On: Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorithm to think I like it

[stephc_int13]

I am using DuckDuckGo and my experience is completely different, but I might be missing something.

Do you have an example of a search you've done where the results were much better from Google Search than from DuckDuckGo?

[mrweasel → stephc_int13]

My experience is that we reached a point where if DuckDuckGo can’t find something, then neither can Google. For local search Google is still a little better, but they choosen to drown out actual results with ads.

[greshario → mrweasel]

Not my experience for dev related searches. I assume this is because Google has learned I always search for JS stuff and I've gotten used to that so I'm not specific enough in my searches on DDG.

[Garlef → mrweasel]

This might be true. But my point was that DuckDuckGo costs me too much time. To rephrase it: DuckDuckGo is more expensive to use. (At least for me).

[Garlef → stephc_int13]

> Do you have an example of a search ...

Due to the very topic this HN post is about, I don't think this is a good method - your results might be vastly different from mine.

But let's look at the number of relevant results among the top 5 results for some thing I recently wanted to learn about.

"Comprehension categories" - a rather specific term from category theory

https://www.google.com/search?q=comprehension+category https://duckduckgo.com/?q=comprehension+category

Google: 5/5 (for me) DuckDuckGo: 1/5 (for me)

[mdpye → Garlef]

You have to be explicit about the context if you've chosen to dump the implicit bundle of context.

"comprehension categories category theory" 5/5

I'd hardly say it's 2 to 10 minutes extra work, especially for such an obvious example

[smichel17 → mdpye]

"Comprehension categories theory" works as well.

[lehi → stephc_int13]

> Do you have an example of a search you've done where the results were much better from Google Search than from DuckDuckGo?

Here you go: https://imgur.com/a/CssDXS3