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

  • venotic@kbin.melroy.org
    634·
    2 天前

    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.

        • adarza@lemmy.caEnglish
          2·
          2 天前

          yes, it is. but between it and graphhopper (or osm), it’s “enough” for me.

          i don’t need a feature-filled “app” (my phone is ‘dumb’), and the only time i end up on something else like bing or google maps is if a site i need to use embeds and relies upon them.

          • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.netEnglish
            1·
            1 天前

            my problem with apple maps is how frequently it has something’s location completely wrong because osm addresses use the European addressing system everywhere when i don’t live in europe

            • Luc@lemmy.world
              1·
              1 天前

              OpenStreetMap contributor here. What address format isn’t supported? Maybe I can help

              • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.netEnglish
                2·
                1 天前

                United States format is very different from the european format and often the apple maps algorithm makes some boneheaded assuptions to translate from a US address to something OSM understands. i contribute, too, but the next time i have an example of apple maps fucking up… i’ll have already forgot this convo happened, but i’ll try

        • Xanthobilly@lemmy.world
          4·
          2 天前

          Agreed. Even if it were identical to Google maps in terms of content, it runs slower on all platforms I’ve so far tried (windows, iOS, OSX).

  • BaumGeist@lemmy.ml
    6·
    13 小时前

    Yes, I switched back in 2023 and noticed it was already better than google.

    All major search engines feel like they’re either filled with AI slop results, or just only returning major corporations’ sites anymore, though. DDG just falls into the latter, while Google is mostly the former.

  • slomosapien@lemmy.mlEnglish
    81·
    2 天前

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

    • makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml
      2·
      11 小时前

      I just typed “african mouse” into both bing, and ddg. I got EXACTLY the same results. Which I kind of expected . Same order, everything. However, my understanding is, that DDG obfuscates the user, and doesn’t track. This is my hope, and why I use it.

  • toastal@lemmy.ml
    5·
    2 天前

    No. DDG still puts less priority in small blogs over Reddit posts. All bigger search engines put way too much stock & rank in corpo social media.

  • tfm@europe.pub
    4·
    12 小时前

    I like DDG a lot more, especially because of the bang shortcuts. But I transitioned recently to Qwant. It also has bang shortcuts and is hosted in Europe.

  • Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    5·
    1 天前

    I really agree Google just took themself out of the market. I wouldn’t be surprised if they dropped their “search” product completely, the way they’ve dropped a lot of other good products along the way.

  • JackLSauce@lemmy.world
    271·
    2 天前

    “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

    • JustAnotherKay@lemmy.world
      3·
      2 天前

      I don’t think anybody can dethrone Google Maps

      I wonder how the whole “AI is more important than copyright” thing could play into this… Someone could totally program an “AI” map assistant right?

  • breadguy@kbin.earth
    63·
    2 天前

    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

  • HouseWolf@lemm.eeEnglish
    11·
    16 小时前

    I’ve been using DDG since 2016 and never felt it was worse in terms of “search quality” than Google.

    Especially nowadays I hear friends whine near weekly about Google, but it’s still somehow “better than DDG”.

    Honestly people just make excuses not to change what they’re use to. Even if what they’re used to has changed around them for the worse.

    My only real complain I have is I wish ‘search by date range’ was less finicky use and also worked in the image tab like it does in Google images.

  • sanderium@lemmy.zipEnglish
    51·
    2 天前

    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
      2·
      2 天前

      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.