Apple held talks with DuckDuckGo to replace Alphabet's Google as the default search engine for the private mode on Apple's Safari browser, the Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the discussions.
It’s garbage outside of the US for local results. Bing is somewhat better, but still not good enough. In the US though, plenty of good alternatives to Google search
I’m outside US (Philippines), most searches are local as long as your country is set on DDG settings. I’ve been using DDG since 2021 and it’s refreshing that I actually searching with my actual query, instead of “click the first, random result” and call it a day.
I honestly might have to look into it then. Google is still pretty decent got me but I’m just finding myself either using Reddit to find an answer or asking chat gpt (purely excel related questions)
I’ve had DDG as my default search engine on my iPhone ever since AMP pages became annoying. I have to use Google about once a month. Otherwise DDG is pretty good.
It does show you more relevant results based on your query, withou doing any guessing about what you might have meant by it.
That being said, sometimes I use Google to search for something when DDG is giving me bad results.
But overall I would recommend, it’s muxh more better experience with the results I am seeing.
I have tried Bing for a while as well, but it was thinking too much instead of just showing me the results.
The only reason I had to use Google was to search by image. Which is a feature DDG doesn’t have sadly.
For specific search, I found perplexity.ai to be much better and faster, it uses AI to scan the websites and give summaries as to why they are relevant to your query.
I’d say the opposite: ddg can get me what I want, if I know exactly what I want. If I’m just vaguely guessing, ddg us as good as my guess, while Google tries to guess with me and it works out sometimes.
I just switched from ddg (after years of using it across all my devices) to kagi, but ddg is good. The results can be iffy at times, especially on unusual or niche queries, but their bang system lets you forward the query to other engines to see if they have the result you are looking for. In my household where I control and direct the tech, ddg has been the standard for many years for all our devices. I recommend it to everyone who is still using a big-name search engine.
Upvote this question, it’s pretty relevant to the issue of whether this would have been good for Apple (no, it would not have been)
DDG is my default search on mobile, but half the time I end up back on Google. Google is better at guessing exactly what I want and giving that content fast, such as the weather, people always ask answers, or quick facts about things that saves me from loading the site underneath the result.
But sometimes I know exactly what I want and Google won’t give it to me - because it decided I want something else.
That’s where a well built query can work better on DDG. However… DDG is more susceptible to backlink spamming and old school SEO techniques to rank content near the top. So depending on the people behind the search results, some queries are fine and some can still be garbage.
I have been using it exclusively for years. Does its job most of the time and when it doesn’t and I include Google results (via bang !g) Google doesn’t really find it either.
However, I’ve opted out of most Google services in parallel, so their model of me probably isn’t the best anymore. If in their bubble, their results may still be better (creeps me out though, so I live with non-perfect search).
Is ddg any good?
I feel like Bing would just be better at this point.
DDG is great, highly recommended. It reminds me of what Google used to be.
It’s garbage outside of the US for local results. Bing is somewhat better, but still not good enough. In the US though, plenty of good alternatives to Google search
DDG is only garbage for not personalised search results.
Which is kind of the point in a privacy driven search engine.
DDG literally has a search filter to search only websites belonging to a certain country.
Sincerely, a Belgian DDG user who has been using it exclusively for the last 6 years.
I’m outside the US and I’ve been using DDG exclusively on every device for about 5 years now. It’s excellent.
No problems in the UK
I’m outside US (Philippines), most searches are local as long as your country is set on DDG settings. I’ve been using DDG since 2021 and it’s refreshing that I actually searching with my actual query, instead of “click the first, random result” and call it a day.
I honestly might have to look into it then. Google is still pretty decent got me but I’m just finding myself either using Reddit to find an answer or asking chat gpt (purely excel related questions)
I’ve had DDG as my default search engine on my iPhone ever since AMP pages became annoying. I have to use Google about once a month. Otherwise DDG is pretty good.
It does show you more relevant results based on your query, withou doing any guessing about what you might have meant by it. That being said, sometimes I use Google to search for something when DDG is giving me bad results. But overall I would recommend, it’s muxh more better experience with the results I am seeing. I have tried Bing for a while as well, but it was thinking too much instead of just showing me the results.
The only reason I had to use Google was to search by image. Which is a feature DDG doesn’t have sadly.
For specific search, I found perplexity.ai to be much better and faster, it uses AI to scan the websites and give summaries as to why they are relevant to your query.
I find that when I’m looking for very specific things Google is still king but DDG is much better for broad strokes.
I’d say the opposite: ddg can get me what I want, if I know exactly what I want. If I’m just vaguely guessing, ddg us as good as my guess, while Google tries to guess with me and it works out sometimes.
yep it is quite good
Ddg is Bing with less tracking. I mean, literally it is Bing.
Ddg results are pretty horrible in my experience. Statpage (google results) and brave search both have better results.
Shout out to startpage! I use it almost exclusively and it is great.
Brave Search is awful for non-English results. Startpage is decent but only because it’s basically Google results.
I can’t speak to non-English results, and I agree Startpage is just a Google proxy.
Yeah, brave search is what I use for my main searches, but ddg bangs do come in useful. Brave has it too.
Bangs are essential, especially if you use DDG HTML, which doesnt have tabs for different kinds of searches
I just switched from ddg (after years of using it across all my devices) to kagi, but ddg is good. The results can be iffy at times, especially on unusual or niche queries, but their bang system lets you forward the query to other engines to see if they have the result you are looking for. In my household where I control and direct the tech, ddg has been the standard for many years for all our devices. I recommend it to everyone who is still using a big-name search engine.
Kagi is fucking amazing.
After 2 years of exclusive use: yes. It’s just as good if not better. Google is filled with ads and Bing just sucks.
DDG is bing.
*modified bing
Bing does potentially have slightly worse results, what with the “personalized” (tracking-based, ad/promoted) results. But yeah.
I’ve used it for a few months, and in the end I was always using !g
It’s just not good enough in a lot of contexts. I’m having a much better time with kagi
It’s okay. If you want something genuinely as good as Google, if not better, Kagi is what you want.
Upvote this question, it’s pretty relevant to the issue of whether this would have been good for Apple (no, it would not have been)
DDG is my default search on mobile, but half the time I end up back on Google. Google is better at guessing exactly what I want and giving that content fast, such as the weather, people always ask answers, or quick facts about things that saves me from loading the site underneath the result.
But sometimes I know exactly what I want and Google won’t give it to me - because it decided I want something else.
That’s where a well built query can work better on DDG. However… DDG is more susceptible to backlink spamming and old school SEO techniques to rank content near the top. So depending on the people behind the search results, some queries are fine and some can still be garbage.
Also for image and video search Google is top.
Strong disagree on Google having a better video/image search. Bing is top there, then Google, then DDG, imo.
I have been using it exclusively for years. Does its job most of the time and when it doesn’t and I include Google results (via bang !g) Google doesn’t really find it either.
However, I’ve opted out of most Google services in parallel, so their model of me probably isn’t the best anymore. If in their bubble, their results may still be better (creeps me out though, so I live with non-perfect search).