[HN Gopher] DuckDuckGo - two non-JavaScript versions of search r...
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DuckDuckGo - two non-JavaScript versions of search results
Author : URfejk
Score : 157 points
Date : 2021-03-04 16:22 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (help.duckduckgo.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (help.duckduckgo.com)
| jeduardo wrote:
| Just tested the pure HTML version and was pleased to find out
| that it does not force a minimum browser width upon the user. I
| usually set my desktop (1080p) to use a 3-column layout with i3
| and am always bothered by the fact that I cannot escape from
| horizontal scrolling on every search I run on DDG.
|
| I needed to add the HTML version as a new search engine option in
| the browser options to have it running as default, but hey, it
| works! Horizontal scrolling is now a thing of the past.
| benhoyt wrote:
| As someone who's just written about the "small web" [1], this
| warms my heart. The lite version is probably a little _too_ bare-
| bones for most people 's tastes, but it sure is tiny -- great for
| people on very slow or flakey connections. Some numbers:
|
| HTML homepage transfers 34KB (94KB uncompressed) over 6 requests.
| HTML search results page transfers 133KB (248KB uncompressed)
| over 31 requests.
|
| Lite homepage transfers 13KB (11KB uncompressed, ha) over 4
| requests. Lite search results page transfers 21KB (43KB
| uncompressed) over 5 requests.
|
| In all cases, all requests are to *.duckduckgo.com, which was
| very good to see from a privacy perspective. Nice work, DDG!
|
| [1] https://benhoyt.com/writings/the-small-web-is-beautiful/
| nerdponx wrote:
| DDG lite works _great_ in Lynx! I hope it never goes away.
| boogies wrote:
| These are great, and I'm glad to be able to use them without
| direct contact with "Big Tech" and the tracking bloat that
| entails, but as I understand it DuckDuckGo is more or less a
| glorified -- albeit relatively glorious and pleasant -- proxy
| to Big Tech's Bing (well, more, not less, because it does add
| some great conveniences like the IIUC formerly open source
| Instant Answers1 and !bangs, and some fraction of results from
| its own crawler, and likely some from Yandex. But still, the
| largest fraction of its core service seems dependent on Bing.
| Not that that's its fault or there are attractive
| alternatives).
|
| 1: (Edit) https://duckduckhack.com/
| 1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote:
| I have never used any other versions but these two. Cannot
| imagine what the "full" DDG must be like. Slower, no doubt.
| bnj wrote:
| These seem ... preferable, to me?
| Nextgrid wrote:
| I wish I could set the "HTML" version as default in Safari. It's
| ~1.5s faster than the default JS version.
| wh33zle wrote:
| The HTML version seems to not redirect to a URL specific to your
| search (i.e. it doesn't include a ?s= ... parameter).
|
| Anyone an idea how I can configure this search engine in Firefox
| Mobile?
|
| As far as I can see, there is no way I can teach FF Mobile to
| make a POST request instead.
| howeyc wrote:
| The parameter is q
|
| https://html.duckduckgo.com/html/?q=searchstring
| dmix wrote:
| I compared all 3 searching "venera" and prefer the JS one,
| (sorry?), but I could see this being useful for their niche
| audience very well. I worry more about tracking than JS in
| browsers, when it runs super fast on my devices.
|
| But TIL about DDG's awesome help pages.
| mikem170 wrote:
| Tons of tracking happens via javascript dom calls. Lots of
| identifying information and analytics. Some web sites runs
| hundreds of scripts.
|
| I browse with javascript disabled, except for sites/domains
| that I exempt like banks and stuff.
| WrtCdEvrydy wrote:
| This is awesome... I was always pushing for non-JS versions of
| products and was always met with the dumbest reasons... 'the only
| reason someone wouldn't run JS is if they're hacking'
| encryptluks2 wrote:
| Can you please add a dark theme like your JS-based site? Just
| cause you don't use JS doesn't mean they can't use CSS.
| CodeHz wrote:
| You can achieve it without CSS actually (in chrome) Just put
| <meta name="color-scheme" content="light dark"> to <head> It
| will also make vanilla scrollbar into dark theme
| metalliqaz wrote:
| the 'html' version is nice. the 'lite' version is so barebones, I
| can't imagine anyone actually using it. It almost seems like it's
| meant for scraping
| zelphirkalt wrote:
| It is so fast and clean, I just set it as my duck keyworded
| search. I'm not on a search engine for the looks, but for the
| results. The faster I get them and the fewer things there are
| to distract the eye, the better for me.
| lame-robot-hoax wrote:
| The lite and HTML versions are identical in speed for me. If
| I had really slow internet though, maybe I'd see a
| difference.
|
| The JS version is maybe a tiny bit slower, but honestly is
| about the same.
| [deleted]
| alcover wrote:
| I use it day-to-day. No problem.
|
| As a rule, when JS is not mandatory I block it.
| junippor wrote:
| I've used the lite version for years.
| bombcar wrote:
| The lite version reminds me of the original Google search
| results.
| alpha_squared wrote:
| Have you ever been in a part of the world where internet speeds
| were abysmal?
| diarrhea wrote:
| Yeah, but I moved out of Germany for other reasons.
| jacobmischka wrote:
| I imagine it would be handy on an absolutely abysmal connection
| or one with data limits.
| CivBase wrote:
| I threw together some CSS for dark mode in the "HTML" version
| using values from the normal JavaScript version:
|
| https://gist.github.com/CivBase/818f7f4f56050c9769c4b783c08c...
|
| EDIT: I replaced the raw code with a link to a GitHub gist to
| reduce the obnoxious size of my post.
| aerovistae wrote:
| Holy shit the lite version is fast. Comparing to google search
| it's not even close...wow.
| dellcybpwr wrote:
| The html version _always_ returns results from a Russian POV.
| Russian dictionary sites, etc, etc.
|
| Turning on javascript returns sites from a USA POV. I'm in the
| USA.
| OminousWeapons wrote:
| I agree that you do appear to see much more Russian language
| content if you use the DuckDuckGo html version (I am also an
| American).
| new_guy wrote:
| They're probably using the Yandex API
| https://yandex.com/dev/xml/doc/dg/concepts/about.html
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(page generated 2021-03-04 23:00 UTC)