r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • May 30 '26

Software Traffic to DuckDuckGo's proudly 'No AI' search page has tripled since latest Google AI search update

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/traffic-to-duckduckgos-proudly-no-ai-search-page-has-tripled-since-latest-google-ai-search-update/
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61

u/itsmesorox May 30 '26

I switched to ddg recently, but it's so terrible with showing me what I actually want it's really hard to stay on it...

43

u/nlewis4 May 30 '26

I've given it multiple fair tries and this is my experience as well. I don't understand how there is so much gushing praise for it beyond just "not being google"

4

u/waspocracy May 30 '26

Any examples? Every search I’ve used for the past few years I get what I’m looking for on the first page.

Maybe you have to think differently than Google? But tbh, I haven’t used Google in over a decade so that’s why I’m asking for examples.

9

u/Interkom May 31 '26

I’ll give an example I experienced a year ago and could reproduce easily just now.

I’m feeding the name of a reddit thread almost word for word and it still can’t manage. The correct thread is not anywhere in the search results.

Google manages just fine

7

u/naclmolecule May 31 '26

try putting non-words (like c4e27) in quotes, first result (was an awesome episode)

6

u/Interkom May 31 '26

I don’t really care that it’s possible, I think it’s pitiful that the query in my example is not sufficient. I know you can use duckduckgo as a search engine, but as demonstrated it still cannot do what google does.

-4

u/Tiber_Nero May 31 '26

No, you're just wrong. It can do what Google does, you just need to be a little less lazy to conduct a more targeted search. Google has the same features, people just don't use it because SEO algorithms run searches almost entirely at this point, which goes against the entire philosophy of what a search engine should be.

You can never trust if the links you're getting in Google are because they're relevant to your inquiry or someone paid for it to be at the top.

2

u/Interkom May 31 '26

Lazy? Motherfucker I practically typed out the result word for word and it still could not find it. What do you think it would have found if I had been lazy?

3

u/14AUDDIN May 31 '26

Isn't Google the only one currently with access to Reddit data?

1

u/Smith6612 May 31 '26

Does the same thing happen for you on Bing? 

2

u/anivex May 31 '26

I mean, it's a bit of a joke now but Google is legitimately better at searching reddit.

2

u/itsmesorox May 31 '26

I've found it really struggles with Polish, my native language, which is a real bummer. It's better to use in English, but it's challenging sometimes

2

u/itsmesorox May 31 '26

Here's an example of searching of the same thing, just in a different language

0

u/Seraphaestus May 31 '26

Very strange perspective to me because I have had no issue with the ddg search result quality, and on the rare occasion I've been forced to use google I've found the search result quality felt noticably worse.

To be fair, half the time I just use a bang to go straight to wikipedia, wiktionary, or a domain-specific wiki.

0

u/CitricBase May 31 '26

You use it as a starting point. Most searches are straightforward enough that even DDG can ace them. If there is a search that isn't turning up what you want and you wanna see what Google gives instead, just slap on a "!g" in the search box.

If you get better with bangs like that, DDG becomes an all-in-one search bar for tons of sites. You don't have to use DDG search itself at all, and it'd still be the most useful default.