Wow. I searched for my startup and it immediately came up with a breakout box for "<name> (Startup)" with additional links to our VC, a crunchbase profile, and more. That's actually better than Google in semantic relevance.

I agree this is pretty cool, but the more I search the more I feel that the results are targeted solely towards early adopters. Google is the behemoth that it is because normals mistake it for the very Internet itself. If duck duck go wants a shot at any significant share of the search market they'll have to be more welcoming of those same type of folks.

(This comment is influenced by today's post by Spencer Fry http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1215949)

It's funny, because it's really designed for normals, and the early adopter types complain a lot (rightly so from their perspective) about things for them--bigger text, less density, lighter feel, etc. I do make features for early adopter/advanced users though. It's really a hybrid approach in attempt to "cross the chasm" and get these folks to help introduce it to normals, e.g. their parents and siblings.

For those unfamiliar with what this is about, I found this page helpful: http://cuiltheory.wikidot.com/what-is-cuil-theory

(It is a joke aimed at the search engine Cuil, in reference to the irrelevant results that often appear for searches).

If it weren't so funny I'd almost feel bad for Cuil.

Although it's a little disingenuous, because Cuil's pitch was that their display of results was radically different. That and that they indexed a lot.

Searching for "hamburger" made my day.

The search for "cuil" is awesome.

http://duckduckgo.com/?v=c&q=cuil

Agreed, very funny.

http://duckduckgo.com/?v=c&q=hamburger

That said, the cuil results look pretty good as well.

http://www.cuil.com/search?q=hamburger

The timeline is a nice idea, tho it does seem a little bit lacking in detail.

The reason hamburger shows a raccoon is that it is a reference to an in-joke among Redditors. The whole joke is explained if you search for "cuil".

Cuil looks pretty bad UI-wise. UI elements are presented in the same style as content text, which makes quick skimming difficult. A one-column layout turns into a two-column layout without any visible logical separation and no warning.

The no-warning column change also confuses the user the third column - which is consistent. I look at that page and my brain hurts.

Compare with Duck Duck Go, where UI elements are immediately obvious, and the text doesn't switch layout/flow on you half way down the page.

Also, DDG doesn't steal a bunch of pixels from your browser window permanently - not sure why this still exists in 2010.

ditto for google :)

seems it has some appropriate "custom" suggestions for a few sites... Facebook and twitter also have appropriate one-liners.

I think more of these types of Internet me-me pictures should appear at the top of the search results(maybe not so huge, but very prevalent). It gives personality to the business that is search. Why use Google when there is a search engine that provides the results you seek but does so with humor.

If you search for "reddit", you get a reddit icon in the yellow box.

If you search for "hacker news", you get ... a reddit icon in the yellow box.

(And no, it is clearly not an accident.)

They're special reddit aliens. If HN had special logos like that...

After the obligatory vanity search yielded positive results (this rarely happens because I'm a nobody), I'm giving it a one week trial as my default search engine.

[Edit] It seems to be giving way better results than Bing. Nice to see that smart dudes in garages can still give megacorps a run for their money in their own backyards.

Thanks! Please let me know your feedback after a the trial.

The results are relevant, especially for 'sex'. Which is good. .. if you give right results for such an overcrowded space, you have to be good!

I've never changed my default search engine...here goes nothing!

Cuil :). Seriously though, please let me know how it goes.

For the record, this joke was the idea of Alexis Ohanian (kn0thing) of YC & reddit fame. I want to check with him first before outing him--hence the delay :).

I like this feature - http://duckduckgo.com/?q=%21+Hacker+News

The "!Bang" page confused me for quite a few seconds.

I have buried in some old memory layer the use of "!" as logic negation prefix (for plain ASCII typing), e.g. x = !y

Curiously, I'm OK with the Unix shell "!cmd" to repeat ...

Heh, you think there is a better way to explain it?

Looking at it, seems to me you're conflating two things, with the confusion evident in the first two sentences:

Duck Duck Go auto-searches other sites when you do !keyword search. For example, !google duck duck go will Google us :)

1 - Restricting your (?) search to a site or group of sites

2 - Using another search engine

I'd suggest something along the lines of "You can focus your search with !word" (bold, not key)

I'd also suggest trying to make the listing more readable (or scannable - it's long ...). Perhaps an HTML Definition List ?

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll improve this page.

> Curiously, I'm OK with the Unix shell "!cmd" to repeat ...

So does IRC.