The info box is cool but the layout of it is really annoying. Since it's a div, I can't resize it and scrolling to the bottom scrolls the page down as well when I hit the bottom so the whole thing is very jarring.
It would be a lot better if the text were simply in a textarea instead of a div so that I could resize the box (in Chrome at least, IE is screwed either way) when I want to read it.
Thanks for the suggestions--I'll give it a second look. It scrolls the box first, then the page. But yeah, if you overshoot like with a mouse wheel, then the page eventually scrolls. I was resistant to a textarea because people think they are for typing in them.
I've noticed that these days, Google's answers to search questions are generally "why don't you try Wikipedia?"
These days, the Web is somewhere between three and five titans plus a complex of secondary sites (specialist wikis, newspaper sites, news aggregators, major blogs), with a background noise that chiefly consists of spammers mirroring 90% of Wikipedia to improve their search-engine rankings.
So, in a way, this search engine is inevitable -- but I wouldn't have imagined it as early as thirty minutes ago, so it's probably not inevitable, just an idea so good that you forget that it ever didn't exist.
"Duck It!" seems to work _really_ well, too; I'm switching. My only concern is that "Duck It!" doesn't include a way of telling you whether a given paragraph is true or false...
Good point on the try or false, which is why we don't promote that stuff into the Zero-click Info boxes. I have some ideas on how to address that problem, however. It should be one of the next major feature improvements.
You're absolutely right about major sites ruling content. However, I'd add to that there are many vertical search engines that do a great job searching more deep content in their verticals.
Originally one of the things I wanted to do was be a conduit to those engines, but throwing the user there proved too jarring a UI experience. So all that code was commented out. I'm now looking for good ways to revive it.
Very cool. I've been using it for a while, and DDG's Zero-click Info results is like asking the smartest guy in the office: "Hey Bob, what is [INSERT SEARCH TERM HERE]?", and having them respond with a relevant, informed, & concise answer.
This is very similar to Powerset (http://powerset.com). They were bought by Microsoft a while back for a fair chunk of change, so you might be on to something.
I switched to DDG to try it out - and have been using it very often since.
Too bad you don't see the text you are typing in if you're using a dark gnome theme (the background of the input box is black, and the text is set to dark grey). On google it's ok (white text).
The same thing happens here on HN comments, btw. :)
I really dig duck duck go, its possibly the greatest google competitor on the net (in my opinion) I love the ajax populated results when you scroll, and the results are usually pretty relevant. If I have any complaints, its that some of the graphics seem less than professional. Anyways, while I've been watching it for a while this feature encouraged me to make it my default search engine in chrome.
Does the same thing as Googlepedia does for Firefox. What impresses me more is the "Try search on" box on the right. It would be nice if that were customizable.
[+] [-] smokinn|16 years ago|reply
It would be a lot better if the text were simply in a textarea instead of a div so that I could resize the box (in Chrome at least, IE is screwed either way) when I want to read it.
[+] [-] epi0Bauqu|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dkimball|16 years ago|reply
These days, the Web is somewhere between three and five titans plus a complex of secondary sites (specialist wikis, newspaper sites, news aggregators, major blogs), with a background noise that chiefly consists of spammers mirroring 90% of Wikipedia to improve their search-engine rankings.
So, in a way, this search engine is inevitable -- but I wouldn't have imagined it as early as thirty minutes ago, so it's probably not inevitable, just an idea so good that you forget that it ever didn't exist.
"Duck It!" seems to work _really_ well, too; I'm switching. My only concern is that "Duck It!" doesn't include a way of telling you whether a given paragraph is true or false...
[+] [-] epi0Bauqu|16 years ago|reply
You're absolutely right about major sites ruling content. However, I'd add to that there are many vertical search engines that do a great job searching more deep content in their verticals.
Originally one of the things I wanted to do was be a conduit to those engines, but throwing the user there proved too jarring a UI experience. So all that code was commented out. I'm now looking for good ways to revive it.
[+] [-] mfcoyle|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] goodness|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Ygor|16 years ago|reply
Too bad you don't see the text you are typing in if you're using a dark gnome theme (the background of the input box is black, and the text is set to dark grey). On google it's ok (white text).
The same thing happens here on HN comments, btw. :)
[+] [-] clistctrl|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] epi0Bauqu|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tman|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] epi0Bauqu|16 years ago|reply