{"slug": "duckduckgo", "name": "DuckDuckGo", "category": "search", "category_name": "Search", "description": "Privacy-focused web search engine from DuckDuckGo, also offering bangs and an AI chat.", "recommenders": 37, "commenters": 85, "warners": 17, "score": 26.248, "rising": 2.49, "first": "2025-11-05", "latest": "2026-10-29", "why": "Liked as a private default search engine for people leaving Google, with results many find good enough or better, plus bangs and lite and no-AI versions.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 36, "neutral": 33, "compare": 2, "warn": 20}, "spark": [1, 3, 2, 0, 0, 1, 9, 6, 2, 6, 5, 1], "listed": true, "loved": ["Good-enough results", "Google alternative"], "caveat": "Declining quality", "short_quote": "DDG has been my daily driver for more than a decade now and I could not be more pleased.", "icon": true, "domain": "duckduckgo.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://duckduckgo.com", "pricing": "free", "aliases": ["DuckDuckGo", "DuckDuckGo Lite"], "verdict": [{"text": "Liked as a private default search engine for people leaving Google,", "cites": [{"id": 780912385, "item_id": 48807024, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48807024", "by": "jrflo", "date": "2026-07-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched to firefox and duckduckgo and couldn't be happier with the decision.", "excerpt": "Ever since IO earlier this year when google showed their AI strategy I switched to firefox and duckduckgo and couldn't be happier with the decision. I am by no means anti-AI but users should be able to choose when they want to use these tools, google seems to want to shove it down everyone's throat.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google Search", "story": "Google Chrome Installed a 4GB AI Model on Your PC"}, {"id": 776913409, "item_id": 48557088, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48557088", "by": "yalogin", "date": "2026-06-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "finally switched to ddg as the default search engine", "excerpt": "Gemini made me turn google off completely. There is no provision to not allow your chat data from being shared send for training - even if you pay. Clearly they don\u2019t care about end users and I am guessing they are losing money on paid cunaumer tier as well. But that is not acceptable to me. I just turned off all Google services and finally switched to ddg as the default search engine.", "context": "", "use_case": "search engine", "switched_from": "Google Search", "story": "I Fired Google"}, {"id": 772876784, "item_id": 48304799, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48304799", "by": "p0w3n3d", "date": "2026-05-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "And Duckduckgo for private search. I default to DDG", "excerpt": "To be honest I use Google AI mode a lot. And Duckduckgo for private search. I default to DDG and use !g if I want to resign from privacy or find some merchandise to buy", "context": "", "use_case": "private search", "switched_from": "", "story": "DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode"}, {"id": 794721840, "item_id": 49670115, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49670115", "by": "seba_dos1", "date": "2026-09-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched to DuckDuckGo around 2018 or so", "excerpt": "I switched to DuckDuckGo around 2018 or so, which was when I realized that Google's results quality has deteriorated so much that I won't lose anything of value by doing so. This thread is how I learn about the atrocities that Google Search is committing these days. Which is an elaborate way to say: you don't have to live like this.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google Search", "story": "google.com/goto: Google's anti-scraping update"}]}, {"text": " with results many find good enough or better,", "cites": [{"id": 773750192, "item_id": 48359387, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48359387", "by": "TehCorwiz", "date": "2026-06-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've been using DDG for years and it's at least as good as Google for most general use.", "excerpt": "I've been using DDG for years and it's at least as good as Google for most general use. I still keep it set as the default search engine. For some context sensitive searches where words overlap with more common topics I have a Kagi subscription.", "context": "", "use_case": "default web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "DuckDuckGo makes its 'no-AI' search engine easier to access as its traffic booms"}, {"id": 772891392, "item_id": 48305712, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48305712", "by": "thecopy", "date": "2026-05-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I genuinely find DDG more effective than Google Search.", "excerpt": "I genuinely find DDG more effective than Google Search. I have used it as a daily driver for 2+ years now. When i cannot find anything with DDG, i try with the !g macro, but results are more often than not even worse.", "context": "", "use_case": "daily web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode"}, {"id": 783572864, "item_id": 48973304, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48973304", "by": "margalabargala", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "When I left the job I went back to DDG to see if I would notice a quality drop, and I did not", "excerpt": "That's fair. Personally I don't find their searches to be sufficiently better than DDG that I will open my wallet. I did have a former job that would pay for Kagi for employees and I used Kagi for well over a year via that. When I left the job I went back to DDG to see if I would notice a quality drop, and I did not, so I decided not to pay for a personal account.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Kagi", "story": "Orion Browser by Kagi"}, {"id": 772755232, "item_id": 48297202, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48297202", "by": "lisplist", "date": "2026-05-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched to DDG about a year ago and it works fine for me.", "excerpt": "I switched to DDG about a year ago and it works fine for me. For some queries, Google still surfaces better results, but DDG is good enough that I don't really miss it. The only Google service I haven't been able to replace is YouTube - no real alternative. I still use Google Maps as well, but could probably switch to Apple maps without missing much. For hiking trails, Apple Maps has often been superior. I briefly tr", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google Search", "story": "DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode"}]}, {"text": " plus bangs and lite and no-AI versions.", "cites": [{"id": 788138544, "item_id": 49258659, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49258659", "by": "nedt", "date": "2026-08-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Switched to Duckduckgo years ago. I just love the bangs", "excerpt": "Google wasn't great for a very long time. Switched to Duckduckgo years ago. I just love the bangs, because I tend to go to sources I trust anyway. Doesn't mean I'm not also using duck.ai. It makes searching faster and more targeted. But then it's still giving me links to verify and is actually more limited, which means less hallucination and more directly going to the sources. Also it avoids having to open five pages", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Google Search Is Dying. What Comes Next Is Worse"}, {"id": 773750832, "item_id": 48359427, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48359427", "by": "MeetingsBrowser", "date": "2026-06-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "DDG has been my daily driver for more than a decade now and I could not be more pleased.", "excerpt": "DDG has been my daily driver for more than a decade now and I could not be more pleased. Better privacy, good results, no drama, first search engine to include bangs, and its free!", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "DuckDuckGo makes its 'no-AI' search engine easier to access as its traffic booms"}, {"id": 786495728, "item_id": 49155983, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49155983", "by": "worldsavior", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "You can use noai.duckduckgo.com if don't want AI, and lite.duckduckgo.com if you don't want bubblification.", "excerpt": "You can use noai.duckduckgo.com if don't want AI, and lite.duckduckgo.com if you don't want bubblification.", "context": "", "use_case": "AI-free web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 740183536, "item_id": 46261471, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46261471", "by": "frm88", "date": "2025-12-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love that they offer noai.duckduckgo.com", "excerpt": "I'm certainly in the minority on this site, but I love that they offer noai.duckduckgo.com - I'm really, really tired of AI everywhere. It wouldn't be so bad, if the results were accurate (no idea about duck.ai, since I avoid it) and didn't take up a solid third of screen real estate. Until AI results get vastly better and stop hallucinating, I will suppress them if I can. Please keep this feature.", "context": "tired of AI everywhere", "use_case": "search without AI results", "switched_from": "", "story": "Some surprising things about DuckDuckGo"}]}, {"text": " The most common complaint is declining result quality, including AI-generated spam", "cites": [{"id": 797988800, "item_id": 49874300, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49874300", "by": "WA", "date": "2026-09-28", "stance": "warn", "quote": "DDG's spam filters are basically useless.", "excerpt": "Unfortunately, DDG's spam filters are basically useless. I used DDG for many years without !g as well and recently, the first page contains mostly AI generated garbage blogs. Not for every search query, but for example for everything related around the house or garden.", "context": "used DDG for many years", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "When did Google get so weird?"}, {"id": 788219216, "item_id": 49263701, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49263701", "by": "evdubs", "date": "2026-08-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Duckduckgo has been incredibly worse with results for me for the past year.", "excerpt": "Duckduckgo has been incredibly worse with results for me for the past year. I had used Duckduckgo for about a decade, and now it is just littered with AI generated content for search results. I recently switched to a search engine that uses Google results.", "context": "used it for about a decade", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google Search Is Dying. What Comes Next Is Worse"}, {"id": 772830592, "item_id": 48301912, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48301912", "by": "uejfiweun", "date": "2026-05-27", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I use DDG but the problem I have with it is that, well, the results just kind of suck.", "excerpt": "I use DDG but the problem I have with it is that, well, the results just kind of suck. I have slowly used the \"!g\" operator more and more over the years to the point that now probably 95% of my DDG searches are just Google searches.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode"}, {"id": 783616705, "item_id": 48976044, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48976044", "by": "anenefan", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "warn", "quote": "This year, DDG has declined hard", "excerpt": "Competitor isn't a word I could use to describe the web search scene in regard to google. However if one wanted a good search engine that one didn't have to keep banging on the keyboard for a half decent result I could say Yandex is one of the larger search engines that's performing really well on a lot of tech and niche areas compared to google or even duckduckgo atm. I though am pretty biased for I don't put up wit", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Are there any new competitors to Google search in 2026?"}, {"id": 740140657, "item_id": 46258791, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46258791", "by": "SV_BubbleTime", "date": "2025-12-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The quality of DDG has for me, unquestionably slipped.", "excerpt": "\u201cWe don\u2019t censor results\u201d\u2026 well\u2026 Either that is completely bullshit, or it\u2019s technically-bullshit. 1. They don\u2019t have to censor because their sources censor for them. \u201cOh we\u2019re just an aggregator of censored results\u201d doesn\u2019t mean \u201cthis is an uncensored search engine\u201d like the claim would have you believe. 2. Proof of this is evident in by comparing Russian yandex.com, my now go to for anything related to hacking, pir", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Some surprising things about DuckDuckGo"}]}, {"text": " and unwanted localized results for general queries.", "cites": [{"id": 786503824, "item_id": 49156489, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156489", "by": "eth0up", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "DuckDuckGo over-affiliates results with user-IPs, which is why I often don't use it.", "excerpt": "I see this comment has made someone angry, but it may be the most plausible answer anyway. DuckDuckGo over-affiliates results with user-IPs, which is why I often don't use it. Not because of 'privacy', but because when I search for a specific subject, 99% percent of the time, I do not want localized results, eg when I search how to replace a valve on my vehicle, I am searching for instructions, not local mechanics, w", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 786577792, "item_id": 49161112, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49161112", "by": "fjlunky", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "if I check the box next to my country flag (I.e. to turn localisation off) I _still_ get local pergola providers.", "excerpt": "What does it use? A reason I switched was to stop localisation of searches, and the dropdown at the top of the page used to be great for that but now doesn\u2019t seem to do much. For example if I search \u201cpergola\u201d then I get local pergola providers: good. But if I check the box next to my country flag (I.e. to turn localisation off) I _still_ get local pergola providers. Even if I change the region to another country I st", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 789563680, "item_id": 49347730, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49347730", "by": "k310", "date": "2026-08-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "when my technical queries return almost entirely local restaurants and movies for sale  (You heard me DDG)", "excerpt": "My main objection is that people use AI to replace, not abet, logical reasoning and problem solving. In tech, I used to call this practice \"button-pushing\", doing things with basically no understanding of the problem, the tools at hand (hidden by a GUI), problem-solving techniques (which are completely transferable among many activities) and even dumb ass logic. Now, short of AI, I will use web search to come up with", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: AI-Haters and AI-Usage"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Good-enough results", "summary": "Many long-time users find its results comparable to or better than Google's for most searches.", "quotes": [{"id": 773750192, "item_id": 48359387, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48359387", "by": "TehCorwiz", "date": "2026-06-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've been using DDG for years and it's at least as good as Google for most general use.", "excerpt": "I've been using DDG for years and it's at least as good as Google for most general use. I still keep it set as the default search engine. For some context sensitive searches where words overlap with more common topics I have a Kagi subscription.", "context": "", "use_case": "default web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "DuckDuckGo makes its 'no-AI' search engine easier to access as its traffic booms"}, {"id": 772891392, "item_id": 48305712, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48305712", "by": "thecopy", "date": "2026-05-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I genuinely find DDG more effective than Google Search.", "excerpt": "I genuinely find DDG more effective than Google Search. I have used it as a daily driver for 2+ years now. When i cannot find anything with DDG, i try with the !g macro, but results are more often than not even worse.", "context": "", "use_case": "daily web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode"}, {"id": 783572864, "item_id": 48973304, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48973304", "by": "margalabargala", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "When I left the job I went back to DDG to see if I would notice a quality drop, and I did not", "excerpt": "That's fair. Personally I don't find their searches to be sufficiently better than DDG that I will open my wallet. I did have a former job that would pay for Kagi for employees and I used Kagi for well over a year via that. When I left the job I went back to DDG to see if I would notice a quality drop, and I did not, so I decided not to pay for a personal account.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Kagi", "story": "Orion Browser by Kagi"}]}, {"label": "Google alternative", "summary": "Users switched to escape Google's AI push, app nagging and heavy result pages.", "quotes": [{"id": 780912385, "item_id": 48807024, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48807024", "by": "jrflo", "date": "2026-07-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched to firefox and duckduckgo and couldn't be happier with the decision.", "excerpt": "Ever since IO earlier this year when google showed their AI strategy I switched to firefox and duckduckgo and couldn't be happier with the decision. I am by no means anti-AI but users should be able to choose when they want to use these tools, google seems to want to shove it down everyone's throat.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google Search", "story": "Google Chrome Installed a 4GB AI Model on Your PC"}, {"id": 772896352, "item_id": 48306022, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48306022", "by": "narrowtux", "date": "2026-05-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I finally switched to duck duck go", "excerpt": "I finally switched to duck duck go, not because of the AI push of google, but because of the constant nagging popups to download the google app. Just let me google things in mobile safari in peace!", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google Search", "story": "DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode"}, {"id": 778114832, "item_id": 48632177, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48632177", "by": "nbaksalyar", "date": "2026-06-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've switched to DDG and never looked back.", "excerpt": "It's not just Google AI Studio, it's also Google proper. Just one search result page consumes gigabytes of RAM. How did this happen? I've switched to DDG and never looked back.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Codex logging bug may write TBs to local SSDs"}]}, {"label": "Lite and no-AI", "summary": "The noai and lite versions let users avoid AI features and work well on slow connections or minimal browsers.", "quotes": [{"id": 740183536, "item_id": 46261471, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46261471", "by": "frm88", "date": "2025-12-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love that they offer noai.duckduckgo.com", "excerpt": "I'm certainly in the minority on this site, but I love that they offer noai.duckduckgo.com - I'm really, really tired of AI everywhere. It wouldn't be so bad, if the results were accurate (no idea about duck.ai, since I avoid it) and didn't take up a solid third of screen real estate. Until AI results get vastly better and stop hallucinating, I will suppress them if I can. Please keep this feature.", "context": "tired of AI everywhere", "use_case": "search without AI results", "switched_from": "", "story": "Some surprising things about DuckDuckGo"}, {"id": 786495728, "item_id": 49155983, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49155983", "by": "worldsavior", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "You can use noai.duckduckgo.com if don't want AI, and lite.duckduckgo.com if you don't want bubblification.", "excerpt": "You can use noai.duckduckgo.com if don't want AI, and lite.duckduckgo.com if you don't want bubblification.", "context": "", "use_case": "AI-free web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 745595520, "item_id": 46599720, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46599720", "by": "Tmpod", "date": "2026-01-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use it often when on very slow or metered connections", "excerpt": "There's also the even more barebones DDG Lite: https://lite.duckduckgo.com I use it often when on very slow or metered connections (still find some of those around).", "context": "", "use_case": "search on slow connections", "switched_from": "", "story": "Text-Based Web Browsers"}]}, {"label": "Bangs", "summary": "Bang shortcuts let users jump straight to trusted sources or fall back to Google.", "quotes": [{"id": 788138544, "item_id": 49258659, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49258659", "by": "nedt", "date": "2026-08-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Switched to Duckduckgo years ago. I just love the bangs", "excerpt": "Google wasn't great for a very long time. Switched to Duckduckgo years ago. I just love the bangs, because I tend to go to sources I trust anyway. Doesn't mean I'm not also using duck.ai. It makes searching faster and more targeted. But then it's still giving me links to verify and is actually more limited, which means less hallucination and more directly going to the sources. Also it avoids having to open five pages", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Google Search Is Dying. What Comes Next Is Worse"}, {"id": 788716560, "item_id": 49294785, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49294785", "by": "dredmorbius", "date": "2026-08-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "And that works pretty well, for general online stuff.", "excerpt": "I've been searching online content since the 1980s (computerised library catalogues), the Web since the mid/late '90s, Google since 1999, DDG since 2013. My search-fu is pretty good. Correction: my search-fu was pretty good. Tactics which used to work, regularly, don't. And I'm often intentionally not searching keywords but framing questions (generally to DDG's Search Assistant) to suss out stuff. And that works pret", "context": "searching online since the 1980s", "use_case": "search, bangs, Search Assistant", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Google Search Is Dying. What Comes Next Is Worse"}, {"id": 773750832, "item_id": 48359427, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48359427", "by": "MeetingsBrowser", "date": "2026-06-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "DDG has been my daily driver for more than a decade now and I could not be more pleased.", "excerpt": "DDG has been my daily driver for more than a decade now and I could not be more pleased. Better privacy, good results, no drama, first search engine to include bangs, and its free!", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "DuckDuckGo makes its 'no-AI' search engine easier to access as its traffic booms"}]}, {"label": "Privacy", "summary": "Commenters use it specifically for private search.", "quotes": [{"id": 772876784, "item_id": 48304799, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48304799", "by": "p0w3n3d", "date": "2026-05-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "And Duckduckgo for private search. I default to DDG", "excerpt": "To be honest I use Google AI mode a lot. And Duckduckgo for private search. I default to DDG and use !g if I want to resign from privacy or find some merchandise to buy", "context": "", "use_case": "private search", "switched_from": "", "story": "DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode"}, {"id": 773750832, "item_id": 48359427, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48359427", "by": "MeetingsBrowser", "date": "2026-06-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "DDG has been my daily driver for more than a decade now and I could not be more pleased.", "excerpt": "DDG has been my daily driver for more than a decade now and I could not be more pleased. Better privacy, good results, no drama, first search engine to include bangs, and its free!", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "DuckDuckGo makes its 'no-AI' search engine easier to access as its traffic booms"}, {"id": 741277857, "item_id": 46329866, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46329866", "by": "kittikitti", "date": "2025-12-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I recommend Ecosia and DuckDuckGo but Brave Search for the most private options.", "excerpt": "The first thing I do when installing a new browser is to change the default search engine. I recommend Ecosia and DuckDuckGo but Brave Search for the most private options.", "context": "", "use_case": "private search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Pa. high court rules that police can access Google searches without a warrant"}]}, {"label": "Speed and simplicity", "summary": "Some find it faster with a simpler, more focused UI than Google.", "quotes": [{"id": 772943440, "item_id": 48308965, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48308965", "by": "p-t", "date": "2026-05-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "i started using duckduckgo after google added ai, and it runs way faster", "excerpt": "i started using duckduckgo after google added ai, and it runs way faster [i use lite.duckduckgo.com :3] edit: my school blocks all search engines other than google though XD", "context": "student", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google Search", "story": "DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode"}, {"id": 772266000, "item_id": 48266625, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48266625", "by": "WhyNotHugo", "date": "2026-05-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched to DDG a long time ago", "excerpt": "I switched to DDG a long time ago (maybe close to a decade now?). There's plenty of reasons to dislike Google, but my main reason for switching was better quality results and a faster, simpler UI. The UI has gotten a bit clunkier over the years, but it's still good, still more focused than Google's. As I write this, I give Google Search a quick try and notice that the first thing you see is a full-screen cookie banne", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google Search", "story": "Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Declining quality", "summary": "Several long-time users say results have worsened and fill up with AI-generated junk.", "quotes": [{"id": 797988800, "item_id": 49874300, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49874300", "by": "WA", "date": "2026-09-28", "stance": "warn", "quote": "DDG's spam filters are basically useless.", "excerpt": "Unfortunately, DDG's spam filters are basically useless. I used DDG for many years without !g as well and recently, the first page contains mostly AI generated garbage blogs. Not for every search query, but for example for everything related around the house or garden.", "context": "used DDG for many years", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "When did Google get so weird?"}, {"id": 788219216, "item_id": 49263701, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49263701", "by": "evdubs", "date": "2026-08-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Duckduckgo has been incredibly worse with results for me for the past year.", "excerpt": "Duckduckgo has been incredibly worse with results for me for the past year. I had used Duckduckgo for about a decade, and now it is just littered with AI generated content for search results. I recently switched to a search engine that uses Google results.", "context": "used it for about a decade", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google Search Is Dying. What Comes Next Is Worse"}, {"id": 783616705, "item_id": 48976044, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48976044", "by": "anenefan", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "warn", "quote": "This year, DDG has declined hard", "excerpt": "Competitor isn't a word I could use to describe the web search scene in regard to google. However if one wanted a good search engine that one didn't have to keep banging on the keyboard for a half decent result I could say Yandex is one of the larger search engines that's performing really well on a lot of tech and niche areas compared to google or even duckduckgo atm. I though am pretty biased for I don't put up wit", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Are there any new competitors to Google search in 2026?"}]}, {"label": "Over-localization", "summary": "Results skew toward local businesses even with region settings turned off.", "quotes": [{"id": 786503824, "item_id": 49156489, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156489", "by": "eth0up", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "DuckDuckGo over-affiliates results with user-IPs, which is why I often don't use it.", "excerpt": "I see this comment has made someone angry, but it may be the most plausible answer anyway. DuckDuckGo over-affiliates results with user-IPs, which is why I often don't use it. Not because of 'privacy', but because when I search for a specific subject, 99% percent of the time, I do not want localized results, eg when I search how to replace a valve on my vehicle, I am searching for instructions, not local mechanics, w", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 786577792, "item_id": 49161112, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49161112", "by": "fjlunky", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "if I check the box next to my country flag (I.e. to turn localisation off) I _still_ get local pergola providers.", "excerpt": "What does it use? A reason I switched was to stop localisation of searches, and the dropdown at the top of the page used to be great for that but now doesn\u2019t seem to do much. For example if I search \u201cpergola\u201d then I get local pergola providers: good. But if I check the box next to my country flag (I.e. to turn localisation off) I _still_ get local pergola providers. Even if I change the region to another country I st", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 789563680, "item_id": 49347730, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49347730", "by": "k310", "date": "2026-08-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "when my technical queries return almost entirely local restaurants and movies for sale  (You heard me DDG)", "excerpt": "My main objection is that people use AI to replace, not abet, logical reasoning and problem solving. In tech, I used to call this practice \"button-pushing\", doing things with basically no understanding of the problem, the tools at hand (hidden by a GUI), problem-solving techniques (which are completely transferable among many activities) and even dumb ass logic. Now, short of AI, I will use web search to come up with", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: AI-Haters and AI-Usage"}]}, {"label": "Falls back to Google", "summary": "Some users end up relying on !g for most searches.", "quotes": [{"id": 772830592, "item_id": 48301912, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48301912", "by": "uejfiweun", "date": "2026-05-27", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I use DDG but the problem I have with it is that, well, the results just kind of suck.", "excerpt": "I use DDG but the problem I have with it is that, well, the results just kind of suck. I have slowly used the \"!g\" operator more and more over the years to the point that now probably 95% of my DDG searches are just Google searches.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode"}, {"id": 773754288, "item_id": 48359643, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48359643", "by": "emaccumber", "date": "2026-06-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I switched to DDG search three months ago, and unfortunately it's much inferior to Google.", "excerpt": "I switched to DDG search three months ago, and unfortunately it's much inferior to Google. Maybe I've subconsciously optimized my queries for Google these past 20 years and need to rethink how to query using DDG, though.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "DuckDuckGo makes its 'no-AI' search engine easier to access as its traffic booms"}]}, {"label": "Aggressive autocorrect", "summary": "Autocorrect sometimes overrides what the user actually typed.", "quotes": [{"id": 740221712, "item_id": 46263857, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46263857", "by": "spopejoy", "date": "2025-12-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love DDG! However it's search term autocorrect is really broken", "excerpt": "Since this is turning into a DDG AMA thread of sorts -- I love DDG! However it's search term autocorrect is really broken when DDG decides for me I must not be looking for exactly what I typed. It seems to assume that if there isn't a lot of results then it's my fault for typing a \"bad\" query? Sometimes it makes up a new search out of whole cloth in this case with terms not even close to what I typed. I get the utili", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Some surprising things about DuckDuckGo"}, {"id": 786530368, "item_id": 49158148, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49158148", "by": "ldng", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The moment a tool gets in the way (whatever the good intentions are), I drop the tool.", "excerpt": "For about the last to years I've seen the bubble effect creeping in. And, sorry no offence to you personally, to be blunt, I'm not interested in damage control. When I make a generic search unrelated to a hobby I have and I get as top answer something about my hobby, it's a very red and very flashing red flag of bubble effect. The nail in the coffin has happened this weekend when some un-asked for auto-correct preven", "context": "long-time user", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}]}, {"label": "Bing dependence", "summary": "Critics say it relies too heavily on Bing results.", "quotes": [{"id": 754987888, "item_id": 47186743, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47186743", "by": "jmspring", "date": "2026-02-27", "stance": "warn", "quote": "their search relies too heavily on Bing which - worked for msft, etc... - no idea why it sucks so much.", "excerpt": "I'm in the process of de-googling. It will take time (changing third party contact emails - banks, etc is annoying) - I honestly wish there was the equivalent of \"moving\" where emails could be updated the same way. DDG - I love the premise, but their search relies too heavily on Bing which - worked for msft, etc... - no idea why it sucks so much. Claude/etc for search - artificial guardrails. \"Hey give me an example ", "context": "de-googling", "use_case": "search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Leaving Google has actively improved my life"}, {"id": 772760961, "item_id": 48297560, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48297560", "by": "ctrlkctrls", "date": "2026-05-27", "stance": "warn", "quote": "DDG is just Bing or a search vendor proxy, so I've never understood the fascination.", "excerpt": "The world seems to be fragmenting, into those that see the value in the latest from Google, and those that resist changes like this. I search for how much oil does my <ICE vehicle> take\" and get the exact answer in a single sentence, or I suppose I could click the links and wade through all the validation for choosing <ICE vehicle> and how often one should change the oil, and which brand of oil that blog is pushing e", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode"}]}, {"label": "Scam sites", "summary": "One user reports fake sites outranking real ones.", "quotes": [{"id": 771432880, "item_id": 48214555, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48214555", "by": "Cider9986", "date": "2026-05-20", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I find DuckDuckGo's search results to be terrible.", "excerpt": "I find DuckDuckGo's search results to be terrible. I use Brave search and I find it to be the best. I've also tried Startpage and I like it better than DDG, but less than Brave. DDG often has scam sites for example when you search for FMHY, https://fmhy.net comes up on all other search engines, but fmhy [.] click comes up on DDG. Same with \"anna's archive\" returning the fake site annas-archive [.]io.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apparently Google hates us now"}]}], "who": [{"by": "dredmorbius", "context": "searching online since the 1980s", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49294785", "date": "2026-08-13"}, {"by": "sandcat_", "context": "iOS user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49160668", "date": "2026-08-03"}, {"by": "traceroute66", "context": "Mullvad VPN user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156334", "date": "2026-08-03"}, {"by": "sphars", "context": "Firefox user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156269", "date": "2026-08-03"}, {"by": "p-t", "context": "student", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48308965", "date": "2026-05-28"}, {"by": "Gimpei", "context": "iOS user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47661756", "date": "2026-04-06"}, {"by": "geldedus", "context": "Website owner", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46439320", "date": "2025-12-30"}, {"by": "frm88", "context": "tired of AI everywhere", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46261471", "date": "2025-12-13"}], "tags": ["for leaving Google", "for avoiding AI", "for privacy", "for slow connections", "for minimal browsers"], "use_cases": ["web search", "search", "ai-free web search", "private search", "finding locations", "web search at work"], "compared": [{"slug": "google-search", "name": "Google Search", "co": 25, "switched_from": 14, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "kagi", "name": "Kagi", "co": 36, "switched_from": 2, "switched_to": 5}, {"slug": "brave", "name": "Brave", "co": 16, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "ecosia", "name": "Ecosia", "co": 7, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 2}, {"slug": "searxng", "name": "SearXNG", "co": 8, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "yandex", "name": "Yandex", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 3}, {"slug": "google-ai-mode", "name": "Google AI Mode", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 2}], "makers": [{"id": 786510592, "item_id": 49156912, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156912", "by": "gtfiorentino", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Hi, I work on Search at DuckDuckGo.", "excerpt": "Hi, I work on Search at DuckDuckGo. Can you clarify what you mean by \u201cbubblification\u201d? Would be interested to know what has changed for you as a long-time user.", "context": "works on Search at DuckDuckGo", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49155492", "title": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?", "mentions": 15}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48296649", "title": "DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode", "mentions": 13}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49870367", "title": "When did Google get so weird?", "mentions": 8}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48359130", "title": "DuckDuckGo makes its 'no-AI' search engine easier to access as its traffic booms", "mentions": 7}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47184288", "title": "Leaving Google has actively improved my life", "mentions": 5}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46258529", "title": "Some surprising things about DuckDuckGo", "mentions": 5}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 1, "compare": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2025-12": {"warn": 1, "recommend": 3, "neutral": 2}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 1}, "2026-02": {"neutral": 4, "compare": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-03": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {"warn": 6, "neutral": 6, "recommend": 9}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 6, "neutral": 2, "warn": 2}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 3}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 6, "warn": 6, "neutral": 6}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 5, "warn": 2, "neutral": 6}, "2026-10": {"warn": 2, "neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 804692001, "item_id": 50293250, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50293250", "by": "gonzalohm", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "they moved from Google to duckduckgo.", "excerpt": "Search numbers are down because Google search has become crap. I know a lot of people which I don't consider tech enthusiasts and they moved from Google to duckduckgo. I have moved to Kagi myself", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google Search", "story": "Google Search is now less than half of Alphabet\u2019s revenue"}, {"id": 804290496, "item_id": 50268156, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50268156", "by": "ghastmaster", "date": "2026-10-28", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used duckduckgo to search information on my gamertag", "excerpt": "Discord has been available for training data for at least some months. I used duckduckgo to search information on my gamertag and whichever AI they were using at the time came up with results that would have only been available had it used Discord's data.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Discord will soon let anyone find public server messages through Google"}, {"id": 800807648, "item_id": 50050478, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50050478", "by": "k310", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I use DDG and get brutally useless results most of the time.", "excerpt": "Some day, you'll get old. Then you'll discover that real needs of older folks (and you can throw in kids, and some other groups) are almost entirely unmet. So, DJT gets an exoskeleton, intensive medical care, a chauffeur, prepared meals (not just Big Macs and KFC) and millions struggle first, to pay the rent and utilities, but also struggle with 2-point type food labels, walking around, lifting heavy things, driving ", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What to Build in the AI Era?"}, {"id": 799102674, "item_id": 49943917, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49943917", "by": "user2722", "date": "2026-10-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "DDG did similar.", "excerpt": "I moved from a densely populated area to a more sparse one. I'll probably renew Kagi because its assistant can answer my questions, such as: \"find me a location where I can be on my computer but also public where I can also be with a group of people\". Google's Gemini hallucinated spots or imagined details -- at one point it included a shed in the middle of a road -- the shed existed, nothing else did. DDG did similar", "context": "", "use_case": "finding locations", "switched_from": "", "story": "An Update on Orion for Linux and Windows"}, {"id": 798166704, "item_id": 49885419, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49885419", "by": "Muhammad523", "date": "2026-09-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've been using DDG for years now and i'm completely fine with it", "excerpt": "How are y'all still using Google as your search engine? I've been using DDG for years now and i'm completely fine with it, even tough i keep hearing people on the internet claiming that it's impossible to find anything with it", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google Search", "story": "When did Google get so weird?"}, {"id": 798132080, "item_id": 49883255, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49883255", "by": "bravoetch", "date": "2026-09-28", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use DDG", "excerpt": "What search is better? I use DDG, and I also know search has been broken for years because of attention and surveillance economy.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "When did Google get so weird?"}, {"id": 798110208, "item_id": 49881888, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49881888", "by": "lovich", "date": "2026-09-28", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use duckduckgo, mostly by habit at this point", "excerpt": "I havent used google in years. I use duckduckgo, mostly by habit at this point, and if i fail to find anything i go to claude and ask it. Im getting closer and closer to just defaulting to the AI model search every day. Especially when I want to find something that I can list off 5+ semi accurate details about but cant remember the name of.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "When did Google get so weird?"}, {"id": 797989345, "item_id": 49874334, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49874334", "by": "delis-thumbs-7e", "date": "2026-09-28", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use DDG at work on Firefox with all AI blocked.", "excerpt": "Kagi is brilliant. I find the whole Yandex -thing silly (EU spending on liquefied gas etc. from Russia is more than Yandex\u2019s whole annual revenue) and only wish same scrutiny would be put on corporations funding Israel genocides. I use DDG at work on Firefox with all AI blocked. If I would apart from Kagi, I would use SearXNG locally accessing it elsewhere with Tailscale. I think Hister seems promising, but have not ", "context": "", "use_case": "web search at work", "switched_from": "", "story": "When did Google get so weird?"}, {"id": 797988800, "item_id": 49874300, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49874300", "by": "WA", "date": "2026-09-28", "stance": "warn", "quote": "DDG's spam filters are basically useless.", "excerpt": "Unfortunately, DDG's spam filters are basically useless. I used DDG for many years without !g as well and recently, the first page contains mostly AI generated garbage blogs. Not for every search query, but for example for everything related around the house or garden.", "context": "used DDG for many years", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "When did Google get so weird?"}, {"id": 797977744, "item_id": 49873609, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49873609", "by": "rezonant", "date": "2026-09-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've been on DDG on all my devices for a few years.", "excerpt": "I've been on DDG on all my devices for a few years. I used to use !g somewhat regularly but these days it's extremely rare. I realized that I would just search DDG with my first stab at a query and then revise the query when using !g and I'd get the result I wanted. So I just stopped using !g and just revised my query on DDG and then I basically never had to use Google Search.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google Search", "story": "When did Google get so weird?"}, {"id": 797950640, "item_id": 49871915, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49871915", "by": "dhosek", "date": "2026-09-27", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "At some point, Duck Duck Go stopped giving a response", "excerpt": "I used to be able to type, e.g., \u201cdays since 24 June 2024\u201d into a browser window and get an answer. At some point, Duck Duck Go stopped giving a response, so I turned that into \u201cdays since 24 June 2024 !g\u201d to get it from Google. In the last couple-three weeks, Google now gives me an AI-generated answer that is wrong as often as not. Something else I\u2019ve noticed is that occasionally I\u2019ll do random queries in Claude (si", "context": "", "use_case": "search", "switched_from": "", "story": "When did Google get so weird?"}, {"id": 797935696, "item_id": 49870981, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49870981", "by": "8organicbits", "date": "2026-09-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Personally I use duckduckgo with AI turned off in settings", "excerpt": "This is a really good time to do a head-to-head comparison of different search engines. The last time I checked Google does not provide search results above the fold, instead showing AI overview, ads, and YouTube search results. Try a different search engine to see which one is giving you the highest signal results and what other junk they put on the page. Personally I use duckduckgo with AI turned off in settings, b", "context": "", "use_case": "search", "switched_from": "", "story": "When did Google get so weird?"}, {"id": 795292624, "item_id": 49705789, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49705789", "by": "pdonis", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use DuckDuckGo for search", "excerpt": "> How does one not engage with the corporate product at all? By not using it. Which is exactly why I don't use X or Facebook, and minimize my use of Google (I use DuckDuckGo for search, and as Maps continues to suck more I use it less).", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "XCancel service is suspended until further notice"}, {"id": 794976001, "item_id": 49686000, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49686000", "by": "bitpush", "date": "2026-09-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use kagi, ddg etc.", "excerpt": "> Google has a near-monopoly on search. What does that mean? I use kagi, ddg etc. Nobody is forcing anyone to use Google. Woudl you say HackerNews has a monopoly on tech chatter? Sure seems dominant, but nobody is forcing anyone to use HN. You can use lobsters, or reddit or whatever.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "google.com/goto: Google's anti-scraping update"}, {"id": 794735920, "item_id": 49670995, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49670995", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-09-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "oddly enough I also get crap results using e. g. DDG", "excerpt": "> I do enjoy using their free AI. So how is that AI slop garbage useful? It often lies, aka \"hallucinates\". And I operate within this Google-controlled auto-spammed text of lies when I use its horrible AI. The last thing I want to do is make Google even more powerful; at the least now with Google search being so crap, alternatives would be well desired, but oddly enough I also get crap results using e. g. DDG, so I t", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "google.com/goto: Google's anti-scraping update"}, {"id": 794721840, "item_id": 49670115, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49670115", "by": "seba_dos1", "date": "2026-09-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched to DuckDuckGo around 2018 or so", "excerpt": "I switched to DuckDuckGo around 2018 or so, which was when I realized that Google's results quality has deteriorated so much that I won't lose anything of value by doing so. This thread is how I learn about the atrocities that Google Search is committing these days. Which is an elaborate way to say: you don't have to live like this.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google Search", "story": "google.com/goto: Google's anti-scraping update"}, {"id": 794699648, "item_id": 49668728, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49668728", "by": "rmunn", "date": "2026-09-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've been using DuckDuckGo for years now", "excerpt": "I've been using DuckDuckGo for years now, ever since it became noticeable that two different people searching for the same search term would get two different results back from Google. Meaning they were no longer completely reliable: they might show one person a result that they hide from the other person by burying it on page 3 where few people ever look. DDG's search results have been poorer recently than they used", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google Search", "story": "google.com/goto: Google's anti-scraping update"}, {"id": 790222849, "item_id": 49388928, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49388928", "by": "DeepLogin", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Brave Search+ DuckDuckGo+ Google Image search", "excerpt": "I use Brave Search+ DuckDuckGo+ Google Image search and that seems to sastify my search requirements while keeping my payment info private. I don't think I will ever think of subscribing to Kagi metasearch engine, especially since their paywalled search offerings seem to be inferior to other options.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kagi added a setting for removing paywalled links from search results"}, {"id": 789563680, "item_id": 49347730, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49347730", "by": "k310", "date": "2026-08-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "when my technical queries return almost entirely local restaurants and movies for sale  (You heard me DDG)", "excerpt": "My main objection is that people use AI to replace, not abet, logical reasoning and problem solving. In tech, I used to call this practice \"button-pushing\", doing things with basically no understanding of the problem, the tools at hand (hidden by a GUI), problem-solving techniques (which are completely transferable among many activities) and even dumb ass logic. Now, short of AI, I will use web search to come up with", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: AI-Haters and AI-Usage"}, {"id": 788716560, "item_id": 49294785, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49294785", "by": "dredmorbius", "date": "2026-08-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "And that works pretty well, for general online stuff.", "excerpt": "I've been searching online content since the 1980s (computerised library catalogues), the Web since the mid/late '90s, Google since 1999, DDG since 2013. My search-fu is pretty good. Correction: my search-fu was pretty good. Tactics which used to work, regularly, don't. And I'm often intentionally not searching keywords but framing questions (generally to DDG's Search Assistant) to suss out stuff. And that works pret", "context": "searching online since the 1980s", "use_case": "search, bangs, Search Assistant", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Google Search Is Dying. What Comes Next Is Worse"}, {"id": 788219216, "item_id": 49263701, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49263701", "by": "evdubs", "date": "2026-08-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Duckduckgo has been incredibly worse with results for me for the past year.", "excerpt": "Duckduckgo has been incredibly worse with results for me for the past year. I had used Duckduckgo for about a decade, and now it is just littered with AI generated content for search results. I recently switched to a search engine that uses Google results.", "context": "used it for about a decade", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google Search Is Dying. What Comes Next Is Worse"}, {"id": 788138544, "item_id": 49258659, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49258659", "by": "nedt", "date": "2026-08-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Switched to Duckduckgo years ago. I just love the bangs", "excerpt": "Google wasn't great for a very long time. Switched to Duckduckgo years ago. I just love the bangs, because I tend to go to sources I trust anyway. Doesn't mean I'm not also using duck.ai. It makes searching faster and more targeted. But then it's still giving me links to verify and is actually more limited, which means less hallucination and more directly going to the sources. Also it avoids having to open five pages", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Google Search Is Dying. What Comes Next Is Worse"}, {"id": 786604304, "item_id": 49162769, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49162769", "by": "fjlunky", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "further down the page I get local results for my (quite small) country which I would not expect", "excerpt": "I would also expect that but that is not what I see. There are the ads at the top of the page which I do expect to be localised, but further down the page I get local results for my (quite small) country which I would not expect to get if I was in the country that I\u2019ve selected as the search country. Is there a way that I could use ddg that would return the same result for me as someone else would get? Not someone sp", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 786577792, "item_id": 49161112, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49161112", "by": "fjlunky", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "if I check the box next to my country flag (I.e. to turn localisation off) I _still_ get local pergola providers.", "excerpt": "What does it use? A reason I switched was to stop localisation of searches, and the dropdown at the top of the page used to be great for that but now doesn\u2019t seem to do much. For example if I search \u201cpergola\u201d then I get local pergola providers: good. But if I check the box next to my country flag (I.e. to turn localisation off) I _still_ get local pergola providers. Even if I change the region to another country I st", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 786573520, "item_id": 49160845, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49160845", "by": "attendant3446", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I actually find DDG AI answers helpful (sometimes).", "excerpt": "My default browsing habits are in incognito mode. I only open normal browser for websites where I want a persistent session. I haven't noticed the \"bubblification\" with DDG. And I actually find DDG AI answers helpful (sometimes).", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 786570688, "item_id": 49160668, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49160668", "by": "sandcat_", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Personally I use DDG there.", "excerpt": "On the off-chance that you were searching in incognito (that's where I run into that the most), iOS now lets you pick a different search engine in incognito mode. Personally I use DDG there.", "context": "iOS user", "use_case": "search in incognito mode on iOS", "switched_from": "", "story": "SearXNG in Rust"}, {"id": 786567568, "item_id": 49160473, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49160473", "by": "slig", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the results underneath are still good", "excerpt": "This can be disabled, but the results underneath are still good.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 786565792, "item_id": 49160362, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49160362", "by": "ldng", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I am crossed with DDG that for sure.", "excerpt": "I am not shitting on the guy, I literally said : \"sorry no offence to you personally\". I am crossed with DDG that for sure. And I said, many people have complained, here on HN about it, only to be met with the same damage control over and over. But granted, I could have phrased all that differently. You're right.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 786530368, "item_id": 49158148, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49158148", "by": "ldng", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The moment a tool gets in the way (whatever the good intentions are), I drop the tool.", "excerpt": "For about the last to years I've seen the bubble effect creeping in. And, sorry no offence to you personally, to be blunt, I'm not interested in damage control. When I make a generic search unrelated to a hobby I have and I get as top answer something about my hobby, it's a very red and very flashing red flag of bubble effect. The nail in the coffin has happened this weekend when some un-asked for auto-correct preven", "context": "long-time user", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 786519104, "item_id": 49157444, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49157444", "by": "ldng", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "unasked for auto-correct that, of course, is wrong", "excerpt": "It's the bubble I have the most issue with. Second-guessing is annoying. This month is getting worst with unasked for auto-correct that, of course, is wrong and end up not allowing me to search exactly what I want because DDG supposedly \"know better\". It does not.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 786518336, "item_id": 49157396, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49157396", "by": "ldng", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "And that's exactly why I moved. And now they broke that trust.", "excerpt": "And that's exactly why I moved. And now they broke that trust.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 786517856, "item_id": 49157366, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49157366", "by": "ldng", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Because I don't trust them anymore ?", "excerpt": "Because I don't trust them anymore ?", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 786508624, "item_id": 49156789, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156789", "by": "dijksterhuis", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "didn't know about lite, thanks for the tip", "excerpt": "didn't know about lite, thanks for the tip", "context": "", "use_case": "search without bubbling", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 786503824, "item_id": 49156489, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156489", "by": "eth0up", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "DuckDuckGo over-affiliates results with user-IPs, which is why I often don't use it.", "excerpt": "I see this comment has made someone angry, but it may be the most plausible answer anyway. DuckDuckGo over-affiliates results with user-IPs, which is why I often don't use it. Not because of 'privacy', but because when I search for a specific subject, 99% percent of the time, I do not want localized results, eg when I search how to replace a valve on my vehicle, I am searching for instructions, not local mechanics, w", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 786501344, "item_id": 49156334, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156334", "by": "traceroute66", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use DuckDuckGo at the moment", "excerpt": "Ecosia and Qwant have just started collaborating on EUSP (European Search Perspective)[1] This could easily yield very interesting (i.e. \"not just another bing proxy\") results once it starts gaining traction. I use DuckDuckGo at the moment, only because Startpage started making themselves impossible to use when they started aggressively blocking access via VPNs. As other people have already said,see `noai.duckduckgo.", "context": "Mullvad VPN user", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Startpage", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 786500304, "item_id": 49156269, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156269", "by": "sphars", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I just added this as a search engine in Firefox", "excerpt": "I just added this as a search engine in Firefox, thanks for the heads-up. For reference, I added this URL: https://noai.duckduckgo.com/?q=%s&noai", "context": "Firefox user", "use_case": "AI-free web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 786495728, "item_id": 49155983, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49155983", "by": "worldsavior", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "You can use noai.duckduckgo.com if don't want AI, and lite.duckduckgo.com if you don't want bubblification.", "excerpt": "You can use noai.duckduckgo.com if don't want AI, and lite.duckduckgo.com if you don't want bubblification.", "context": "", "use_case": "AI-free web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 786373392, "item_id": 49148337, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49148337", "by": "newsomix9xl", "date": "2026-08-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I also like to quack it with Duck Duck Go", "excerpt": "I agree, that's why I keep it fresh with the kiddos by using the more hep \"give it to Ask Jeeves\" or \"run it through gopher\". But since I also like to quack it with Duck Duck Go, daddy-o, I sometimes just say \" I used a search engine...\"", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Saying 'Google It' Makes You Sound Old"}, {"id": 786212194, "item_id": 49138262, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49138262", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-08-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "DDG same problem.", "excerpt": "> As a journalist, I have used Google News for many years to catch up on topics in which I am interested. Interesting observation. I noticed this a few years ago already, when Google started to kill off Google search. I can give many examples but just a simple one: Google used to cache phpBB webforum conversations. I could even read entries that were available only to people who would log in, which was convenient, be", "context": "", "use_case": "search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google News is just Forrest Gump's shrimp boat now"}, {"id": 786207296, "item_id": 49137956, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49137956", "by": "kamranjon", "date": "2026-08-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I honestly get better results from DuckDuckGo at this point.", "excerpt": "I love this analogy and think it possibly also applies to search which just doesn\u2019t work anymore and is full of AI generated garbage. What the hell happened to stack overflow? I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve gotten a google result for stack overflow in nearly 2 years. How have they just forgot how to make competent search? I didn\u2019t think it\u2019d happen so quickly but I honestly get better results from DuckDuckGo at this point.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google Search", "story": "Google News is just Forrest Gump's shrimp boat now"}, {"id": 783616705, "item_id": 48976044, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48976044", "by": "anenefan", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "warn", "quote": "This year, DDG has declined hard", "excerpt": "Competitor isn't a word I could use to describe the web search scene in regard to google. However if one wanted a good search engine that one didn't have to keep banging on the keyboard for a half decent result I could say Yandex is one of the larger search engines that's performing really well on a lot of tech and niche areas compared to google or even duckduckgo atm. I though am pretty biased for I don't put up wit", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Are there any new competitors to Google search in 2026?"}, {"id": 783572864, "item_id": 48973304, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48973304", "by": "margalabargala", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "When I left the job I went back to DDG to see if I would notice a quality drop, and I did not", "excerpt": "That's fair. Personally I don't find their searches to be sufficiently better than DDG that I will open my wallet. I did have a former job that would pay for Kagi for employees and I used Kagi for well over a year via that. When I left the job I went back to DDG to see if I would notice a quality drop, and I did not, so I decided not to pay for a personal account.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Kagi", "story": "Orion Browser by Kagi"}, {"id": 780912385, "item_id": 48807024, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48807024", "by": "jrflo", "date": "2026-07-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched to firefox and duckduckgo and couldn't be happier with the decision.", "excerpt": "Ever since IO earlier this year when google showed their AI strategy I switched to firefox and duckduckgo and couldn't be happier with the decision. I am by no means anti-AI but users should be able to choose when they want to use these tools, google seems to want to shove it down everyone's throat.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google Search", "story": "Google Chrome Installed a 4GB AI Model on Your PC"}, {"id": 776913409, "item_id": 48557088, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48557088", "by": "yalogin", "date": "2026-06-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "finally switched to ddg as the default search engine", "excerpt": "Gemini made me turn google off completely. There is no provision to not allow your chat data from being shared send for training - even if you pay. Clearly they don\u2019t care about end users and I am guessing they are losing money on paid cunaumer tier as well. But that is not acceptable to me. I just turned off all Google services and finally switched to ddg as the default search engine.", "context": "", "use_case": "search engine", "switched_from": "Google Search", "story": "I Fired Google"}, {"id": 773750832, "item_id": 48359427, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48359427", "by": "MeetingsBrowser", "date": "2026-06-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "DDG has been my daily driver for more than a decade now and I could not be more pleased.", "excerpt": "DDG has been my daily driver for more than a decade now and I could not be more pleased. Better privacy, good results, no drama, first search engine to include bangs, and its free!", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "DuckDuckGo makes its 'no-AI' search engine easier to access as its traffic booms"}, {"id": 773750192, "item_id": 48359387, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48359387", "by": "TehCorwiz", "date": "2026-06-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've been using DDG for years and it's at least as good as Google for most general use.", "excerpt": "I've been using DDG for years and it's at least as good as Google for most general use. I still keep it set as the default search engine. For some context sensitive searches where words overlap with more common topics I have a Kagi subscription.", "context": "", "use_case": "default web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "DuckDuckGo makes its 'no-AI' search engine easier to access as its traffic booms"}, {"id": 772891392, "item_id": 48305712, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48305712", "by": "thecopy", "date": "2026-05-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I genuinely find DDG more effective than Google Search.", "excerpt": "I genuinely find DDG more effective than Google Search. I have used it as a daily driver for 2+ years now. When i cannot find anything with DDG, i try with the !g macro, but results are more often than not even worse.", "context": "", "use_case": "daily web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode"}, {"id": 772876784, "item_id": 48304799, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48304799", "by": "p0w3n3d", "date": "2026-05-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "And Duckduckgo for private search. I default to DDG", "excerpt": "To be honest I use Google AI mode a lot. And Duckduckgo for private search. I default to DDG and use !g if I want to resign from privacy or find some merchandise to buy", "context": "", "use_case": "private search", "switched_from": "", "story": "DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode"}, {"id": 772830592, "item_id": 48301912, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48301912", "by": "uejfiweun", "date": "2026-05-27", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I use DDG but the problem I have with it is that, well, the results just kind of suck.", "excerpt": "I use DDG but the problem I have with it is that, well, the results just kind of suck. I have slowly used the \"!g\" operator more and more over the years to the point that now probably 95% of my DDG searches are just Google searches.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode"}, {"id": 772755232, "item_id": 48297202, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48297202", "by": "lisplist", "date": "2026-05-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched to DDG about a year ago and it works fine for me.", "excerpt": "I switched to DDG about a year ago and it works fine for me. For some queries, Google still surfaces better results, but DDG is good enough that I don't really miss it. The only Google service I haven't been able to replace is YouTube - no real alternative. I still use Google Maps as well, but could probably switch to Apple maps without missing much. For hiking trails, Apple Maps has often been superior. I briefly tr", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google Search", "story": "DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode"}, {"id": 740183536, "item_id": 46261471, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46261471", "by": "frm88", "date": "2025-12-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love that they offer noai.duckduckgo.com", "excerpt": "I'm certainly in the minority on this site, but I love that they offer noai.duckduckgo.com - I'm really, really tired of AI everywhere. It wouldn't be so bad, if the results were accurate (no idea about duck.ai, since I avoid it) and didn't take up a solid third of screen real estate. Until AI results get vastly better and stop hallucinating, I will suppress them if I can. Please keep this feature.", "context": "tired of AI everywhere", "use_case": "search without AI results", "switched_from": "", "story": "Some surprising things about DuckDuckGo"}, {"id": 740140657, "item_id": 46258791, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46258791", "by": "SV_BubbleTime", "date": "2025-12-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The quality of DDG has for me, unquestionably slipped.", "excerpt": "\u201cWe don\u2019t censor results\u201d\u2026 well\u2026 Either that is completely bullshit, or it\u2019s technically-bullshit. 1. They don\u2019t have to censor because their sources censor for them. \u201cOh we\u2019re just an aggregator of censored results\u201d doesn\u2019t mean \u201cthis is an uncensored search engine\u201d like the claim would have you believe. 2. Proof of this is evident in by comparing Russian yandex.com, my now go to for anything related to hacking, pir", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Some surprising things about DuckDuckGo"}]}