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Barbing | on: Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore
What

(What do you search) they stink vs. Google even though Startpage is proxying them.

DDG is _not_ a “good” search engine — please, anybody have a hundred side-by-side screenshots to compare identical searches?

Edit - also admit Kagi’s great, I’m not affiliated; if you have money Kagi should be the pick (ideally purchased via their more private payment options probably)

parrellel | parent | next
DDG is a mediocre search engine. A mediocre search engine is still much better than whatever Google's become.

Honestly, the answer is so often a little toy search like Marginalia or going straight to the website in question now, its frightening.

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nchmy | parent | next
I've been generally satisfied with ddg for a few years now. Started using it when Google was had obviously turned to shit, didn't look further.
iamalizard | parent | next
In my experience, DDG brings up relevant results, maybe a bit more so than Google does.

But often I'm searching for a phrase inside quotation marks and DDG hasn't crawled enough sites and gives me 0 or 1 result while Google gives me 5-10 results. Sometimes Google completely disregards the quotation marks, though.

Barbing | root | parent
> But often I'm searching for a phrase inside quotation marks and DDG hasn't crawled enough sites

Microsoft Bing bungles quotation marks so hard (???).

DDG catches the fallout.

> Sometimes Google completely disregards the quotation marks, though

Years ago I remember Google asking the person lodging a similar complaint for an example of a query because they found there was always an explanation. Noticed this no longer holds as of perhaps a few months ago if I’m not mistaken. Even this* fails:

+”omg just tell me no results if this exact string isn’t present come on I even put the plus sign”

Infantilizing for us, maybe optimizing for the 99.5% in reality (understandable, annoying)

*edit, made up example based on what I believe I’ve seen this year

edit:

> DDG brings up relevant results

Have you noticed, not if you misspell a proper noun? Spellchecking e.g. brand names, new/fad current event topics is apparently really hard (IIRC Bing not perfect here either?)

iamalizard | root | parent
> Microsoft Bing bungles quotation marks so hard (???).

DDG was never good at quotation marks so I forgot to mention it also sucks at these.

> Have you noticed, not if you misspell a proper noun?

I haven't but I'd really prefer 2 options:

1) I may mispel thinks quote freqwently but gimme any sorta relevent result

2) I know what I am searching for. Maybe add a "Did you mean X?" link but still show me the results containing the misspellings. If I search for "motorolla" or "mottorolla" (misspellings for "Motorola") in quotes, DDG gives me 1 incomplete page for that misspelling. Google (StartPage) gives me mostly misspellings but with "Motorola" included in some results. Without the quotes both engines treat me as a moron who can't type. If I search for

"mottorolla" phone 2026

DDG still shows me "mottorolla", not "motorola" while Google has decided I am indeed someone who can barely type even though I've put in quotes.

rererereferred | parent | next
DDG works well enough for me. I wonder if people who pay for Kagi perceive it as being better to justify the money spent.
givinguflac | parent
What are your metrics for good? I’ve exclusively used ddg for years and have zero issues. You ask for an outrageous level of proof- you prove it’s not good.
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