Nobody else has mentioned this but there have been several times that Bing censored something and it propagated to DDG, most notably when Microsoft censored Tank Man (intended for China, probably) but then Tank Man also was censored on DDG.
Partly because of these incidents, I could never consider DDG reliable.
DDG gets its results from other search engines. Bing is one of them.
There was also a big thing about DDG allegedly selling user data to Microsoft, which the living brain donors of 4chan probably interpreted as DDG being a different front-end to Bing.
It wasn’t exactly selling, but it also wasn’t alleged. They made an exception for Microsoft’s tracking scripts in their tracking script blocking settings on their phone apps and extensions in exchange for utilizing bing as a backend. Here is the blog post where they walked it back after backlash.
My understanding is that they outsource the search part to bing’s search back-end. Saying DDG is just Bing is like saying two butchers are the same because they get their meat from the same supplier.
Some people get paid good money for outsourcing their back end. Some also get paid for outsourcing other peoples’ back ends, but that is generally frowned upon.
Looking over their Wikipedia page, DDG looks like they’re reasonably independent.
Why is everyone saying they’re just Bing?
Nobody else has mentioned this but there have been several times that Bing censored something and it propagated to DDG, most notably when Microsoft censored Tank Man (intended for China, probably) but then Tank Man also was censored on DDG.
Partly because of these incidents, I could never consider DDG reliable.
DDG gets its results from other search engines. Bing is one of them.
There was also a big thing about DDG allegedly selling user data to Microsoft, which the living brain donors of 4chan probably interpreted as DDG being a different front-end to Bing.
It wasn’t exactly selling, but it also wasn’t alleged. They made an exception for Microsoft’s tracking scripts in their tracking script blocking settings on their phone apps and extensions in exchange for utilizing bing as a backend. Here is the blog post where they walked it back after backlash.
My understanding is that they outsource the search part to bing’s search back-end. Saying DDG is just Bing is like saying two butchers are the same because they get their meat from the same supplier.
With all due respect, I don’t know enough about butchering but it sounds far less complicated than what we’re talking about
Outsourcing back ends is one of the key parts of being a butcher.
Some people get paid good money for outsourcing their back end. Some also get paid for outsourcing other peoples’ back ends, but that is generally frowned upon.