For the same reason I find DDG very useful when I don’t want localized results, which is hard to get with Google. I currently live in Spain and Google returns mostly Spanish results, even on unrelated queries like programming or a device review.
I switched back to google after using DDG for about half a year, DDG results are nice, but if you mix searches between different language you need to manually set the country for which you are searching, google does this automatically.
I've been using DDG almost exclusively for about a year now. Every once in a while I'll do a google search because I can't find what I'm looking for on DDG. This is usually when I'm looking for something local/in a non-english language, or when I'm doing a search for a long string (say a couple of lines from a song lyric).
One of google's biggest advantages -- for me at least -- is its localized URLs. google.co.uk, google.fr, google.de, ... they all boost results in the local language(s) and in the relevant country. There's a way to make DDG act the same way, of course, but it's much easier to just type google.de.
I love DDG but the problem is that google is still the best whenever I want to search something that's not in English or that's localized. So I still use google for that.
Have been using DDG for a couple of years. Am satisfied with its english result. One area for improvement would be non-english search results. For me it's non-english results are largely irrelevant, compared to google
On programming searches DDG goes better for me (than Google) because it uses the English data. Google insists on using Spanish data even though I disallow results in other languages than English or Catalan.
For other searches, mostly local information but if it's something recent too, Google goes better. So I use DDG at work, and Google at home.
I don't know. I am using DDG from outside the U.S. but with English as the primary search language. The Google's localized results are just an order of magnitude better. I end up re-doing almost 10-20% of my searches in Google after being dissapointed with DDG results. Most of the time Google results are sadly superior.
And don't get me even started in searching in my native language (Finnish). DDG is close to useless there, since it can not parse the different, obscure word forms we use (although I type word X in form A, I want my searches to include results in of word X in semantically related forms B and C). Google did not initially parse Finnish very well, but it eventually became amzingly good something like a decade ago.
I'm in the US and DDG is my default because privacy or something but pretty much any remotely complex query, I end up switching to google and get way better results.
Search results for terms in spanish are often not good. I assume this is the case for many non-english languages, if not for all. I often have to search for things in spanish, and Google gives em vastly superior results.
For almost everything else, I use DDG.
One thing that I prefer about DDG is that it doesn't try to guess what language I want to search in other than by my input. It is ridiculous that google forces me to go through worse results based solely on my location, it shouldn't matter where you are from.
I use DDG as my main search engine and I agree localised results are subpar ( I'm Brazilian ). I end up resorting to the !g bang most of the time but since these kinds of searches are a just small subset of my queries, it doesn't bother me that much.
I use DDG as my default search engine and it works fine if what you're searching is in English and is easy to find. When I'm looking for an exact page and type stuff that I remember is there Google always seems to find it, while DDG sometimes misses what I want. Also, for programming terms that also may have other meaning (e.g., python referring to snakes or programming), Google seems to always get me what I want, while DDG may get royally confused.
Now, when it comes to non-English, the fact that Google knows what is my native language makes it 10000% better. I often type stuff in my native language and those words are the same in Spanish then DDG shows me a buch of stupid Spanish results, when what I really wanted was my native language.
In the end I always end up reflecting that allowing the search engine to learn stuff about you is indeed somewhat useful. Still, DDG is the default search, Google will only get the queries it handles better.
Edit: I guess DDG could try asking my browser about what language it's configured in and prioritize that over Spanish....
This is all anecdotal, but something like 90% of my searches are fine in DDG. The rest are for highly specific searches in narrow fields where there just aren't many results at all, or where there's lots of results in another language e.g. Japanese. Google is better at filtering those out.
Im no Google shill, but the results DDG returns are terrible. I suspect for search to work well, the engine needs to know a bit about the user - especially if localising the results is important to you.
I disagree about DDG :). For work-related searches I'm really satisfied with the results and I find answers quickly. I would even go as far as to say that it works better for me than Google's search.
I experienced it the other way around. When using DDG for personal use or results about local things I often tend to use the Google bang as Google has the better localized results.
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