this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2023
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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The fact you're saying you're still getting useful results on Google means you haven't used Google for the past year to me.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

They said as useful as Google. Not that Google gives objectively very useful results. And I agree with them. I use DuckDuckGo every day and pretty much every time I have to add !g to send my query to Google because the DDG results are shit in comparison.

I'm talking about on the desktop btw. With adblocking and script blocking. I accidentally used Google on my phone yesterday and I think I got cancer.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What's the difference between using !g and going to Google directly?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The results are still tailored to you on Google, based on past usage and tracking history. They aren’t with a bang.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Thanks, nice to know!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is incorrect.

DDG just just performs a simple redirect to Google with the query, where the latter has access to cookies, past usage (especially if one is logged in to Google), etc.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So you say that there is no difference in googling on Google.com or using DDG with !g?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yes. The !bangs in DDG are for convenience and not for privacy. The convenience of not opening the intended website, and typing/pasting the query to perform the search.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Same boat here. I set DDG as my default but still end up using !g around half the time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Seriously. If I want to hope to get any result that is mildly useful, I'm obligated to add a specific site on the query, either wiki or reddit.