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305 points evolve2k | 22 comments | | HN request time: 0.632s | source | bottom
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dpcan ◴[] No.5878072[source]
OK, but tomorrow when I've forgotten that I've done this and I do a quick search, if the very first thing that comes up isn't what I want, I bet I switch right back.
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1. psbp ◴[] No.5878202[source]
Hacker news forgets that people need to get shit done, and all of this bullshit marketing is just a distraction.
replies(4): >>5878267 #>>5878269 #>>5878628 #>>5878656 #
2. hkmurakami ◴[] No.5878267[source]
I found that having the !$var shortcuts to all sorts of sites (including !g for google, !w for wikipedia, and single word strings for many lesser trafficked sites) has made me more productive than a plain google search bar where I often need to add an extra click to the workflow.
replies(1): >>5878285 #
3. dpcan ◴[] No.5878269[source]
It took one search for some css help I needed and I already switched back to Google. I don't have time to see if DDG knows the answer yet. I just need the answer and Google gives it to me.
4. magicalist ◴[] No.5878285[source]
As is usually pointed out in these threads, if you're using Chrome anyways, you can do the same thing (and with the same bang syntax, if you want to go to the bother of customizing them that way) with the location bar in Chrome. Start typing the web address, hit tab, enter the query, and it just goes straight to wikipedia, google, etc with no DDG intermediary.

It's slightly different, but you can do almost the same thing with Keywords in the Firefox location bar, and they presumably could support the bang syntax (or whatever) as well.

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5. Legion ◴[] No.5878460{3}[source]
It's more than "slightly different".

By all means, try and replicate this complete list in your Chrome browser: https://duckduckgo.com/bang.html. I'll wait...

What makes the DDG !bang system awesome is its enormity. You don't look up what !bang to use to search something. You assume it exists, do it, and 99% of the time, you're right. That's a game changer.

I don't write Perl, but I know !cpan exists. I don't even have to look. I don't even know exactly what site it's going to search. But I know if I !cpan twitter, I'm going to be looking at a list of Perl libraries for tweeting.

That's the DDG killer feature. You want to do some kind of site-specific search or lookup, you just type in the most logical sounding !bang and assume it will work. You're simply never going to replicate that inside your browser.

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6. strager ◴[] No.5878594{4}[source]
> You're simply never going to replicate that inside your browser.

Why not?

7. magicalist ◴[] No.5878597{4}[source]
You don't have to replicate the list. Why would you want to? If you've visited a site before and it has a search box on it that matches some heuristic, it gets added to your search engine list. Odds are, far more than 99% of the time, you're going to be searching a site you've already visited before. I agree it is very handy.
replies(2): >>5878639 #>>5884238 #
8. KirinDave ◴[] No.5878628[source]
Strong words coming from someone meta-commenting on a hacker news story instead of "getting shit done."
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9. hayksaakian ◴[] No.5878639{5}[source]
His main point has to do with finding new sites about specific topics. A different use case not met by Chrome's implementation.
10. ivanca ◴[] No.5878656[source]
Is really sad that this comment is not grayed out.
11. abe_duarte ◴[] No.5878688[source]
Lol!
12. TeMPOraL ◴[] No.5878817[source]
You have to do something on your Pomodoro breaks...
13. dredmorbius ◴[] No.5879230{4}[source]
What makes the DDG !bang system awesome is its enormity.

Please don't tell me it's evil.

I believe you meant "scope", "scale", or "size".

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14. dredmorbius ◴[] No.5879325{3}[source]
I've become very used to doing this. The other handy fact is that if you start typing out a URL you can see the expansion, then hit tab to start the search, rather than having to remember the bang syntax for DDG.

I'll switch between methods though.

15. reaperhulk ◴[] No.5879582{5}[source]
Enormity has a neutral use as well.
16. minikites ◴[] No.5879593{5}[source]
> Usage note

> 3. Enormity has been in frequent and continuous use in the sense “immensity” since the 18th century: The enormity of the task was overwhelming. Some hold that enormousness is the correct word in that sense and that enormity can only mean “outrageousness” or “atrociousness”: The enormity of his offenses appalled the public.

17. Zuider ◴[] No.5881613{5}[source]
>Please don't tell me it's evil.

I am a little confused by your comment - has the word "enormous" come to mean "evil"? If so, maybe this new came about from people referring to the "enormity of a crime". It seems to have followed a similar etymological evolution to the word "gross" as in "gross depravity". But both words just mean "big".

replies(1): >>5882557 #
18. dredmorbius ◴[] No.5882557{6}[source]
The word "enormity" means generally "evil": The state or quality of exceeding a measure or rule, or of being immoderate, monstrous, or outrageous. (1913 Webster).

It's not a general synonym for "enormous" or "having vast size", except by confusion.

replies(1): >>5882864 #
19. Zuider ◴[] No.5882864{7}[source]
Wow. Maybe it is an American English usage. In British English "enormous" is always used as a synonym for "huge", never for "evil". In fact, a quick google of the word revealed the former usage to be the more prevalent one. For instance, there is a famous children's story called "The enormous turnip" (adapted from a story by Tolstoy).

http://www.boomerangbooks.com.au/Enormous-Turnip/Katie-Dayne...

Obviously, the children's story uses "enormous" to imply that the turnip is very large, not very wicked. Somehow "the dastardly rutabaga" or "the heinous swede" makes a lot less sense in this context.

Edit: Admission - I used DDG (my default search engine), not google.

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20. Zarel ◴[] No.5884231{8}[source]
That's not what he's saying; he's saying that "enormity" isn't a synonym for "enormousness".
21. Zarel ◴[] No.5884238{5}[source]
It's actually a standard, not a heuristic:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSearch

If the search box is nonstandard, you can also add it manually by right-clicking the search box and clicking "Add as Search Engine".

22. tripzilch ◴[] No.5884653{3}[source]
I've been doing that for years (Opera was first with this functionality), but simply being setting DDG to the default search versus having to configure all those different keywords, saves me SO much time.

If it was just my desktop, and for some reason it only had one browser, okay. Customization is always cool. But I use too many different computers with too many different browsers in too many different locations that DDG's !bangs makes this really convenient and portable, getting the fast browsing workflow I'm used to in just a few clicks.