graham

Sorry if our text is a bit unclear. We label official sites (that we know about), and always put them on top.

vaksel• 17 years ago

how many people would go to Google and search for a term "new search engine"?

I'd figure a person would use the term search or search engine, and for those duckduckgo is not even in the top 10 pages

epi0Bauqu6• 17 years ago

http://www.google.com/trends?q=new+search+engine%2C+hacker+n...

You have to start somewhere...

epi0Bauqu6• 17 years ago

Just to be clear, I went for this key phrase, e.g. look at the homepage title.

I thought "new search engine" was a) in immediate reach; b) efforts for it could help with "search engine"; and c) people actually searching for "new search engine" are probably good candidates for using Duck Duck Go.

Now I suppose it's time to move on to higher volume stuff...

axod4• 17 years ago

"new search engine": Approx search volume January=18,100. Approx search volume average=22,200

(From google adwords tools).

For comparison, "people search" gets 68,000,000 January, and average of 30,400,000

fallentimes4• 17 years ago

Sort of off topic, but is the adwords tool the best one to use to find search volume?

petercooper• 17 years ago

And you know how they got that ranking?

They promoted a widget - http://duckduckgo.com/karma.html - a little while back that when you install it on your site it uses backlink text of "new search engine" to link to their front page (rather than the page with the widget).

Sadly I don't find their actual search engine very useful at all, but the widget is excellent! It shows you your karma count / popularity on a handful of Web services including Hacker News.

epi0Bauqu6• 17 years ago

Thanks for using our widget! There is also a similar profiles one: http://duckduckgo.com/profiles.html

If anyone needs/wants any help getting it set up (doubtful on HN), or, needs/wants other services added before use (more likely), then please let me know...

wensing• 17 years ago

Not to co-opt any thunder, but we used the same strategy for Stormpulse.com and in doing so have become the #1 result for "storm tracker" http://is.gd/i2C3 and the #2 result (behind only the National Hurricane Center itself, and ahead of Weather Underground, et al) for "hurricane tracking" http://is.gd/i2C8.

sgman• 17 years ago

Interesting that you used google to search for a "new search engine".

DuckDuckGo is top result for "new search engine"

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