A few weeks ago, I thought I would try out duckduckgo as my default search tool in my browser. I've used DuckDuckGo in the past - but only by going there via URL. This time, I thought I'd try to cut the goog cold turkey. I don't have anything remarkable to report, but here are some of my initial thoughts after a few weeks:
-it takes some getting used to. It's different. but that's ok
-it's not so great if you're looking for a youtube video. This may go without saying, since youtube is google's darling.
-in fact - it's not so great at any google related anything. And I know that probably sounds stupid - but for someone who had gotten REALLY used to how easy google makes online stuff - it's a thing (I'm looking at you showtimes, wikipedia snippets, music on youtube, google play, etc)
-it's not so great if you're looking for quick price comparisons on an item (oh wait - that's a google shopping thing... moving on)
-image search is lacking... or at least, it didn't feel as robust or as thorough as the goog
but in the end... knowing this means a lot. I mean - I don't do a lot of porn searching, terrorist extremist stuff, or media piracy... but there's just something about knowing that the goog is watching me that makes me feel icky (or at least makes me feel like they should feel icky).
So there it is... the same conclusion many, many people who are much smarter than I am have already concluded:
Google may be evil, and they may be all up in your business... but dang if they aren't convenient and pretty easy to use. Easy of use vs. privacy. And some other stuff.
I may stick DDG out a little longer - but honestly, I've navigated to google.com more than once after DDG's results didn't make all my wishes come true.
I do all my searching using the firefox search bar - CTRL+K FTW! I've used DuckDuckGo as my primary search provider for a couple of years now.
The "bang" searches are where it really, really shines. It takes a while to get used to but there are so many and some of them are extremely useful.
For those that don't know starting you query with a bang - term does a site specific search.
e.g. !g <SEARCHTERM> - searches google. That's right they let you search google instead of their own search engine.
The number of bang searches is overwhelming so my advice is just to learn a few you find most useful. hey soon became an integral part of searching for me.
These are my most used:
!g - google
!i - google images
!gt / !gten - google translate (English)
!yt - youtube
!a - amazon
!w - wikipedia
I don't think there is any question that google's search engine is the best, but I hate the tracking and lack of privacy with google.
At first I found myself relying on !g quite a lot, but over time it's become just a safety net when DDG doesn't get me what I need and that's really quite rare nowadays.