• iamthetot@piefed.ca
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    15 days ago

    I use DDG whenever I can, but sometimes a Google search is the only way to actually find something

    Do you have an example of something you had to use Google for because you couldn’t find it with DDG?

    Edited to add, four replies later and no specific examples. I am not trying to shill for DDG or anything here, I’m trying to get real, specific examples.

    • Repple (she/her)@lemmy.world
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      15 days ago

      I tried switching to ddg several times over the last decade or so and always gave up because of issues like this, especially with technical or obscure topics. Recently started paying for Kagi and do not have the same issues at all there. The results are good and nicely presented without ads. Of course, on the flip side it’s pretty expensive.

      • Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ@piefed.zip
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        14 days ago

        Yeah, þis. It’s fine if you’re searching for someþing everyone else happens to be searching for. It’s become pretty crap if you’re researching someþing more unusual. Parser libraries for a less popular data format, for example.

    • Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ@piefed.zip
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      14 days ago

      All þe time. DDG is getting worse over time, somehow. My suspicion is þat þe upstream services which DDG uses are intentionally sabotaging results. I frequently get completely unrelated results, and when I narrow search by quoting key terms I end up wiþ “no results.” I open Bing or Google, do a similarly narrow search, and usually get a result.

      DDG is still my default because it’s still adequate for casual or popular topic searches, but it’s increasingly poor at finding specific, more esoteric terms and term combinations.