Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorithm to think I like it

Re:Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorit... by Garlef on Saturday May 08, 2021 @06:48AM (#27085872)

I tried it and went back to google because google saves me time.

As a dev, I google a lot to figure out how to do X.

My experience with DuckDuckGo was that it added 2-10 minutes of filtering for usable results every time.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorit... by stephc_int13 on Saturday May 08, 2021 @06:54AM (#27085916)

I am using DuckDuckGo and my experience is completely different, but I might be missing something.

Do you have an example of a search you've done where the results were much better from Google Search than from DuckDuckGo?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorit... by mrweasel on Saturday May 08, 2021 @07:13AM (#27086035)

My experience is that we reached a point where if DuckDuckGo can’t find something, then neither can Google. For local search Google is still a little better, but they choosen to drown out actual results with ads.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorit... by greshario on Saturday May 08, 2021 @12:17PM (#27088462)

Not my experience for dev related searches. I assume this is because Google has learned I always search for JS stuff and I've gotten used to that so I'm not specific enough in my searches on DDG.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorit... by Garlef on Saturday May 08, 2021 @07:22AM (#27086094)

This might be true. But my point was that DuckDuckGo costs me too much time. To rephrase it: DuckDuckGo is more expensive to use. (At least for me).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorit... by Garlef on Saturday May 08, 2021 @07:18AM (#27086069)

> Do you have an example of a search ...

Due to the very topic this HN post is about, I don't think this is a good method - your results might be vastly different from mine.

But let's look at the number of relevant results among the top 5 results for some thing I recently wanted to learn about.

"Comprehension categories" - a rather specific term from category theory

https://www.google.com/search?q=comprehension+category https://duckduckgo.com/?q=comprehension+category

Google: 5/5 (for me) DuckDuckGo: 1/5 (for me)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorit... by mdpye on Saturday May 08, 2021 @07:31AM (#27086145)

You have to be explicit about the context if you've chosen to dump the implicit bundle of context.

"comprehension categories category theory" 5/5

I'd hardly say it's 2 to 10 minutes extra work, especially for such an obvious example

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorit... by smichel17 on Saturday May 08, 2021 @07:41AM (#27086208)

"Comprehension categories theory" works as well.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorit... by lehi on Saturday May 08, 2021 @09:11AM (#27086825)

> Do you have an example of a search you've done where the results were much better from Google Search than from DuckDuckGo?

Here you go: https://imgur.com/a/CssDXS3

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorit... by smsm42 on Monday May 10, 2021 @01:12AM (#27102929)

Have been using DDG for years, needed to call to Google maybe once per month in a particularly tough queries, on those I get about 50% success ratio - sometimes Google helps, sometimes doesn't. For the vast majority of routine queries DDG is more than enough.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorit... by MandieD on Sunday May 09, 2021 @06:49AM (#27094928)

Google for tech stuff, Startpage/DDG for anything else. Google doesn’t need to know every single infant-related concern I have.

[ Parent | on HN ]