A little while ago I switched from Google search to “DuckDuckGo” based on the premise that they don’t target you with ads. At the time I looked into the technical side and it appeared that the search results were very similar to Google but without all the paid ads.
No More!
It would appear that results from the two search engines have diverged somewhat, at least in the one case where I know the content and have a view on what the search results “should” look like. My concern being that for the small result-set I can control, Google is the one that seems to be doing what I would expect in terms of results and relevance. It’s not that there’s a slightly different ordering, or that some of the results vary, the two results lists (for the top few pages) are very different.
How did I get here?
So on Friday night I decided I needed a dedicated website for my shiny new Wordpress plugin. On Saturday morning I registered a domain name and set about putting up the site. On Saturday evening it was up and submitted to Google’s search console. So, this is a completely clean domain with no history being submitted to Google for the first time.
On Monday I optimistically checked my search engine for “makemestatic”. No dice. Tuesday morning, tried again. Same. So I went back to the search console, all looked to be indexed, but nothing showing. Maybe I’m being an little over-optimistic, but then the search results showing should have been a lower preference to a domain name. i.e;
On the off-chance, I tried google search rather than DuckDuckGo. Bingo!, #1 result.
So what gives? I can scroll down through “DuckDuckGo” until my mouse-wheel starts to glow, but I’m not seeing my new site, yet on Google it’s #1. Anyway, I thought I’d leave it a bit, maybe there’s a lag.
Well … we’re now 24 hours on, still nothing.
Can anyone tell me why this is?
So I’m sort of assuming this is a lag, but if it is a lag of >2 days in terms of new stuff appearing on the Internet between Google and “other” search engines, it kind of makes the case (for me) of using Google and privacy be damned. If you’re looking for news and opportunities then you pretty much want them as they appear (if you can get them), not (n) days later.
But it’s not “just” this one result AWOL, looking at the top results on DuckDuckGo;
- Wordpress (link to Plugin Directory / MakeMeStatic)
- Madpenguin (article on MakeMeStatic)
- Websitesetup (apparently unrelated)
- FreeCodeCamp (apparently unrelated)
- TeleportHq (apparently unrelated)
- TechRadar (apparently unrelated)
- SmashingMagazine (apparently unrelated)
- GoodHousekeeping (apparently unrelated)
Then if you look at Google;
- MakeMeStatic.com
- LinuxForums (article on MakeMeStatic)
- LinuxUK (article on MakeMeStatic)
- PluginTests (tests for MakeMeStatic plugin)
- Reddit (comment on MakeMeStatic)
Notes
“Apparently Unrelated” means I’ve visited the site and done a search for “makeme” and “make me” and found zero results in the page. Even worse, in most cases the results I’m being shown are “alternative” or competing products, which to me is rather worse than no results at all. In summary, the Google results seem very specific and accurate, the search term appears in every result. DuckDuckGo, maybe not so much.
Summary
I do wonder what we’re sacrificing on the altar of Privacy. In this case what I’m looking for are the most relevant and concise results based on a query expression. It would appear that in some cases, it’s not what I’ve been getting.
Question
What are you using as a search engine?
Are you happy with it?
Have you tested the quality of it’s results or like me have you been taking it on trust that it’s delivering the right stuff?
