

I think DuckDuckGo would do better changing that Quack of a name - aravindc


======
edanm
I completely agree.

I've said this every time the issue has come up: I think the name is hurting,
a _lot_. More than once, I've wanted to just try a quick search on DDG to see
it's comparison to Google, and at least some of those times, I've given up
because writing duckduckgo is annoying. Is this logical/rational? NO. Is this
how I, at least, behave? YES.

And for anyone saying that you can set up your browser to search DDG
automatically, that's great if you've already bought into DDG, but it's not
something I would do right off the bat.

~~~
rplnt
You can set up a keyword search for DDG (for example ddg or just d) and use
that when you want to compare. In Chrome, Firefox or Opera just right click in
search form and select something along the lines of creating new search, and
fill out the keyword.

I have a search keyword even for Google (g), my default search engine is
"Feeling Lucky". Other keywords I use are (y)outube, wolfram(a)lpha, google
(i)mages, t(orrentz), (m)aps (not google), (r)eddit (not a search per-se, just
for opening subreddits), and a few others. For wikipedia, imdb,
documentations, .. the feeling lucky is enough.

~~~
jhdevos
Yes, you can. But you have to think about it, and put a little bit of effort
into it, at a moment you really want to do a quick search.

It makes switching a step with some friction, instead of making it possible to
'ease into it' by simply starting to do some search with ddg quickly.

(Heh, notice that many people in this forum write ddg for duckduckgo? I just
made two typos typing that in. It's rather unlikely this is not costing them
badly).

------
h2s
Most people don't seem to know that search engines exist. The impression I get
from non-technical people that I know is that they think of search engines as
being somehow "part of the browser" or "part of the Internet". They often
don't even know which one they use. They'll refer to searching as "Googling",
but they're using Bing because it was the default with IE or they're using
SuperGreatSearch 3.0 because Norton installed it and they haven't noticed the
difference.

And you're suggesting that in a market like this, a silly name is a _bad_
thing?

~~~
tluyben2
This is definitely a good point; by far most people have no clue what search
is and they just type their queries in whatever is given by default. Unless
Duck gets installed on computers by default, no one will use it relatively,
whatever name it has. The problem is that we are not begin 2000 (or before);
everyone has devices with internet and most of these people don't have any
technical knowledge; not even enough to know the concept of an URL. A thing
like Google, if there would be a new 'revolution' now, would not work as it
did then; you need hardware companies to deliver at least the choice. And
given the choice maybe 'the people' like Duckduckgo better than 'Bing' (I
think they heard Google too much in the news to not pick that)?

------
pavanlimo
Well in fact, I think the name has a ring to it. The logo too complements it
well.

I guess what's not working for DDG is that it's a me-too product. It boils
down to this: What does DDG have that Google doesn't?.

Me-too products can perform _reasonably_ well if they are launched by corps
with deep pockets for obvious reasons(like G+). Otherwise, a company like DDG
has to have something different and unique to offer.

Oh, btw, that privacy hullabaloo works only for a very small percentage of the
users. Most don't care or ignore.

~~~
lowboy
DDG doesn't track you[0] or put you in a filter bubble[1]. They also have the
bang syntax[2] for searching other sites/engines.

0: <http://donttrack.us/>

1: <http://dontbubble.us/>

2: <http://duckduckgo.com/bang.html>

~~~
arikrak
I don't think these reasons are so strong. If you're not signed into Google,
you don't need to worry about tracking. And you can turn off personalized
results: <https://www.google.com/preferences>. The Bang sytax is usually worse
than doing a Google site search, since Google usually does a better job
ranking a site's content than the website itself.

~~~
lowboy
Turning off personalized results doesn't stop Google from tracking you, it
just stops leveraging that tracking for your benefit.

And I misspoke about the bang syntax: it actually runs a search on the target
website. If you search for "foobar !g" on DDG, it redirects you to this page:
[https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&q=foobar](https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&q=foobar).
Same as "kitten video !yt" redirs to
<https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=kitten%20video>.

 _edit_ : I misread your comment about goog's site search indexing vs a site's
native search. That is entirely site dependent. And it's still only a "kitten
videos site:youtube.com !g" away in DDG.

------
cdmoyer
Silly or not, it's the only search engine name other than google or bing that
sticks in my head as being memorable. Probably because it is silly and
different.

I guess my only complaint would be that it feels long to type because it is
three words. (Even though the are short words.)

------
trendspotter
I have spend some time researching good names for products and startups (see
here <http://www.quora.com/What-are-good-company-and-startup-names>).

Good names are effective and accomplish a goal:

1: describe the offer: who you are - does the user get a sense what you offer?
2: or explain your mission: what you want to be, or how you want to achieve
that 3: inspire to action 4: celebrate the benefit, the relevance, why you
matter to consumers 5: describe the user 6: easy to spell and pronounce 7:
trigger an emotion related to your mission 8: simple and sticky

DuckDuckGo is at least sticky and it triggers an emotion in my case.
DuckDuckGo is not a perfect name, such as: "ChatRoulette", "YouTube",
"BurgerKing", "PatientsLikeMe", "TripAdvisor", "OpenTable", "YourMechanic",
"RackSpace", "Codecademy", "SoundCloud".

But I had never the problem to remember the name, DuckDuckGo. It is whacky,
but is cool. Their logo is stylish. I like DuckDuckGo.

Blekko is a much shorter name. If you don't know, yes Blekko is a search
engine. Go check them out. But I have the feeling more people start to use
DuckDuckGo therefore either the quality is that good, or they like the brand,
despite the very long domain.

They could buy the domain MegaSearch.com before Dotcom does it :) But that
would be a lame name.

No, they should just stick with the name DuckDuckGo and try to become the
default search engine for Firefox and other browsers, so people don't even
have to type in their long domain name to search with them.

~~~
pavanlimo
I cannot agree more!

------
digitalengineer
_The name of the search engine has been called "silly" by Frederic Lardinois
of Read Write Web. Weinberg said of the origin of the name, "Really it just
popped in my head one day and I just liked it. It is certainly
influenced/derived from [the game] duck duck goose, but other than that there
is no relation, e.g., a metaphor."_

Looks like no research was done regarding the name. Naming services very well
(or very unique) can really help your company stand out. I like DDG but
perhaps a study with regards to the name and the brand might be in order.

~~~
aravindc
You still called it DDG. Even DDG kinda adds authenticity and some authority.

~~~
ck2
It could be D^2G or D*2G or D2G

~~~
sparkinson
Seems unnecessary if it can simply be DDG, a true acronym for the same or less
characters than your suggestion.

~~~
digitalengineer
Yes, I find it's too long. I type all day and take shortcuts wherever I can.
We all do; TL;DR, HN, if DDG it taken let them claim DDGO!

------
illumen
Yahoo, and Google are also silly names. While we are at it, there is a company
calling itself 'Apple'... and no, it is not a fruit company! They'd all do
much better changing names to something more boring.

------
seanlinehan
I was actually thinking about this just the other day. I think that they have
a pretty interesting product, but I just can't take them seriously. Hell, even
Quack would be a better name...

~~~
Samuel_Michon
Quack.io is available (duckduck.io is too)

~~~
bruceboughton
.io is not a serious TLD - it is for tech products, not the general public

You have to have a .com if you want to compete with Google.

~~~
quarterto

        it is for tech products, not the general public
    

It is for the British Indian Ocean Territory. Any other use is a domain hack.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.io>

~~~
bruceboughton
You are, of course, correct.

------
gruseom
One very underrated quality of names is how easy they are to say.

~~~
tucson
What some would call the 'radio test'.

1\. Must be a dot com.

2\. Must clearly state & define the product or service being sold.

3\. Must be easy to pronounce & therefore pass the radio test.

4\. Must not be longer than necessary, the shorter the better.

5\. Must be about a product or service that is in demand & being searched for.

6\. Must be easy to remember, in fact it must be a no brainer to remember.

7\. Must be a domain a business could be built on.

source: [http://www.ricksblog.com/my_weblog/2012/11/ringscom-
roofscom...](http://www.ricksblog.com/my_weblog/2012/11/ringscom-roofscom-
sloganscom-among-dozens-of-others.html)

~~~
sleepyhead
That excludes all available .com domains.

------
electic
It's funny, Google stuck and when I first heard it in college I thought it
sounded silly. However, I agree. Google is easier to type on the keyboard
while duckduckgo is not quite seamless. Maybe change it? Or find some sort of
abbreviation?

~~~
dennisse
does it really matter? nearly every browser allows you to add custom search
engines, and change the default one. if you set duckduckgo as the default
search engine, you don't ever have to type in duckduckgo - you can just use
your address field.

~~~
electic
Why don't you name your startup "asdjflasjflaksdjfa" and see if it survives.
Bet you it doesn't.

~~~
shantanubala
That's a false comparison. It's not just that asdjflas... takes a long time to
type, but it's also really hard to remember.

DuckDuckGo is probably easier to remember than most names. It just happens to
take a little longer to type than Google or Apple. The Awesome Bar and Omni
Bar make it less of an issue, though.

~~~
LancerSykera
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is pretty easy to remember.

~~~
shantanubala
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is only easy to remember because you
already have a _reason_ to remember it (ie a strong brand, Disney, has already
pushed it into your memory).

If it didn't have a movie behind it, you'd say, "Super-what?"

------
carloc
I don't use it because it's Bing under the hood.

Otherwise I would, name and all.

~~~
Torn
I thought the guy wrote his own crawler?

~~~
Mithrandir
It's both:

[http://help.duckduckgo.com/customer/portal/articles/216399-s...](http://help.duckduckgo.com/customer/portal/articles/216399-sources)

------
orangethirty
At least its not called searchfy or searchly. Sure, its freakishly long, but I
love that damn duck. Same with Blekko. Ugly name, highly useful. Will they
ever replace Google? I don't know. Hopefully Nuuton will... :)

------
tucson
I agree they should re-brand. Duck.com would have been good. The day I saw
duck.com redirected to Google I thought DuckDuckGo missed a great opportunity.
That's where you see how savvy Google are.

~~~
teamamerica
They claim they tried to and were unable to. On2 had the domain and google
acquired it when they bought the company.

[http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/22/net-us-google-
duck...](http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/22/net-us-google-duckduckgo-
idUSBRE8AL00I20121122)

~~~
tucson
Yes, but how much did they offer for Duck.com? Duck.com being now with Google,
they should just rebrand to something else. Forget the duck. Go with something
else. PunchBowl.com or whatever brandable name.

------
aravindc
My non-tech savvy friends think it is some sort of a joke.

~~~
limpangel
When someone comes to you with a problem, it's way funnier to tell them to
"duckduckgo-it" and then look at their startled face. :)

------
rys
The biggest help for me to switch would be for DDG to produce a fork of Chrome
that plugged DDG into the Chrome Omnibox as much as possible.

I use the Omnibox for almost 100% of my interaction with the browser, mostly
typing in URLs to visit and accessing search history, all integrated with
searching as I type.

If I could use the Omnibox like that with search as I type on DDG instead,
that'd be excellent.

~~~
dkuntz2
You don't even need to use a fork, regular 'ol Chrome'll do the job for you.

Go into the settings page, find the `Search` section, and hit manage search
engines. Than choose DDG (provided DDG has been used by you before).

------
mbq
My biggest problem with DDG is that it is so English-centric. I know they have
those "regions", but the results from them are much worse than from US region
and a need to switch them via settings page every time I change the search
language is an unacceptable hassle.

~~~
crazedpsyc
You can type "r:xx" in your query to set the region, in any case. (e.g.
<https://duckduckgo.com/?q=bonjour+r%3Afr> )

~~~
mbq
I do, like, 40% of searches in my language, so it is still a lot of work.
Anyway, language recognition is actually pretty easy nowadays, especially with
the amount of data DDG has from crawling -- if they care about foreigners of
course.

------
zengr
Not just the name, they need to improve the search too. Example, searching for
xxx gives london2012.com as the first result. I cannot understand why.

<http://duckduckgo.com/?q=xxx>

~~~
TranceMan
It is Roman Numerals for 30 as the 2012 Olympics was the 30th Olympiad.

------
virtualsue
Google chose a name which can be used like a verb, which I think was a very
clever move.

~~~
Adrock
Just duck it.

------
mykosmos
I dont want my boss see me using duckduckgo. He would ask me what the fuck i'm
doing.

~~~
skrebbel
Then get a better boss.

------
kintamanimatt
Silly names stand out and grab attention. In the crowded marketplace they
operate in that's just what they need rather than a cool name like Cuil, or an
unforgettable generic name like ... oh shit, I can't think of one.

~~~
freework
NextSearch

------
freakydeek
It's a great name. Unforgettable. Imaginative. Search provides excellent
results.

------
jhuckestein
Keep in mind, it's possible that Gabriel Weinberg is making enough money off
of DuckDuckGo already and isn't looking to swing for the fences with this
particular project.

------
hhhhhhhhhh10
DuckDuckGo -> ddgo ->gdgo ->golgo ->goglo ->googl -> googl(e)

Isn't it more than a name?

~~~
stcredzero
Golgo 13?

------
jvm
I'm surprised to see so much complaining about the length of the name. Do you
guys not have auto-complete?

------
ing33k
duck.com redirects to google.com

~~~
dylanhassinger
So apparently DDG tried to buy duck.com but got outbid -- Google ended up
buying the company that owned the domain. Apparently just to get it away from
Gabe...

That's one of the reasons Google's getting investigated for anti-trust stuff.

[http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-google-
duck...](http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-google-
duckduckgobre8al00i-20121121,0,6650221.story)

~~~
anigbrowl
Oh for heaven's sake. Duck corporation became On2 following a merger in 1999,
and had ass-kicking video codec technology.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On2_Technologies>

------
Rogue_Leader
Yes. It's ugly, faux-cutesy and it doesn't tell me anything about the service.

------
andrewartajos
agree. too long to type.

~~~
lopatin
I'm actually a fan of the name, it's unique. Might sound like a joke until you
know that it's not. And it only takes too long to type the first time, auto
complete takes care of it for the rest of your life. Here's how it looks for
me: <ctrl-t>, d, u, <enter>. Takes no longer than a second

~~~
arvindravi
Well, it could be much easier, if its your default search engine. All I do is,
<ctrl-t>, <my query>, <enter>. They have pretty cool search syntax too.

Hashbangs are definitely awesome.

------
cmccabe
You think they ducked up when they chose it?

