Not because DDG got better, but just because google got worse.

google is still better for site-specific searches, and google scholar still has minimal AI slop

  • FRYD@sh.itjust.works
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    45 minutes ago

    I’ve been using DDG exclusively for something like 8 years. It works great for regular text search and I use bing for image searches. I really don’t understand the reluctance of people to switch to it. To me, Google has been borderline unusable garbage for a long time.

  • slomosapien@lemmy.ml
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    3 hours ago

    100%. I have not used google in about roughly 15 years. DDG has been my daily driver since 2010

  • ceenote@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    My thought always was that DDG was good to set as my default, and if I’m not happy with the results then it’s not a big deal to use Google once in awhile.

  • boreal@lemm.ee
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    2 hours ago

    Better usually in my experience. Google is mostly SEO-sludge anyway. Though sometimes when you need something very specific Google is better but that gap has been pretty much closed during 7+ years I’ve used DDG.

  • sanderium@lemmy.zip
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    3 hours ago

    I use Startpage and it feels like I always get the results I want even when I don’t use perfect prompts. Just recently I got a three month free trial for Kagi and the results were better than google in my opinion, or at least less cluttered with “possibly related things” that are just ads in the end.

    • franzfurdinand@lemmy.world
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      1 hour ago

      I switched to exclusively Kagi on my phone and it’s been a pretty pleasant experience. Not perfect, but fairly serviceable. You’re right, it’s way less cluttered. Going back to Google can sometimes be very jarring.

  • JackLSauce@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    “just as good”? No, I feel it is (and has been for years) vastly superior but I mostly use it to find documentation or Stack Overflow answers so consistent UI and concise summaries are high priority to me. Take that as you will

    I don’t think anybody can dethrone Google Maps yet but that’s another story

  • venotic@kbin.melroy.org
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    6 hours ago

    Not really. If you focus purely on just searching, yeah DDG is decent. But, I find its maps inferior and trying to find answers to some questions can get tedious. DDG I guess is just for people who want guilt-free searching.

  • breadguy@kbin.earth
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    5 hours ago

    kagi still owns both of them. but there’s also startpage and leta which are google wrappers if you don’t want to use Google directly

  • Droggelbecher@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    It’s not as good as google was when I was first allowed to use the internet 15+ years ago, but much better than today’s google. Just so much more peace of mind to know that profit isn’t what governs my search results.