DuckDuckGo
Privacy-focused web search engine from DuckDuckGo, also offering bangs and an AI chat.
Liked as a private default search engine for people leaving Google,1234 with results many find good enough or better,5678 plus bangs and lite and no-AI versions.9101112 The most common complaint is declining result quality, including AI-generated spam1314151617 and unwanted localized results for general queries.181920
Why people recommend it
Good-enough results · 3
Many long-time users find its results comparable to or better than Google's for most searches.
“I've been using DDG for years and it's at least as good as Google for most general use.”
“I genuinely find DDG more effective than Google Search.”
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“When I left the job I went back to DDG to see if I would notice a quality drop, and I did not”
Google alternative · 3
Users switched to escape Google's AI push, app nagging and heavy result pages.
“I switched to firefox and duckduckgo and couldn't be happier with the decision.”
“I finally switched to duck duck go”
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“I've switched to DDG and never looked back.”
Lite and no-AI · 3
The noai and lite versions let users avoid AI features and work well on slow connections or minimal browsers.
“I love that they offer noai.duckduckgo.com”
“You can use noai.duckduckgo.com if don't want AI, and lite.duckduckgo.com if you don't want bubblification.”
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“I use it often when on very slow or metered connections”
Bangs · 3
Bang shortcuts let users jump straight to trusted sources or fall back to Google.
“Switched to Duckduckgo years ago. I just love the bangs”
“And that works pretty well, for general online stuff.”
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“DDG has been my daily driver for more than a decade now and I could not be more pleased.”
Privacy · 3
Commenters use it specifically for private search.
“And Duckduckgo for private search. I default to DDG”
“DDG has been my daily driver for more than a decade now and I could not be more pleased.”
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“I recommend Ecosia and DuckDuckGo but Brave Search for the most private options.”
Speed and simplicity · 2
Some find it faster with a simpler, more focused UI than Google.
“i started using duckduckgo after google added ai, and it runs way faster”
“I switched to DDG a long time ago”
Caveats and dissent
Declining quality · 3
Several long-time users say results have worsened and fill up with AI-generated junk.
“DDG's spam filters are basically useless.”
“Duckduckgo has been incredibly worse with results for me for the past year.”
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“This year, DDG has declined hard”
Over-localization · 3
Results skew toward local businesses even with region settings turned off.
“DuckDuckGo over-affiliates results with user-IPs, which is why I often don't use it.”
“if I check the box next to my country flag (I.e. to turn localisation off) I _still_ get local pergola providers.”
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“when my technical queries return almost entirely local restaurants and movies for sale (You heard me DDG)”
Falls back to Google · 2
Some users end up relying on !g for most searches.
“I use DDG but the problem I have with it is that, well, the results just kind of suck.”
“I switched to DDG search three months ago, and unfortunately it's much inferior to Google.”
Aggressive autocorrect · 2
Autocorrect sometimes overrides what the user actually typed.
“I love DDG! However it's search term autocorrect is really broken”
“The moment a tool gets in the way (whatever the good intentions are), I drop the tool.”
Bing dependence · 2
Critics say it relies too heavily on Bing results.
“their search relies too heavily on Bing which - worked for msft, etc... - no idea why it sucks so much.”
“DDG is just Bing or a search vendor proxy, so I've never understood the fascination.”
Scam sites · 1
One user reports fake sites outranking real ones.
“I find DuckDuckGo's search results to be terrible.”
Often compared with
14 moved from Google Search to DuckDuckGo
2 moved from Kagi to DuckDuckGo
5 moved from DuckDuckGo to Kagi
2 moved from DuckDuckGo to EcosiaSearXNG8 comments mention both
1 moved from DuckDuckGo to SearXNG
3 moved from DuckDuckGo to YandexGoogle AI Mode4 comments mention both
2 moved from DuckDuckGo to Google AI Mode
Who recommends it in their own words
From the makers not counted in the ranking
“Hi, I work on Search at DuckDuckGo.”
Threads where it came up
- Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo? 15 mentions
- DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode 13 mentions
- When did Google get so weird? 8 mentions
- DuckDuckGo makes its 'no-AI' search engine easier to access as its traffic booms 7 mentions
- Leaving Google has actively improved my life 5 mentions
- Some surprising things about DuckDuckGo 5 mentions
Also written as DuckDuckGo Lite. Data: duckduckgo.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 52
“they moved from Google to duckduckgo.”
“I used duckduckgo to search information on my gamertag”
“I use DDG and get brutally useless results most of the time.”
“DDG did similar.”
“I've been using DDG for years now and i'm completely fine with it”
“I use DDG”
“I use duckduckgo, mostly by habit at this point”
“I use DDG at work on Firefox with all AI blocked.”
“DDG's spam filters are basically useless.”
“I've been on DDG on all my devices for a few years.”
“At some point, Duck Duck Go stopped giving a response”
“Personally I use duckduckgo with AI turned off in settings”
“I use DuckDuckGo for search”
“I use kagi, ddg etc.”
“oddly enough I also get crap results using e. g. DDG”
“I switched to DuckDuckGo around 2018 or so”
“I've been using DuckDuckGo for years now”
“I use Brave Search+ DuckDuckGo+ Google Image search”
“when my technical queries return almost entirely local restaurants and movies for sale (You heard me DDG)”
“And that works pretty well, for general online stuff.”
“Duckduckgo has been incredibly worse with results for me for the past year.”
“Switched to Duckduckgo years ago. I just love the bangs”
“further down the page I get local results for my (quite small) country which I would not expect”
“if I check the box next to my country flag (I.e. to turn localisation off) I _still_ get local pergola providers.”
“I actually find DDG AI answers helpful (sometimes).”
“Personally I use DDG there.”
“the results underneath are still good”
“I am crossed with DDG that for sure.”
“The moment a tool gets in the way (whatever the good intentions are), I drop the tool.”
“unasked for auto-correct that, of course, is wrong”
“And that's exactly why I moved. And now they broke that trust.”
“Because I don't trust them anymore ?”
“didn't know about lite, thanks for the tip”
“DuckDuckGo over-affiliates results with user-IPs, which is why I often don't use it.”
“I use DuckDuckGo at the moment”
“I just added this as a search engine in Firefox”
“You can use noai.duckduckgo.com if don't want AI, and lite.duckduckgo.com if you don't want bubblification.”
“I also like to quack it with Duck Duck Go”
“DDG same problem.”
“I honestly get better results from DuckDuckGo at this point.”
“This year, DDG has declined hard”
“When I left the job I went back to DDG to see if I would notice a quality drop, and I did not”
“I switched to firefox and duckduckgo and couldn't be happier with the decision.”
“finally switched to ddg as the default search engine”
“DDG has been my daily driver for more than a decade now and I could not be more pleased.”
“I've been using DDG for years and it's at least as good as Google for most general use.”
“I genuinely find DDG more effective than Google Search.”
“And Duckduckgo for private search. I default to DDG”
“I use DDG but the problem I have with it is that, well, the results just kind of suck.”
“I switched to DDG about a year ago and it works fine for me.”
“I love that they offer noai.duckduckgo.com”
“The quality of DDG has for me, unquestionably slipped.”