News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on The curious case of DuckDuckGo.

Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by puredemo on Monday August 22, 2011 @12:43AM (#2911337)
I've said this for a long time, but I think the biggest thing holding back DDG from truly widespread adoption is the name and branding.

No one is ever going to 'dukgo' someone. Searching is a verb, the naming conventions used with DDG in its current form just don't fly. I'd love to talk shop with Gabriel about the identity decisions, and whether he is open to pivoting the brand identity now that the service is getting more well known..

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by fbuilesv on Monday August 22, 2011 @01:00AM (#2911373)
Before Google we never Altavista'd or Yahoo'd anything, I don't see why this has to be a problem.

Also, please stop abusing the word "pivot" :(

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by IsaacL on Monday August 22, 2011 @06:57AM (#2912054)
I agree. Google became a verb because the search engine was successful, not the other way around. Furthermore:

- Microsoft spent pots of cash trying to verbify their search engine with their "bing and decide" commercials. As far as I know, this hasn't worked for them.

- IIRC Google themselves tend to use the form "do a Google search" - or they risk losing their trademark.

- Duck Duck Go is a catchy name - three punchy syllables. (I've recently become a fan of The Name Inspector's blog).

- And people should definitely stop using "pivot" when they just mean "change". Or "disruptive" when they mean "new". It's the startup equivalent of the crystal healers who use words like "quantum" to sound more intelligent.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by mtogo on Monday August 22, 2011 @11:21AM (#2912718)
But my disruptive agile cloud startup is going to pivot into being more of a social media cloud platform!!1!1oneone
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by vacri on Monday August 22, 2011 @08:55AM (#2912276)
Or 'impact' when they mean 'affect', though sadly the battle is lost on that one...
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by njharman on Monday August 22, 2011 @03:02AM (#2911645)
Give you a hint, why. Which one of those companies dominates search? Which are dead or also rans?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by BasDirks on Monday August 22, 2011 @01:27AM (#2911430)
Right, before Google.. but maybe that's the point: they never became as ubiquitous as Google.
[ Parent | on HN ]
[deleted]
Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by BasDirks on Monday August 22, 2011 @02:13AM (#2911535)
No, but it helps. My grandma says "I'll Google it". In the case of Altavista (yep she already had internet back then), she'd say "I'll try to use the site you bookmarked for me". Reason #1 for her familiarity with Google is the ease-of-use: an obvious box for typing shit, one obvious list for clicking shit, combined into one website for finding shit. But the apparent naturalness of Google as a verb—even in Dutch—makes old (and less old) folks feel like they are with the times. A verbalizable name helps because verbs tend to integrate into everyday talk more easily, whereas nouns always have a sense of otherness attached to them. With a service like search that is so central to the web-experience, you don't want that otherness, but perhaps when you are competing with Google Search it is best to have that sort of distance.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by brusch on Monday August 22, 2011 @02:14AM (#2911541)
I've got the exact same feeling. Duck Duck Go looks and sounds quirky (and not in a good way for me).
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by mvts on Monday August 22, 2011 @05:18AM (#2911893)
Feelin the same way, but I'll be trying this anyway. I'd rather have it ugly and honest than good looking and insidious.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by rooshdi on Monday August 22, 2011 @01:47AM (#2911466)
DuckDuckGo is a good enough name. Penetrating market share is incredibly difficult in the search market. Microsoft is spending billions of dollars each year marketing Bing to the masses and it still only has about 14% market share. It takes time, technology, and money to break the mindshare of users away from Google Search. DuckDuckGo has the name, they just need the time, technology, and money to market to the mainstream.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by bane on Monday August 22, 2011 @12:48PM (#2913065)
He should just rename it "Go"...it's both shorter than Google, works great as a verb "I'm going to Go to xyz site" meaning searching on the Go search engine is akin to a behavior many people already have -- searching for sites instead of typing their url.

Plus it helpfully further confuses the word "Go", it's a programming language, a regular old verb, and a search engine!

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by systems on Monday August 22, 2011 @05:09AM (#2911879)
Well, in general I like the Duck Logo and brand Now checking possible duck domains

    Duck.com redirect to google! 
    Duck.co points to a DDG community site!
    Goduck.com is for sales 
    Duck.net is blocked from work so I guess its a porn thing
What do you think will work as a good brand?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by mdaniel on Monday August 22, 2011 @06:49AM (#2912043)
I didn't know about duck.com. Does anyone know the story behind that?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by unfasten on Monday August 22, 2011 @07:18AM (#2912102)
From a previous discussion on it http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2027691 here's a quote from Gabriel:

"""To be fair, it came as an asset in an unrelated acquisition (On2). But it just sat their (pointing to this Duck Corporation history page) for a long time.

I first inquired about it on 11/4/09. After several attempts, I got back a response "from management" on 3/25/10 that they didn't want to sell it. Understandable.

Now http://www.on2.com/ points to a Google explanation page about the On2 acquisition, yet http://duck.com/ points directly to Google search."""

Also discussed a little bit on the DDG community forum: http://duck.co/topic/duck-com-redirects-to-google

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by mdaniel on Tuesday August 23, 2011 @01:35PM (#2917472)
Thank you, that was very helpful and informative.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by morsch on Monday August 22, 2011 @06:55AM (#2912053)
Duck.com redirect to google!

Huh. Well, that's fairly bizarre.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by vacri on Monday August 22, 2011 @08:57AM (#2912281)
duck.net is owned by a squatter.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by alanh on Monday August 22, 2011 @01:44AM (#2911461)
Agreed. He has a short URL but I'll be darned if I can remember it. Something like ddggg?

Edit: Right, ddg.gg. I guess I had it. But don't tell me it's memorable (I only recalled increasing character repetition). How do others remember it? "Duck Duck G-G-Go"? He definitely needs a short, pronounceable name.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by jordank on Monday August 22, 2011 @02:05AM (#2911505)
DDG.gg
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by BMorearty on Monday August 22, 2011 @02:32AM (#2911579)
At least it's not named Blekko.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by Hominem on Monday August 22, 2011 @03:50PM (#2913822)
Yeah, I'll just keep on googling on DuckDuckGo. The way I make a xerox on whatever photocopier is around.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by CamperBob on Monday August 22, 2011 @05:17AM (#2911892)
Why not just say "Duck it"?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by imperialWicket on Monday August 22, 2011 @10:32AM (#2912559)
What's with the name? It is derived from Duck Duck Goose, but it's not a metaphor—really. If you're wondering how you would turn that into a verb...Duck it!

From the ddg faq page: http://duckduckgo.com/faq.html

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by rooshdi on Monday August 22, 2011 @05:48AM (#2911942)
Sounds good to me. Just Duck It! They can even create a promotion around it with a curved beak as the logo.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by LeafStorm on Monday August 22, 2011 @06:32AM (#2912019)
Maybe save up for www.[just]duck.it.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The curious case of DuckDuckGo by rooshdi on Friday August 26, 2011 @11:13PM (#2930702)
I suggested it to Gabriel, so we'll see.
[ Parent | on HN ]