
DuckDuckGo Lite - pncnmnp
https://duckduckgo.com/lite/
======
rootlocus

        Original Landing Page: 1.08MB (41KB transfer) / 1.50s / 11 requests
        Original Search: 1.90MB (55KB transfer) / 1.8s / 29 requests
    
        Lite Landing Page: 11KB (7.01KB transfer) / 335ms / 3 requests
        Lite Search: 35KB (6.85KB transfer) / 538ms / 4 requests

~~~
djsumdog
2MB for the default .. even Google's seems to be about 1.5~2MB just from
looking at my debug console.

I wonder how this compares to search engine landing pages back around 2000 or
2005; back when 1MB could take you a few minutes on dialup.

DDG Lite might be just the right size for 90s era sites.

~~~
app4soft
> _2MB for the default .. even Google 's seems to be about 1.5~2MB just from
> looking at my debug console._

Try Google in text browser, for example _Links2_ [0]

    
    
        $ links2 https://google.com
    

[0] [http://links.twibright.com](http://links.twibright.com)

------
OhSoHumble
I don't know if this is the right place to talk about this but what I've
always really wanted out of Duck Duck Go is "category" filters or maybe even
anonymous user profiles. A problem that I have is that most of my queries make
sense within a certain domain.

Example: I wanted to know about Chicken Scheme. During my exploratory phase,
I'd sometimes search for "Chicken Lisp" and would get results for "chicken
lips" with a very small font suggestion for refining my queries further.

Perhaps, if I was able to select a category (software engineering) it would
automatically skew my search results for that preferred domain. Maybe a !cat
macro? Google doesn't really have this problem either - and I'm guessing here
- because it is either better at guessing intention or because it _knows_ that
I'm a software engineer because of my previous searches and then it
automatically customizes my search results within a boundary of correctness -
i.e, if OhSoHumble searches for chicken thighs then that person probably wants
recipes rather than info on a Scheme implementation.

I guess account profiles would somewhat help with this as well - where you can
opt into skewing your own results on the regular.

Regardless, I think there is a good middle ground to take between "collect as
much data on this individual as possible to customize their results" and "put
programming related search results at the top if the individual asks for it".

~~~
csdreamer7
I thought the same thing too. Just being able to add some tags to my cookie
session saying:

"Developer, Ruby, Ruby on Rails"

DDG is not very workable with 'ruby gem' searches without more context. Or at
least when I last used it. I was using ddg full time, but found myself back on
google.

~~~
OhSoHumble
Especially with how poorly named some projects/libraries are.

------
PaulKeeble
Maybe I am a bit weird but the first thing I do with my hello world search
results is open the page source. I was surprised by the amount of wasted new
lines, it is more empty space than content. More surprisingly I found quite a
few lines containing nothing more than spaces. There were quite a few
instances of nbsp being repeated. This is one place where seeing a lot of
tabbed in spaces is clean but also quite wasteful.

There are 9694 spaces in the page, 15464 new lines and ~272 non breaking
spaces on a file that is only 178037 bytes. Just under 15% of the file
probably doesn't need to be there. It hopefully is a fairly easy win to remove
a lot of the wasted bytes in the file.

~~~
unfunco
The effect in terms of bytes sent over the network would be negligible due to
compression.

~~~
PaulKeeble
You are quite correct, if I correct the original file the gzipped equivalent
of the file ends up just 4% larger, so the gap between the two narrows quite a
bit. Still a bit of fat to trim but by no means the same level of waste the
raw file contains.

------
yboris
Why does it give different results than when you search on duckduckgo VS
duckduckgo/lite ?

Search for "video hub app" \-- the regular version finds the website
videohubapp.com while the lite version does not :(

~~~
cbsks
I can reproduce this as well. The results differ by quite a bit:

[https://duckduckgo.com/?q=video+hub+app](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=video+hub+app)

[https://duckduckgo.com/lite/?q=video+hub+app](https://duckduckgo.com/lite/?q=video+hub+app)

~~~
weirder
At least judging by the cookies passed "d: 1" \- "Safe Search: Strict" is
enabled by default on the lite version. Enabling it on the regular version
does make the results similar.

------
obenn
This works exceptionally well in the lynx terminal-based browser.

[https://lynx.invisible-island.net](https://lynx.invisible-island.net)

~~~
rustyminnow
I use regular ddg in w3m on occasion, didn't realize until just now they were
actually redirecting to ddg lite. I wish other sites with massive
sidebars/headers would do the same

------
adamanz
[https://duckduckgo.com/litedark/](https://duckduckgo.com/litedark/) needed

~~~
rootlocus
Even better: [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Web/CSS/@media/pref...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Web/CSS/@media/prefers-color-scheme)

------
orangepanda
At least this one doesn’t have that annoying popup whenever you open it - had
to switch back to google because of it.

~~~
gravitas
Use start.duckduckgo.com to bypass that popup and all the other things.
[https://start.duckduckgo.com/lite/](https://start.duckduckgo.com/lite/) also
works, just adjusted my mobile bookmark to use this.

If you go into your settings, there's the ability to have your configuration
as URL parameters, so that you can bookmark a specific way of using it without
needing a cookie or session ID. From
[https://start.duckduckgo.com/settings](https://start.duckduckgo.com/settings)
open the "Show Bookmark URL on the right and it has the string to use in your
bookmark to bypass all the random things and always visit the site in your
preferred design/setup.

------
nej
Reviewing the frontend code, a couple of things stand out.

1) The HTML/CSS code isn't minified.

2) The PNG images can be compressed further (lossless) for extra savings.

3) CSS classes/ids could be further shortened in post-processing.

~~~
corobo
Does HTML ever need minifying? Serving using compression would handle it
wouldn’t it?

~~~
curben
html minifer mostly just remove the whitespaces. Compression (gzip or brotli)
preserves the source, i.e. decompressed file is exactly the same as the
original's; whereas minifier alters the source.

~~~
corobo
Well that’s what I mean. Minifying css/js makes sense as it usually includes a
concatenation stage.

Minifying HTML just makes your page source slightly harder to look at.
Whitespace would be squashed into almost nothing with in-transit compression.

Probably something nobody ever needs to think of, but as a web dev it’s an
argument I’ve had more than once!

------
copperx
If you're a decrepit old man like me (I'm in my 30s now), you will remember
that this is the way Google used to be in the 90s.

Altavista, the alternative, was a bloated, slow mess.

------
naetius
Most useless comment on HN ever, I know, but... THANKS.

After having observed and been part of the infancy of the web in the 90s I can
only be very grateful for this.

It's the age, I know.

------
skyfaller
Does anyone know if there's a good way to make this lite version the default
search in Firefox instead of the normal Duck Duck Go website?

~~~
throwaway41597
I see three dots left to the star in the URL bar, it expands and lets me add
it.

IIRC Firefox mobile requires you to long press the search field.

------
aitchnyu
The old results page didn't let ctrl+backspace work on search bar. Cynical me
frowns at going out of your way to break that. Also results should be 80
characters wide to read on a big screen.

[https://www.goshdarnwebsite.com/](https://www.goshdarnwebsite.com/)

------
challenged
Poor formating on mobile. Search results do not fit screen width. Annoying,
but should be easy to fix.

------
pmoriarty
Also, add &kd=-1 to the search URL to get direct links.

For example:

[https://duckduckgo.com/lite?q="robert%20anton%20wilson"&kd=-...](https://duckduckgo.com/lite?q="robert%20anton%20wilson"&kd=-1)

~~~
petercooper
I seem to get direct links on this anyway. What are other people seeing?

~~~
pmoriarty
You're right. I guess DDG must have made that the default at some point.

------
turc1656
I keep getting "forbidden" when entering any search. Anyone else having this
issue?

~~~
curben
I get the error when I search using right-click menu or through an embedded
search box. Regular search works fine.

The ones not working have Origin request header.

------
wishinghand
Any chance for a dark version?

------
sandov
You know what would make this even better?

A simpler URL, something like ddglite.com or ducklt.com

~~~
rehemiau
duck.com already redirects to duckduckgo.com

~~~
thenewnewguy
duck.com/lite does not work though

~~~
j_koreth
ddg.gg/lite works here

------
345218435
holy cow. that page was loaded and rendered _before_ mobile safari‘s open-tab-
animation finished. going to ddg.co takes _much_ longer.

------
zzo38computer
The pagination does not seems to be work properly

------
m-p-3
Perfect startpage for my Kobo eReader

------
bureaucrat
While they're on it can't they make http version of it? Some browsers don't
support modern https, you know.

~~~
Freak_NL
Why? That ship has sailed long ago. HTTPS is a requirement for browsing the
web in 2020, just as HTTP was in 2000.

Most of the browsers that can't do modern HTTPS run on operating systems that
shouldn't be on the public internet because of security concerns in any case,
so that leaves perhaps a few really fringe browsers. Come to think of it, I
can't even name one of them — even text-based browsers like Lynx work with
DuckDuckGo (you end up on this Lite version).

~~~
bureaucrat
Embedded systems can use internet securely without HTTPS.

~~~
Freak_NL
Good point, but embedded systems don't generally act as an agent for a user to
browse the internet. Their endpoints tend to be known API's. You wouldn't use
DuckDuckGo from an embedded device like that until you reach the level of a
full-fledged modern OS with an up-to-date browser (e.g., Linux running on a
Raspberry Pi). It would be meaningless too, because even if you could use a
search engine without HTTPS, almost all of its linked results will require it.

The internet can be used without HTTPS, but you can't expect to browse common
websites without it.

------
agumonkey
Hell yeah.

------
thibran
Well this page has not much content, but the first thing I notice is that the
search box and the button are not aligned correctly...

