DuckDuckGo has replaced Google as my default search engine
If you haven’t tried the new web search engine DuckDuckGo, you should. I never thought I’d say it, but it actually has replaced Google as my default search engine.
Replaced Google? How?
Literally? Just go to DuckDuckGo and click the “Add to Whatever Browser You Are Using” link. Google doesn’t have to be ubiquitous!
Replaced Google? Why?
At first I just decided to give DuckDuckGo a whirl, but after playing with the goodies and !bang searches, I got hooked.
- Great results, fast responses. It feels like my searches are just better in DuckDuckGo.
- Bang Syntax keywords to search specific websites. I can just search for “!wa weather” to do a Wolfram|Alpha search. I used to configure a bunch of these in any of my browsers, now I don’t have to.
- Zero-click results! DuckDuckGo will try to put actually relevant information (as opposed to ads) at the top of the search.
- Goodies!
- There’s a great iPad/iPhone app for searching/browsing. The zero click results allow this to be genuinely useful.
- Actual settings that set relevant things like whether your searches should display in the address bar (i.e. are bookmarkable) or not.
- Privacy: DuckDuckGo doesn’t track you. This one isn’t that important to me, but for many out there it’s DuckDuckGo’s critical feature.
I’ve emailed the dev (yes, it’s written by one guy) and gotten actual answers that same day. (He’s going to add in a !d20 search for the d20srd at my request.)
Give it a try, you can always get back to Google by searching for “!g whatever”.
