DuckDuckGo: One Expert Thinks It Is Better Than Google Search
November 8, 2016
I love the stories about Google’s lousy search system. The GOOG is trying to improve search with smart software and providing more third party sponsored links in search results. In my research, I have learned that most Google users focus on getting answers to their questions. The fact that these users are asking questions which are mostly repetitive means that the GOOG can optimize for what works to handle the majority of the queries. Instrumental efficiency for the user, for Google’s network resources, and for Google’s paying customers. Some experts don’t like the direction Google is moving, powered by its data analysis.
One example is spelled out in “How I Quit Using Google Search and Saved a Lot of Time.” I noted:
Now, DDG isn’t an exact replacement for Google, but they’re close. I almost always find what I’m looking for with them [I think the “them” refers to the Google Web search system], but it [I think this means searching] can be more work. The biggest feature I miss is that you can’t specify a search period, such as the last week or year, or a date range. But only a few times in the last year have I been forced to go to Google for a difficult search.
Okay, but Google does offer Google Advanced Search and some old fashioned search box command line instructions. These are not perfect. I agree that Google has some time deficiencies. That lack of “time” functionality may be one contributing reason behind Google’s investment in Recorded Future, an analytics platform designed to perform a range of time centric functions; for example, spider the Dark Web and array events on a timeline with additional analytic reports available with a mouse click.
The write up does not share these “advanced” factoids. I highlighted this statement:
Given the advantages of a Google-free existence, I have to wonder what Google is costing the world economy. If interesting ads cause each Internet user to spend an extra five minutes a day on non-productive shopping, with almost 3 billion Internet users today, that’s 15 billion minutes or over 28,000 person years of productivity every day.
Yes, an example of what I call mid tier consultant reasoning. Make assumptions about “time”. Assign a value. Calculate the “cost.” Works every time; for example, the now cherished IDC estimate of how much time a worker spends looking for information. The idea is that a better search system unleashes value, productivity, and other types of wonderfulness. The problem is that this type of logic is often misleading because the assumptions are specious and the analysis something even a sixth grade baseball statistics fan would doubt. How about them Cubbies?
But the point of the write up is that DuckDuckGo does not traffic in human user data. There are ads, but these ads are different from Google ads. Okay. Fine.
The write up reveals three things about experts doing online search analysis:
- Ads, regardless of who shows them, pump data back to the source of the ad. The outfit may choose to ignore what works and what doesn’t at its peril. Failed ads do not generate revenue for the advertiser. Hence the advertiser will go elsewhere.
- Running queries which return on point information is time consuming and often difficult. The reasons range from the mysterious removal of information from indexes to the vagaries of human language. Do you know the exact term to use to locate malware which can be used to compromise an iPhone and the name of the vendor who sells this type of program. Give that a whirl on a single free Web search system.
- The merging of imprecise information about the “cost” of a search is not convincing. Perhaps the expert should consider the impact of the shift from desktop search to mobile device search. That change will force most free Web search systems to turn some cartwheels and find ways to generate revenue. Fancy functionality is simply not used by 97 percent of online search users. Good enough search is the new normal. Thus, search today is not what search yesterday was perceived to be.
Who cares about alternative free Web search systems? The truth is that those who long for the good old days of Google may have to wake up and check out the new dawn. Misinformation, disinformation, filtered information are the norm. No advanced search system on the planet can provide pointers to high value content, accurate content on a consistent basis.
Stephen E Arnold, November 8, 2016
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