[naibafo]

Do you have an example or generally what kind of searches you are referring to? My experience with ddg has been "good enough" at least. The few times I don't find anything usable on ddg I ususally end up not finding anything on Google either

[chris_f]

Not the poster, but here is an example. Elsewhere in this thread I posted a fact that I knew, but wanted to double check. It was about the LexisNexis news database containing 35k sources.

Here are the queries for "lexis news 35000" on Google and DDG:

https://www.google.com/search?q=lexis%20news%2035000

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=lexis+news+35000&ia=web

The information I was looking for is in the first Google results. I didn't see it on the first page of DDG at all.

This was just my last search as an example without even trying too hard to come up with one.

I like DDG, but Bing (where the majority of DDG's organic results come from) is not as good as Google for organic web results IMO.

[bmn__]

You are mistaken in assessing the situation, this has nothing to do with results, but with query composition.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=lexisnexis+35000+news+sources

You have trained Google to recognise Lexis as an alias for LexisNexis. DDG does not offer that, so one has to spell it out explicitly. You have to decide whether it's acceptable for you to change habits back to the common ground for Web searching.

The value provided by magic intent recognition (as opposed to traditional searching for keywords) differs from person to person. On the whole, it's likely for the better and that's why that feature was implemented at Google, but I have also read countless complaints about it on HN because situationally it pollutes results and can't be turned off.

[chris_f]

You have trained Google to recognise Lexis as an alias for LexisNexis.

I disagree completely. Google knows Lexis is an alias for LexisNexis, but I did not train it from an individual level filter bubble perspective.

Look at the below results. They are sourced from Google but proxied so that Google doesn't get any information on the end user. The firsts result should be one that provides the relevant article I was initially looking for. [0]

https://www.runnaroo.com/search?term=lexis+news+35000

Just one final point. Half the results on the DDG page for initial "Lexis" search I ran are for the car company "Lexus". So let's not pretend that DDG is respecting user search queries.

[0] http://www.lexisnexis.com.sg/en-sg/products/nexis.page

[test1235]

>Nexis : | LexisNexis

>[Search domain www.lexisnexis.com.my/en-my/products/nexis.page] www.lexisnexis.com.my/en-my/products/nexis.page

>Nexis is an online service for your strategic news and business research. Search for content from 35,000 publications. Conduct accurate searches of the 35,000 international sources in the Nexis online service. Make informed business decisions after getting the latest news and market reports.

this was the 8th result for me in DDG, with no filters or customisation or anything

[chris_f]

this was the 8th result for me in DDG, with no filters or customisation or anything

So that link was 9th for me in DDG, but that exactly proves the point.

Google returned a relevant result in the first position. In addition, look at the result snippet from DDG:

The world is moving fast - Nexis news alerts help you keep up by delivering current news and information related to companies, trends, and events that matter to you. Set a Nexis alert related to a particular topic and get updates online or via email.

I wouldn't know that page had the information I was looking for unless I visited the page and reviewed the content. That's a lot of effort, when Google has the information in the top result and the snippet clearly indicates it is on the page.

(Edit: I also just looked at the content on that page, and it doesn't provide the information I was looking for. It provides the number of sources across all Nexis' searches. I was only looking for information on the news library.)

Also, half of the Lexis results on the DDG SERP are about Lexus the car.

Like I said, I like the mission of DDG, but in this and many other examples the organic SERP relevance is worse for multiple reasons.

[reaperducer]

Google returned a relevant result in the first position.

Copy/pasting your query into Google returned:

- A newspaper article about Mississippi death benefits

- A link to the Lexis Nexis site in Singapore (I'm in the United States and haven't been to Singapore in 15 years, and never with this computer.)

- A link to a financial web site in Finland

- A Google Books entry about global warming

- A Google Books entry about "The Law of the Internet"

- A lawsuit web site

- More climate change web sites, more Google Books, and something that looks like it scrapes government web sites for bidding opportunities.

Duck Duck Go returned:

- A full page of car links, but with the correct Lexis Nexis result as the third entry.

The Duck wins.

[chris_f]

- A link to the Lexis Nexis site in Singapore (I'm in the United States and haven't been to Singapore in 15 years, and never with this computer.)

Neither am I, but this is the correct link with the information that confirmed Lexis has 35k news sources, and the one I was looking for.

This didn't appear on DDG at all.

And a lot of the other sites you list are about LexisNexis.

[naibafo]

Interesting, the first link on Google is the 5th link on DDG for me.

[unethical_ban]

I will try to document it for the next time this comes up.

I notice that Google is better at naturally knowing what I am looking for, and that DDG will show dodgy websites more often.

If I am searching for a PDF or a user manual, DDG will give me a lot of sites that are almost certainly malware laced (pdf-manuals.xyz) or something vs. what I get from Google.

Their maturity filter doesn't work as well, either.