I use it but for many queries it still isn't good enough.

Funny. I use DDG as my default. Frankly, I think it's results are way better than Google's. Yes, they are more simple-minded and less "intelligent", but then they are much more predictable as well. As such, it took some getting used to, but now I feel like I search more precisely than I ever would with Google.

Way too often, Google will try to be "smart", and search for some "intelligent" interpretation of my search, where no such thing was called for. Especially for technical, precise searches for "strange" strings, this can get really annoying.

Also, those bang-searches are just genius. I regularly search Wikipedia, programming language docs, or maps using those. And yes, sometimes Google as well, mostly for fuzzy "how do I" searches or searches that I don't know precise keywords for.

> "Way too often, Google will try to be "smart", and search for some "intelligent" interpretation of my search, where no such thing was called for. Especially for technical, precise searches for "strange" strings, this can get really annoying."

Wow, so it's not just me then - I was describing my exact same feeling to someone (perhaps less eloquently than you!) just three days ago!

Even when I go and set it to 'Verbatim' search (which is well hidden), it still often gives me useless results for these kinds of technical queries...

DDG is just not good enough - it's sloppy.

We need an open-source, or decentralised (i wish) solution. That is as close as you can get to a pipe-dream at the moment. Doesn't mean we won't get there eventually though.

EDIT: early days open src p2p search: http://yacy.net/en/index.html

If you're outside of the US the results are left wanting for day to day searches.

That said, the little helper widgets are brilliant. I find them more useful more often than the Google result widgets.

I've already switched back to G on pretty much all my machines.

DDG is good enough most of the time: What's the formula for the volume of a tetrahedron? What's a "Cleveland Steamer"? When it's not, there's a Google link right at the bottom of the page, so you can turn on private browsing and click on that.

A cool thing is that you can prefix your query with "!g" in DDG and it will do an encrypted Google search.

I use duck duck go as my default in my search bar, but I rarely actually use it to search the web directly. Instead, I use the !bang features to get where I need to go faster without taking my hands off the keyboard. Some examples:

ctrl-t !w cyclocross

ctrl-t !g site:ohio.gov filetype:pdf economic development

ctrl-t !image sad reaction gif

!i does the same thing as !image for me.