DuckDuckGo CEO says Google kills competition through phone deals that make it hard for users to switch search engines

Google’s search results are absolute garbage lately. It pushes the most advert-heavy spam sites first.

DuckDuckGo has more reliably been giving me the technical documentation I was looking for in the past year.

But Weinberg testified that getting users to switch from Google was complicated, requiring as many as 30 to 50 steps to change defaults on all their devices, whereas the process could be shortened to just one click on each device.

Full disclosure, been using Duck Duck Go for a while but...

30 to 50 steps? On a Samsung it's one click from the address bar to select a search engine and then another to select Duck, Google, yahoo, or bing.

The way it's worded they're adding steps for like 10 devices together.

And for it to be a single click, all the options would have to display every time you click the address bar, which would make it look like a 90s web browser.

I'm all about Duck, but that reeks of bullshit because they know most politicians don't know as much about the internet as a 9 year old does.

Daily reminder that unregulated capitalism hurts all of us.

He's probably right, but from what I see, the reality is that like 95% of people simply don't care, and the rest will find an alternative.

Its the easiest thing in the world. I degoogled everything in my life in like 2-3 days after work. People aren't switching because the bulk of the world's populace likes the centralization and using the popular option. They just want to use what everyone else is.

I installed a custom launcher that's close to the stock one on my Pixel 3 specifically to make it possible to remove the Google Search widget. Now I have a Firefox widget that points to DDG.

If any are interested, the launcher is Lawn Chair, and it can be installed via F-droid.

this absolutely wouldn't happen if there were no regulations - a libertarian

DuckDuckGo CEO apparently is just another CEO. I've been an early adopter that's been using their search engine long before there were apps or a browser.

What's stopping people from using DDG isn't switching to DDG, it's getting absolutely dogshit results 90% of time. As an advanced user I know I can prefix my search with "!g phrase" to use Google instead of DDG. The sad fact is that despite the ad-ridden result page and tracking, Google is still lightyears ahead in providing relevant, and especially timely results for a user that is both tech-savvy and critical.

They need to improve their product, users will follow a good adfree search engine, that's a given. Only a fraction of users will put up with degraded results in order to search without tracking.

I sincerely hope they will get their tech up to par. And that their browser on mobile reaches feature parity soon. (as a Z Fold user, DDG browser doesn't have tabs. Brave, Vivaldi and Firefox does).

The new kid on the block needs humility and good tech, not shittalk. Fuck that CEO,. he's undermining something very promising and important.

DDG rules

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The U.S. Department of Justice argues that Google has smothered competition by paying companies such as Apple and Verizon to lock in its search engine as the default choice — the first one users see — on many laptops and smartphones.

Even when it holds the default spot on smartphones and other devices, Google argues, users can switch to rival search engines with a couple of clicks.

DuckDuckGo still sells ads, but bases them on what people are asking its search engine in the moment, a technique known as “contextual advertising.” That focus on privacy helped the company attract more users after the Edward Snowden saga raised awareness about the pervasiveness of online surveillance.

It gained even more customers after Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal opened a window into how personal information extracted from digital services can be passed around to other data brokers.

But Lehman said machine learning has improved rapidly in recent years, to the point that computers can evaluate text on their own without needing to analyze data from user clicks.

During the exchange, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta drew a laugh by asking how internet searches would answer one of pop culture’s most pressing questions this week: whether superstar singer Taylor Swift is dating NFL tight end Travis Kelce.

The original article contains 637 words, the summary contains 212 words. Saved 67%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Im just here to watch the slimeballs duke it out.

Bullshit. It's not that hard in the least bit to change search.

Okay, sure. I agree that this is an unfair advantage. But like, I've been using DuckDuckGo for a while and the best thing about it is the ability to easily search other search engines. Their own actual search engine isn't exactly great.

Mostly using it makes me realize how much time Google saves me by already having my location and search history. I still don't trust them and it isn't what it was a few years ago, but it's the actual quality of their search that's keeping them on top.

Also like, why does clicking a thumbnail in video search not take me to the video? Dumb.

I could switch but I don't see any need to. The lockin from apple apps and google play apps is far stronger.

that’s DuckDuckGo and “Names Database” CEO*, folks. PLEASE do not look to this man as a beacon for anything privacy-related, even when he says something true.

Bing says what?

I've been using freeadblocker browser after stumbling on it (with DDG as a search engine). Does it have anything to do with Google/chrome? I'm confused, because I've been using it for so long and it blocks all ads so I guess I don't know why no one is using it unless it's some Google stepchild I don't know about and I'm still googled without knowing it.

ok ill try using duckduckgo again

Maybe if they made DDG give better results, I wouldn't use Google quite as much

Permanently Deleted

duckduckgo started censoring results and selling user data about a year ago now.

I've been using brave search ever since I heard about that.

DuckDuckGo just sounds so stupid. I refuse to use it