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A coworker uses DDG and each time we are talking about a problem at work (software development) and need to search something, I am disappointed by the lack of good results and make him use Google instead. It is currently 5 - 0 for Google if I recall correctly.

I would switch in a heartbeat if the results were comparable. Every time I’ve given it (or Bing) a shot for a few weeks, Google was simply better.

3 comments

DDG requires a shift in habits to get good results. Google gives you better results because it knows you and you can be less specific. Search for "django framework" instead of "django", for example.

After using ddg for a while it feels much easier to find what I need using it than google. Maybe because I am not sandboxed correctly by google. Then again, ddg gives good results without sandboxing.

Use "!g" to have DDG send the query to google. You get the results you want without the tracking.

Interesting. Is it just me or shouldn't that be the default functionality? An added benefit is that DDG can then see what result the user picks, compare than to how well (if at all) DDG ranked that link.

!g redirects to google.com, so the results are not displayed or anonymized by DDG. If you want Google results without Google tracking, check out startpage.com. (!sp in DDG)