News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on What is the business model for DuckDuckGo? (2017). Parent comment

Re:What is the business model for DuckDuckGo? (2017) by chris_f on Thursday May 28, 2020 @08:10AM (#23336309)
"Curiously, I'd say 90% of the time I use Google is for math. If I'm typing a complex math expression (especially with units), Google tends to do much better than DDG."

This is interesting because it highlights the changing expectation of web search engines from when they were just tools to find relevant webpages for a query.

Search engines have morphed into all-purpose utility and information tools. The bar for what makes a good search engine has been greatly moved forward. Organic web search results are now just one part of the measure of quality and relevance.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What is the business model for DuckDuckGo? (2017) by ashtonkem on Thursday May 28, 2020 @09:45AM (#23337140)
I wonder if that’s an OS specific thing. I find that nowadays I use Spotlight on OSX for math expressions, not Google.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What is the business model for DuckDuckGo? (2017) by Mirioron on Thursday May 28, 2020 @11:29AM (#23338447)
How does it compare to Wolfram Alpha in your opinion?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What is the business model for DuckDuckGo? (2017) by ashtonkem on Thursday May 28, 2020 @11:44AM (#23338620)
I never use WA, but I'm typically reaching for fairly basic math calculations that don't involve units. Last example was calculating an estimate cost of DynamoDB based on the peak RPS I'd found, which is just basic math with a lot of significant digits.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What is the business model for DuckDuckGo? (2017) by reaperducer on Thursday May 28, 2020 @12:13PM (#23338989)
Siri draws answers from Wolfram Alpha, so maybe Spotlight does, as well.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What is the business model for DuckDuckGo? (2017) by saagarjha on Thursday May 28, 2020 @01:14PM (#23339824)
Spotlight uses a private framework for mathematical expressions called Calculate.framework. (Fun fact: it seems to be based on Bison.)
[ Parent | on HN ]