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Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by sjroot on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @09:34AM (#18664185)
This is cool and I hope it leads to a rebranding. While I like DDG a lot, the name has always felt off-putting to me. I'd much rather say "I'll just search Google" than "I'll just search DuckDuckGo."

Does an extra syllable really cause that much additional friction?

Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by electrograv on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @09:36AM (#18664210)
Also, rather than saying “Google it” maybe we can now say “Duck it”.
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by nickjj on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @10:46AM (#18664836)
I can't wait to start saying "Go Duck yourself", and have it meant to be a request / complement to search your own name.
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by vanadium on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @11:05AM (#18665004)
"Let me duck that for you" might get a few doubletakes.
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by singularity2001 on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @11:48AM (#18665405)
Let's start saying "duck off" to the ill-informed

duck.com will surely inspire the sick dolan[0] crowd

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed3-vC2z7hI

Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by zem on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @04:47PM (#18668042)
"ducking the issues" would finally be a good thing
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by dweekly on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @09:51AM (#18664343)
Suggested title of blog post announcing change: "Duck Yeah!"
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by barrow-rider on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @10:09AM (#18664511)
I rarely use the term "ducking" in conversation, though auto-correct thinks otherwise. Maybe now I will.

"I was ducking around and found a few good resources for fixing the OSPF problem."

Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by verelo on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @11:02AM (#18664975)
Finally auto correct of "ducking" from the ruder alternative will make sense.

"I spent the day ducking around on the internet"

Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by Arkdy on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @10:19AM (#18664593)
In Trinbagonian dialect, "ducking" is the act of skipping work/school.

See: https://youtu.be/2qunog47EVo for musical reference.

Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by owaty on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @10:49AM (#18664856)
"Ducking" is also a term used in audio mixing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ducking
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by faiz7412 on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @11:00AM (#18664958)
"Are you good at ducking mate? Let's party!"
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by rhplus on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @11:59AM (#18665501)
"duck" is also used often in the context of not giving an answer (e.g. "duck the issue"), which is an unfortunate connotation for a search engine.
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by ljf on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @10:58AM (#18664942)
Also is in the UK - esp 'Duck Out' - to step out of a meeting or situation.
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by mindgam3 on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @12:05PM (#18665560)
This is the best ducking thread on the internet today. Well done all.
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by Vektorweg on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @11:11AM (#18665065)
If you use !bangs, its a duck hunt.
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by mrtnmcc on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @12:23PM (#18665731)
D and F are are a little too close for comfort on the 'ol qwerty.
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by beeskneecaps on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @10:48AM (#18664851)
I’m feeling ducky
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by zellyn on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @01:58PM (#18666673)
I came here for this. Not disappointed.
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by auiya on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @12:13PM (#18665655)
The obvious auto-correct problems on iOS devices will be amazing for marketshare expansion.
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by genericone on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @10:07AM (#18664499)
Some might be partial to "I'd Duck that"
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by kethinov on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @10:33AM (#18664723)
I just say "web search it." Same syllables as Google. Devoid of any brand preference.
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by ummonk on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @12:47PM (#18665963)
Same syllables sure but there has to be a hard stop between the two syllables since b and s can’t be strung together.
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by balnaphone on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @01:27PM (#18666356)
The two words can be strung together just fine in English. Think of the word "rub", then "rubs", then "rubs search", then "rubsearch". The final 'b' in "web" is indeed pronounced differently when linked to the word "search".

For more discussion see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_change

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assimilation_(phonology)

Page 10 of http://www.ling.hawaii.edu/faculty/donegan/Papers/201Xhistph...

Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by tspike on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @01:47PM (#18666578)
They can but it's more difficult on a muscle level. You have to change the position of your tongue quite a bit to alter the airflow transitioning from the bilabial plosive to the sibilant, versus "Google" where you can almost say the G-L transition without moving your mouth; just a very slight adjustment of your uvula and tongue can produce an understandable sound.

Try saying "web search" without moving your mouth. Now try saying "google" without moving your mouth.

Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by ummonk on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @10:46PM (#18669715)
It is not normal English for a "b" at the end of a word to get assimilated into the "s" at the start of the word.

(Note also that when you say "rubs", the "b" is not getting assimilated - it's the "s" that is getting assimilated into a voiced "z")

Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by sorenjan on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @10:27AM (#18664663)
The best Ducking search engine available.
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by BerislavLopac on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @10:50AM (#18664861)
My phone's autocorrect would love this. :D
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by androidgirl on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @09:53AM (#18664364)
That's absolutely hilarious and I love it.

In casual conversation, "DeeDeeGee it" is so much more clunky.

Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by dctoedt on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @10:35AM (#18664736)
In U.S. Navy and NATO jargon, "DDG" is the designator for guided-missile destroyers (warships) [0]. So you could say "destroy it" ....

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guided_missile_destroyer

Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by androidgirl on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @03:37PM (#18667522)
Interesting! I had no idea.
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by austincheney on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @11:39AM (#18665323)
I can how that would be abused, as in: go duck yourself

Edit: somebody beat me to it.

Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by dylan604 on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @11:20AM (#18665156)
I’ll Duck Hunt it
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by vackosar on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @09:42AM (#18664266)
Duuckle it!
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by JacKTrocinskI on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @09:38AM (#18664225)
Haha, yes!
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by burkaman on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @09:51AM (#18664349)
It's not the number of syllables, it's the particular flow of those syllables and the number of full stops. I'm sure there's a linguistic term for what I mean. Consider "I'll just Googlify it" or "I'll just Dodogo it", which both sound better than "I'll just DuckDuckGo it".
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by timerol on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @10:05AM (#18664474)
The linguistic term is actually just a "stop", though you can use occlusive or plosive to sound fancy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_consonant
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by pilsetnieks on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @10:22AM (#18664616)
Perhaps also a case of the Bouba/kiki effect (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouba/kiki_effect) - people assuming the nature of words because of how they sound.
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by jerf on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @11:04AM (#18664996)
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by pingiun on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @09:59AM (#18664424)
You could also say, "I'll just duckduck it"
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by nailer on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @11:14AM (#18665093)
Just duck it.
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by codyb on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @09:53AM (#18664370)
I just say "I'm going to search for x" now and avoid the company name entirely.

Although as noted by a person responding here "I'll duck it" wouldn't be bad.

Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by forgot-my-pw on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @12:11PM (#18665637)
"Google it" kinda came out organically. But it was very cringy when Microsoft forced to popularize the term "Bing it" and did product placements in TV shows and movies.

Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfHuZ5qrYX4

Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by richthegeek on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @10:16AM (#18664563)
I'm not sure how regional this is, but at least around the North of England that'd be interpreted as someone saying they were trying to avoid something.
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by marcosdumay on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @10:37AM (#18664758)
English is not my native language, but I think this is universal. I also think that's why the GP likes the phrase.
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by e17a on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @12:17PM (#18665684)
DDG will never reach some groups without a rebrand. I once installed Firefox on my folks's PC and changed the browser to DDG. My mum opened it instead of Chrome by mistake and said something like

> WTF is this duck thing? Where's Google?

I think that wouldn't have happened if it had a more serious name.

Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by _jal on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @12:43PM (#18665927)
Eh. People mocked Google's name when they were gaining dominance. "Sounds like baby noise, not a serious company" seemed to be the dominant take of those with that view at the time.

I think there's something to three-word names being less memorable than shorter ones, especially when there isn't a clearer hint to function built in.

Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by Doctor_Fegg on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @12:33PM (#18665827)
That said, my two-year old loves the yellow Cyberduck icon on my desktop Mac, and asks me to make it bounce (i.e. launch it from the Dock) whenever he sees it...
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by Pete_D on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @02:42PM (#18667072)
Judging from the Wii and the iPad, people will get used to any brand name, no matter how ridiculous it sounds initially.
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by justinmchase on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @12:46PM (#18665958)
Whats hard about saying "Its a search engine like google, only it doesn't track you. Try it."?
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by thieving_magpie on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @09:53AM (#18664365)
In terms of names it's the GoDaddy of search engines.
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by saagarjha on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @04:06PM (#18667770)
Except GoDaddy actively tries to maintain that perception, while I don’t see DuckDuckGo doing the same.
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by bborud on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @10:06AM (#18664485)
I didn't understand that.
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by goldfeld on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @10:45AM (#18664832)
GoDaddy manages to seem even more of a cheesy web 1.0 company than they are because of the name. It's like a TV ad company for the whole family, not something a programmer would find pleasing to behold.
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by nailer on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @11:15AM (#18665107)
> It's like a TV ad company for the whole family

I thought it was more of a sleaze connotation than a family one.

Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by thieving_magpie on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @11:20AM (#18665151)
There's just something about "Daddy" in a company name I can't get over.
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by mr_toad on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @05:34PM (#18668326)
To me GoDaddy always sounded like the moniker a pimp would use.
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by reshie on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @10:52AM (#18664884)
i allways thought of it as a play on duck duck goose(which has some interesting connotations and in this context). it is good they got duck.com and makes sense in recognition and a simple and easy name is good to if thats there intent.
Re:Google transferred ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo by gsich on Wednesday December 12, 2018 @12:14PM (#18665658)
"watscheln" in german, "waddle" in english.