Not because DDG got better, but just because google got worse.
google is still better for site-specific searches, and google scholar still has minimal AI slop
That’s a low bar, google sucks now
I feel like its better than google. I switched to DDG a couple years ago. 6 months ago I did a trial run with a self hosted search that only used google as a back end, the results felt like garbage
I’ve switched away from DDG after many years of use. I have gone to Ghostery Private search. It seems to be better for my search results with a lot less garbage mixed in.
I do not think so in my experience. I’m a software developer and a lot of my job is searching solutions to problems. Every year or two I’ll try DDG because I love the concept but it never works as well for me. Putting the same search query into Google yeilds actual results for me more often than DDG does.
I have the same situation. DDG has a feature where you can write “!g query” and search for “query” on Google. I use that as a fallback whenever DDG fails to yield good results - it’s super easy!
I did not know that!
I use QWANT but I have the same feeling tbh. Or maybe Google search has been worsening I’m not too sure…
Compared to a few years ago, it’s better. Some websites still aren’t indexed, and even by entering their name exactly, they don’t show. Google doesn’t have this problem.
Brave search is also pretty good
Good enough for me, although there are times I need to use google.
I like DDG a lot more, especially because of the bang shortcuts. But I transitioned recently to Qwant. It also has bang shortcuts and is hosted in Europe.
It’s just as good as 2008 google, which is all I want.
Google is almost unusable for me even with ad block. I’ve been using DDG for the last 3 or so years now.
Yes, I switched back in 2023 and noticed it was already better than google.
All major search engines feel like they’re either filled with AI slop results, or just only returning major corporations’ sites anymore, though. DDG just falls into the latter, while Google is mostly the former.
It’s my primary but Google unfortunately is often a fallback. And Google is tracking the shit out of us these days. Certain obscure searches don’t work well on DDG, sad to say.
Naw. I use Kagi (paid) now, and get much better search results.
no. i switch to using it as my primary search engine every once in a while, just to see how it’s doing. i always run into situations where i can’t find the thing im looking for. maybe im just the obscure searches man
Probably so. Haven’t used it much but Google has got so much worse. Being filled with adds and irrelevant results that DuckDuckgo probably is better now.
