Why I Switched To The Duck Duck Go Search Engine

Some time ago I started to look into Google Search alternatives. This had a number of reasons, from too much noise on Google results pages over deteriorating quality to privacy concerns. I first switched to Bing, the most prominent alternative market share wise. And while it proved to be a solid search engine, especially for English queries, it failed to impress when it came to more advanced queries. I’m often researching issues, like “how to improve font rendering in Firefox”, “DVD drive letter not showing up in Windows Explorer” or “how to uninstall plug-ins in Microsoft Office”. Bing’s result were not impressive and I often had to switch to Google to get better results. I’m not saying that Google’s results were perfect, but they usually listed one or two results on the first pages that I could work with.

I moved to Ixquick and liked what I saw in the beginning. It too had the same issues that Bing had unfortunately. Complex search queries usually yielded results pages that would not help me in my research.

I switched to Duck Duck Go about two weeks ago and have not looked back since. Let me start the review by saying that I still have to switch to Google or Bing sometimes to get the results that I want. But that’s true for every search engine. There have been searches where Google could not provide me with results that I was looking for.

What I really like about Duck Duck Go is its simplicity. It is what Google has been a long time ago, a search engine that concentrates on search, and not on shoving advertisement and Google service promotions down the user’s throat.

The search results – often – begin with information at the top that are taken from Wikipedia. It is a quick one-liner that provides you with basic information about the site, service or name. The box links to Wikipedia and the official site, as well as related categories on the Duck Duck Go search engine. You can disable that box in the search settings.

Below the box is either the official site, outlined with a special button for better visibility, or a sponsored link result. This sponsored link is clearly distinguishable from the rest of the results.

Search suggestions on the right can help you redefine the search. For Ghacks, you find suggestions such as software, windows or Google listed there that can be appended to the search phrase with a click.

Search results are not personalized, and users are not tracked when using the search engine.

The search engine offers access to so called !bangs that you can use to redirect your search directly to a supported site.

You can for instance enter !youtube phrase to be redirected to YouTube’s search results page for the phrase you have entered. Hundreds of bangs exist, from searching popular blogs like Arstechnica or Lifehacker over Chrome, Firefox and Opera add-ons and userscripts to software downloads or company websites.

You can furthermore use \ in front of your search term to be taken directly to the first search result.

Interested users can check out the goodies page which highlights some of the advanced capabilities of the search engine. This includes conversions and calculations that you can make directly in the search engine, dates that you can look up and other interesting stuff.
There is also a list of keyboard shortcuts, that include navigating back and forth with j and k, t to go to the top or m to highlight the first result (which you could then open with a tap on the enter key).

Switch To DuckDuckGo in your browser

Google Chrome users need to click on the wrench icon in the upper right corner, and select Settings from the menu that opens.

They then need to locate Search on the first page and click on the Manage search engines button. Locate DuckDuckGo in the list, hover over its entry and click on the Make default button that appears.

Firefox users need to enter about:config into their browser’s address bar. They then need to filter for the term keyword.URL, double click the parameter on the results page and replace the value with http://duckduckgo.com/?q=.

Microsoft Internet Explorer users can head over to the Internet Explorer Gallery to install the Duck Duck go search provider plugin which adds the search engine to Microsoft’s browser.

What’s Missing?

Duck Duck Go does not maintain its own image search engine. If you want to search for images, you can either use a !bang to start the search on Duck Duck Go, or open an image search engine to search there directly.

The search engine does not link to cached versions of a page listed in the results. It is sometimes the only way to access information posted on the site, for instance if it is temporarily or permanently down.

Some searches still require you to switch search engines to find suitable results. My personal experience was that I had to switch engines less often than when I used Bing or Ixquick.

Verdict

I have not looked back yet after switching to Duck Duck Go. It is definitely an improvement over Bing or Ixquick. And while it may not be on pair with Google, it is close enough to justify the switch. I can still switch to Google or Bing if I cannot find a solution or answer in the search engine, which is even easier when using !bangs.

I’d encourage you to try the search engine for a week or so, to see if it meets your expectations. If not, you can still go back to Google or Bing. If it does, congratulations and welcome to the family.

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Add Google Sandbox Search Engine To Web Browsers About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Thursday February 2, 2012 -
Tags:bing search, cyberduck, search engine

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Using Proper Search Engine Optimisation Services Will Get Your Website Where it has to be

Web design is a crucial element in any website. It is exactly what keeps viewers around. However, in addition to website design, search engine optimisation services play a much more essential role in producing web traffic. This article is a guide to what you should know about SEO and just how it increases the prosperity of your web venture.

What is SEO and why is it important?

SEO stands for search engine optimisation. Services of this nature are important given that the golden rule on the internet is this: people need to be able to find you. Utilizing the right SEO strategies may help your website rank on the engines, and in turn, generate higher site traffic.

It is crucial for your web site to rank on Google, Yahoo!, or Bing on account of a number of reasons. First, it's the least expensive form of web promotion there is - matter of fact, it is free. Second, many people use these to go to any web site. Due to the great number of sites on the internet, no one has the capacity to remember each one. To get to an internet site that they need, users will undoubtedly use various search engines. In most cases, users will limit themselves just to the first 2 or 3 pages of results. With the help of SEO consulting in UK, you'll be able to bring your site where it needs to be in order to make maximum profitability.

Why hire a firm focusing on SEO consulting in UK?

Employing a firm to execute search engine optimisation services is just one of your options. You can try to get it done all by yourself. It's wise to note, however, that SEO is a trial and error process. If you aren't acquainted with the different strategies, you'll end up wasting your resources. Search engines update their sets of rules often. Managing your small business and keeping up with the changes may well prove to be too strenuous. Hiring a company that specialises in these functions is going to be beneficial in numerous ways.

Bear in mind that the agency is in business for one reason. They have the knowledge to bring your web site to another level and get it where it has to be.

What exactly are a number of the more common SEO tools?

For some time, optimisers took advantage of black hat techniques. This meant employing sketchy technical tricks to cheat Google and yahoo in addition to engines. Sadly for the black hat optimisers, the roll-out of innovative tools and major updates almost put them out of business. Currently, there are two methods for optimising a webpage: on page and off page optimisation.

SEO relies heavily on key phrases and on-page optimisation refers to making a certain web site more open to crawlers using these. This often involves the adjusting of the title tag, Meta description, and body text. Additionally, Google analytics is a tool that a lot of optimisers have taken a liking to. It's one of the most reliable tools in measuring the detailed statistics of website visitors.

Off-page optimisation, alternatively, makes up a lot of the optimising tools today. This consists of strategies like link building, social media optimisation, and blog or forum posting. Firms specialising in SEO consulting in UK would tell you that these are among the most effective tools in getting your website to rank.

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Webstagram, An Instagr.am Web Search Engine

Instagr.am is a popular photo taking and sharing application for Apple’s iPhone. You can basically use it to take snapshots with the phone’s camera and send them directly to sites such as Facebook, Twitter or Flickr. It comes with other social features that make it that more enticing to a crowd that likes to socialize on the web. The photos have a distinct look and feel which may be one of the reasons for the application’s popularity (besides from being free).

Webstagram is a web viewer and search engine for photos taken by Instragram users. You can just dive into the popular or hot listings on the site, or use the search to find photos taken by a specific user or by tag.

Each photo that you see on the Webstagram website actually links back to the Instagr.am website where you can view it in tiny, medium, large or original size. The Webstagram page itself lists comments and likes directly on the page which are also taken from Instagram.

Users can log into their Instagram account to use part of the functionality on the web viewer’s site as well.

The site serves three main purposes. It first can be used by Instagram users for inspiration. Ever wanted to see what the iPhone app is capable off? Look no further than the popular or hot listings on the site.

The second purpose is as an image search engine and viewer, and the third to use features of the service on the website. Instagram users can for instance view the photos that people they follow have taken. They can furthermore follow and unfollow users, use social faetures such as like and comment, or see their own followers and the people they are following.

The search functionality is available to all users, regardless whether they are just visiting or logged in with their Instagram account.

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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Sunday January 29, 2012 -
Tags:web search

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