DuckDuckGo is a search engine, and I know what you’re thinking. "Oh great, another engine I’ll never use." Well, you might use this one.
People normally mention DuckDuckGo concerning its better privacy practices compared to Google or Bing. Yeah, yeah, DDG has good privacy, blah blah blah, but how does it do when you use it for search? Pretty darned good, actually.
What I like about DuckDuckGo
No jumping-around crapola
When you go to google.com, click in the search field and start typing, whammo, where you were just typing moved to the top. Wow, that’s annoying. Then if I press down-arrow on my keyboard (which is easier than click-holding the scroll bar on the right), I scroll down the results, but then when I press up-arrow one too many times I’m back in the search box. Okay, no problem, I’ll press down-arrow again. Wrong. Nope. Now Google is giving you "suggestions". I didn’t want that, Google. I want to scroll my results again. Sorry, Charlie, you’ll have to use your mouse.
DDG does not do this, thank God. Up-arrow goes up the search list, down-arrow goes down and neither will force you back into the search field; that’s the way it’s supposed to work.
Easier to read
DDG isn’t easier to read because of font size but rather because of design. Search results are wider, meaning you don’t have to scroll as much. The search box is separated properly so you know exactly where search is and more importantly where it isn’t.
And of course there are site icons:
Those little icons on the left are wonderful things because they let you know where you are by visual representation much easier. This results in faster reading because you can more easily know where you are at any given time in a search result list.
No filter bubbles
This isn’t so much of a privacy thing as it is a search relevancy thing. DDG explains what this is very well at www.dontbubble.us, but in a nutshell Google "tailors" your search results based on your search and ‘like’ history. As more people are discovering, Google is getting it wrong with personal-to-you filtered results. The wrong comes in the fact you’re not getting what you wanted to find no matter how much you ‘train’ Google; their algorithms simply don’t work.
DDG’s search is better in the respect that it’s ‘general search’, which is what people wanted in the first place. Because of this, odds are that whatever you’re looking for will be found faster in DDG compared to Google.
DuckDuckGo to me is what I call a user’s search engine. The search results appear to be better, and it’s just a much friendlier search experience overall. This isn’t to say Google is bad, but DDG seems to accommodate the user (you) a whole lot better.
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Hey thanks for the tip Rich. I have been trying this out for an hour or so and I seem to like it so far.
What’s not to like! This thing is great! No fluff, easy to read, and right to the point. It’s a keeper. Thanks Rich–I’d heard the name before, but assumed it was another social network I didn’t need. Good heads-up. Thanks again.