DuckDuckGo for Mac is now open source
156 points by drylight 10 months ago | 63 comments- jojohohanon 10 months agoI am confused.
Ddg is a web search engine. So <search engine> for Mac seems like a type error.
The linked page tells you that they are hiring, and how to install the project, but /not what it is/.
- Raed667 10 months agoHaving worked in this space, you'd be amazed how the average user confuses search engine, browser and app.
It makes sense for anything that wants to compete with Google to also offer a desktop and mobile a browser.
- ergonaught 10 months agohttps://duckduckgo.com/mac
You'll never guess the one trick I used to find that. They don't want you to know.
- falcor84 10 months agoNote that this page triggers a download - which is quite rude on their behalf - apparently there's no page on their site where you can read about the browser before deciding whether you may want to download it.
- tobie18 10 months agoHi there, DDG employee here -- here are a few options where you can learn about the Mac browser before downloading:
https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/get-duckduckgo/...
https://spreadprivacy.com/duckduckgo-for-mac-open-beta/
https://duckduckgo.com/app (this one detects your device so only works if you're on a Mac)
- ChrisMarshallNY 10 months agoIf you write an app that references that link, Apple will not approve it for the App Store (less of a requirement for Mac, than iOS).
I ran into this with Zoom. If you follow a Zoom conference link, it automatically starts downloading the Zoom client. I wrote an app that helps folks find Zoom meetings.
I was forced to add code that intercepts callouts to Safari, that access Zoom conferences, and show an alert, instead, asking the user to download the app.
- tobie18 10 months ago
- _ph_ 10 months agoPlease don't post links that download things automatically.
- hombre_fatal 10 months agoYour browser auto-downloaded it. The website just said it's available.
- 486sx33 10 months agouBlock stopped the auto download for me I think
- hombre_fatal 10 months ago
- falcor84 10 months ago
- whynotmaybe 10 months agoGoogle is the search engine. Google Chrome is the browser.
Ddg is the search engine. Ddg for mac/Windows is the browser.
- mrklol 10 months agoActually it’s called Google Search.
- mrklol 10 months ago
- Raed667 10 months ago
- 0xbadcafebee 10 months agoHas anyone else noticed 99% of DDG search results are now AI spam? I can't look for anything on DDG anymore, it's 100 pages of "Table of Contents" questions/answers by AI. It's like when recipe blogs took over the internet, but worse now, because I can't even get a reliable answer now.
- shawn_w 10 months agoI get a lot of links to local businesses that have nothing to do with what I'm searching for.
DDG has really dropped off in quality over the last couple of years. I'm about ready to try that paid search engine that keeps being mentioned here on HN.
- NayamAmarshe 10 months agoI've been using Brave Search for years and it's fantastic. I haven't used Google since and it supports Bangs! like DDG. It's free so you can give it a try.
- stanislavb 10 months agoI still use Google; however, Brave Search has been my default and it is good in most cases. Better than Bing (and DDG).
- mattl 10 months agoDid Brave give up on their cryptocurrency stuff?
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 10 months agoHow to make sure Brave (the browser) gets some money if I'm not using their search engine? (I use Kagi)
- amusingimpala75 10 months agoI really liked Brave Search but unfortunately it started giving me captchas on every search after 11 pm Pacific or so for some (unknown) reason. They’re not even image captchas, you just click the button and wait 15-20 seconds which is pretty inconvenient.
- HKH2 10 months agoIt's not good for images, unfortunately. Bing is way better for images.
- stanislavb 10 months ago
- djaychela 10 months agoI've started using Kagi for any "important" searches and I have to say it works very well, quite a contrast to what DDG has now become.
- hakonslie 10 months agoI use kagi for everything
- hakonslie 10 months ago
- eth0up 10 months agoI'm relieved to see someone stating this. I get ignored (and dvoted) every time I criticize ddg, but I have no vested interested -- I simply find precisely what you mentioned and that it tends to suck in general.
- arktos_ 10 months ago(Kagi, for anyone willing to do the same. It's great!)
- nerdponx 10 months agoFeels nice to know that I am literally a paying customer and at least in theory incentives should be somewhat aligned.
- nerdponx 10 months ago
- NayamAmarshe 10 months ago
- landolix 10 months agoI thought DDG was a skin for bing? Maybe that's a bing issue.
- mrweasel 10 months agoCould be, but I don't think so, because I use Ecosia, which is even more of a Bing skin than DDG. DDG adds some of their own flair into the mix, but Ecosia is pretty much just Bing I believe. In any case I don't feel like I'm getting much in the way of AI spam. For the few searches I do try on Google, I think it's safe to say that Ecosia/Bing is now a better search engine that Google.
Realistically I think it has more to do with the terms your searching for, and not necessarily if one search engine is worse hit by spam, AI or otherwise.
- synicalx 10 months agoI just ran half a dozen identical searches on DDG and Bing, and yeah it looks like DDG is returning the same main results as Bing (if you ignore all the AI stuff at the top of Bing searches).
- mrweasel 10 months ago
- Larrikin 10 months agoWhich searches? I find myself only using the !g for very specific, rare, within the past year framework problems and trying to find local restaurants, but Google and Yelp suck for that too but are slightly better.
DDG and Google are both open when I'm looking for stock images for flash cards.
- ezekg 10 months agoUse Kagi. It doesn't have this problem.
- 1317 10 months agoI don't get AI spam, but I have started getting recent news articles, generally starting from ~the end of page 1 and getting more and more common as you go further down. i find they contain maybe one word from my query in the title- so it's not just pulling them out from nowhere, but come on surely it can do better than that...
I switched to a different search engine (brave) to get away from it, the result quality seems about the same for english, but not as good for other languages- it's not amazing but it'll do
- mindracer 10 months agoI’ve been seeing this in DDG too, pretty annoying. I usually end up switching over to Google but will try Brave now you mention it
- mindracer 10 months ago
- 486sx33 10 months agoDDG search seems to fill 95% of my needs. 5% of the time I have to switch to Google , usually for reviews or some strange maps link / interface. I suppose reviews are part of Google maps too, so really I only need that. Need is questionable but it’s there and easy
- ben_w 10 months agoI've not encountered this myself, but I can believe you do.
Over the last 12 months or so I was getting that problem with Google, but they seem to have realised that a lot of people were saying that and changed. Whatever Google did wrong for my searches a year ago — and perhaps even that was "not keeping ahead in the race against hostile SEO" — it's entirely possible DDG is doing wrong for your searches right now.
- ravenstine 10 months agoI sometimes have to use DDG when I'm in private browsing mode (I don't feel like setting it up for Kagi), and have noticed that DDG has become complete junk. Not only does it seem to be highly sanitized but it's full of crappy results. Yeah, every search engine has bad results, especially The Google, but DDG has seen the sharpest decline in quality. I used to be a fan!
- voytec 10 months agoDepends on what you're looking for. With news, I'm often getting 2 pages almost fully stuffed with msn.com links
- riffraff 10 months agonot perticularly, probably depends on what you're looking for.
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- shawn_w 10 months ago
- corv 10 months agoThis is great to hear but I’ve found Kagi’s Orion to be so good that I’m unlikely to switch
- 486sx33 10 months agoI don’t understand why I’d want a DDG browser. Firefox seems fine ?
- 10 months ago
- SG- 10 months agois this based on an existing engine/framework or something new?
- szastamasta 10 months agoIt’s JSC + Webkit => so it’s just Safari in disguise
- mrweasel 10 months agoIs that not like saying that Brave, Orion, Vivaldi, Edge and Opera are just Chrome in disguise? I mean I wouldn't disagree necessarily.
- __jonas 10 months agoOrion is also WebKit, not chromium based
- szastamasta 10 months agoYeah, I mean they are all different when it comes to tools around web page itself, but compatibility & web performance will be similar to the rendering/js engine.
- __jonas 10 months ago
- mrweasel 10 months ago
- weikju 10 months agoWebKit afaik
- szastamasta 10 months ago
- benbristow 10 months agoWe have taken steps to update our terminology and remove words with problematic racial connotations, most notably the change to main branches, allow lists, and blocklists. Closed issues or PRs may contain deprecated terminology that should not be used going forward.
TIL blacklist and whitelist are racist. Even though if you look at the etymology they're not. Meh.
- userbinator 10 months ago[flagged]
- userbinator 10 months ago
- solarkraft 10 months agoHoly shit, it wasn’t?
- userbinator 10 months ago[flagged]
- lionkor 10 months ago[flagged]
- jaimex2 10 months agoYou kinda opted in for that as an Apple user.
- lionkor 10 months agoGuess me using every ""racist"" word possible didnt catch on as funny as i hoped.
- deafpolygon 10 months agoHuh?
- lionkor 10 months ago
- jaimex2 10 months ago
- lionkor 10 months ago