[kossae]

I'm still struggling. Out of principle I've set my default search engines (desktop/mobile) to DDG, but all too often I'm using the '!g' tag to get back to Google. Especially with programming-related queries I just don't get close to what I want in DDG. Google always seems to have the right information the first time. It's unfortunate, because I keep trying to use DDG as much as possible, but the quality just isn't there for me.

[buran77]

It may depend on your particular field of search. I have been using DDG for quite some time and pretty often I need to use !g due to the low quality of the results on DDG only to realize I'm presented with equally bad results from Google. It's possible that for my regular searches DDG is good enough, and the more targeted ones are just too difficult.

[troyvit]

Somebody here taught me the !s bang. That sends you to startpage.com. startpage uses google's index but they don't store your data.

[vezycash]

>they don't store your data

This might have changed because they've been bought by an ad company

[cpeterso]

Startpage was acquired by targeted ad company System1 in December 2018 (but neither company announced the acquisition until November 2019, for some reason).

https://restoreprivacy.com/startpage-system1-privacy-one-gro...

[smush]

All true points, but I'd rather risk being tracked by a company that would be completely cratered even more than they've already been by being bought by Privacy One than just go straight to the devil himself, so I use the !s and just mentally treat it as if its a slightly better form of !g rather than before where startpage was all the benefits of Google search without most of the drawbacks.

[karinakarina]

Hi - Startpage person here. Just FYI: We don’t collect or share your personal information. The Startpage founders continue to run the company as before and they have control over the privacy components of Startpage. With this investment, we hope to further expand our privacy features & reach new users. You may have already seen some of these new initiatives taking place. 1) Unfiltered News Tab launched in November: https://www.startpage.com/blog/product-updates/launching-unp... 2) Privacy Please! Newsletter launched in last month: https://startpage.com/blog/company-updates/welcome-privacy-p... 3) We're pushing out more info via our blog & social than before, giving greater insight into: How we make money - https://startpage.com/blog/privacy-awareness/advertising-res... How we keep your search private - https://www.startpage.com/blog/privacy-awareness/how-does-st...