DuckDuckGo [search engine]

Getting rather infuriated with Google's removal of the "must include" tag ... I decided to try another search engine: **LINK**

https://duckduckgo.com/

... also available for iOS **LINK**

https://appsto.re/gb/P2zJN.i

So far, I'm rather impressed.

So ... over to forum ... What do you think ?

Rants & Conspiracy Theories are welcome.

MichaelG.

My preferred choice. Unlike Google it doesn't track you (or at least DuckDuckGo claim it doesn't). The search results aren't quite as complete as Google's, but they're pretty darned close.

On Windows, one of the Antivirus packages pops up and says something like 'Our customers have reported DuckDuckGo to be unreliable. Would you like Google instead?'. This appears to be a marketing ploy: I suspect 'our customers' to be, ahem, Google.

Best of all, when 'the Microsoft Security Centre' calls, they've never heard of DuckDuckGo. When they ask you to Google things, you truthfully tell then you don't have it, and their scam patter goes all wobbly...

Dave

I went quackers at least a year ago, as there was no way I was going to agree to Google 'preference' updates. Otherwise known as we rip off your private data, sell it to scammers, and innundate you with 'tailored' adverts. Yeah right! Totally laughable, where are the ads for aeroplanes and secondhand machine tools then?

On a practical note duckduckgo is fine, but seems a little sensitive to the exact search wording?

Andrew

Edited By Andrew Johnston on 15/12/2016 19:52:39

DuckDuckGo is the home search engine on the Pale Moon browser. I'm using Pale Moon in preference to Opera and after 6 months like it very much and wouldn't return to Opera or Internet Explorer or Google Chrome (neither of which I've tried).

Pale Moon is similar to Firefox (I'm told) but very much cut down, which is a good thing in my opinion.

Dave
The Emerald Isle

Thanks Michael. I'm giving it a go.

Immediately I like the default to a UK search (it defaults to 'Any Country' in google).

Steve

Bing is our company default and it is truly pathetic.

Slightly strange behaviour from the DuckDuckGo App for iOS

The address bar continues to show the 'search' instead of the address of the site that is open [thereby making it difficult to copy & paste the URL of that page] ... No problem, thought I; there's an 'open in Safari' button available via the 'share' icon ... BUT clicking that opens the search, NOT the page last visited.

There may be a work-around for this, but I have yet to find it.

General performance seems excellent though

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 15/12/2016 22:30:39

Google is fine if you clear your history after each session, I use firefox

If you don't trash your history you get spammed bigtime by the tracking

Michael, I have used DuckDuckGo for a long time, and I like it.

Thor

..

... Perhaps so; but that doesn't address the issue that fisrt prompted me to look for an alternatve.

MichaelG.

I use Google, I never knew about the 'tracking' up till now but perhaps this is what gives me better results, I've just tried DuckDuckGo for the first time and although it showed a Union Jack logo at the top of the page, when I typed my home town 'Southport' in, it gave me 7 hits out of 100 in the UK, whereas Google gave me 100 out of 100, Yahoo was the same, when I used that most of the hits were in the USA, unless of course I've not set it up right.

John

DuckDuckGo and Adblock plus (browser addon) keep me sane

Bit more to it than that Ady. Have a look at this advice, for example, How to Stop Google From Tracking You on the Web

What I find obnoxious is that so many internet and software services invade our privacy by default. It's a trend. Google are just one example, albeit a big one. The nature and scale of the privacy intrusion is never explained up front - it's our responsibility to carefully read the small print. So, we first have to be aware of the distinct possibility that our privacy is compromised and then work quite hard to turn it off. In my opinion it's a pile of poo.

Cheers,

Dave

Following the Regulatory Powers Bill becoming law in November we might as well forget any notions about online privacy. The UK Government now has huge powers to spy on it's own people.

Google et-al are merely small bit players in the information game, want your search history etc? Ask GCHQ!

Anyone wanting to find out more can look at these pages.

**LINK**

Edited By V8Eng on 16/12/2016 12:03:30

Call me stupid, naive, not street wise or whatever, but I personally couldn't care less if the GCHQ guys read my emails or know what websites I go on, unfortunately the way things have gone in the world we should be thankful that there are organisations on our side listening in, but that's my own view and I realise that many will disagree with it.

John

I go along with that. I don't care what information people have on me, IT'S THE FREAKING ADVERTS EVERYWHERE THAT GET ME RILED (can you tell?). I'm immune to them now and can turn a blind eye, but jeez, they are shoved in your face everywhere you go nowadays, more so the internet..

(Michael, I like the gold stars your are giving out!)

Steve

.

I just did ... So presumably they now know that I did, and are curious about my motives.

MichaelG.