Re:DuckDuckGo Down
by red_admiral on Friday May 24, 2024 @05:45AM
(#40464526)
"Bing but without copilot" alone would be a product worth having. But I think DDG has a few more things on top of that, like the `!bang` stuff and the bit where they don't send tracking data on you to Microsoft.
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Re:DuckDuckGo Down
by arrowsmith on Friday May 24, 2024 @07:50AM
(#40465183)
I really don't understand why any technically literate person would be impressed by the "!bang" stuff on DDG. You know your browser already provides this feature, right? Just configure some custom search keywords in your search settings. What does DDG offer that's better than this?
How do I set that up on iOS Safari?
Exactly. You can't except by setting DDG as the default search engine. Chrome, Brave, and FF for iOS also don't directly support this sort of feature either.
They already set them up for a ton of sites, though, and often you can guess your way to a bang on the first try. I have only looked at the actual list once or twice. Plus it seems to match the closest one in cases of using one that doesn't exist. I can also go to a machine that isn't my own and take advantage of them there right away. I heavily use the quickmarks in qutebrowser, but also the ddg bangs. I just hit O for open in new tab and can put in a bang right there.
Just to emphasize: When opan says ton, they mean a TON. Around 13 thousand, if I remember correctly.
They proxy the !bang things so that whoever provides the search gets less info about who you are. Less isn't nothing, but it is still better than your browser can do without the proxy.
>Just configure some custom search keywords in your search settings. What does DDG offer that's better than this?
Pre-configured keywords could be considered better than manually-configured keywords.
>Just configure
I might not be impressed, but as I get older, I skew toward out of the box experience over configuration. I rather learn, and then apply that knowledge everywhere the thing is used, than configure, and lug my configuration around. Therefore, I value an opinionated feature like the bangs in DDG, even though as a professional, I know that there are many alternatives to it. If I know how to do it with DDG, I can use it everywhere I load DDG: my personal computer, my work computer, my phone's browser, my phone's other browser, the browser in the VM, the browser in the VM in the cloud, on the freshly installed computer with its default settings, everywhere.