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I've been moving to DDG over the past year with mixed results. Having a good map interface will go a long way in improving it-- and having another partner should go a long way toward improving Apple Maps.

Glad to see the pro-privacy movement gather steam.

Nice, but Apple Maps will continue to be inferior because they still restrict it to iOS & Mac.

Why can't they just allow http://maps.apple.com ?
I don't think this is restricted to Macs, is it?
 
Really pleased to see this! I've been using DDG for the last 12 months, and it's getting better all the time. I still resort to Google sometimes, but only when I have to. Nice move Apple!
 
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Because Apple is always boasting about privacy (non-tracking), they should just acquire DuckDuckGo and be done with it. It would make a lot of sense to buy that search engine and be somewhat on par with Google (Maps) and Microsoft (Bing). Apple is always trying to skimp on acquisitions to save money. I think Apple grabbing DDG would be a great opportunity.

There were comments about poor address locations on Apple Map but at least my house number has the proper location. I have also seen Google Maps give an improper location for an address, so GM isn't infallible.
 
This is definitely most welcomed. Even though in desktop and mobile safari when you're typing a business in, Maps populates the list up top so you can go ahead and open it in Maps quickly, this is definitely helpful nonetheless. I recently changed to DDG with a friend of mine who's also privacy-focused so we can see how well it works. We haven't skipped a beat. I'm ready to recommend and do the changes from Google to DDG for my family.
 
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I've been moving to DDG over the past year with mixed results. Having a good map interface will go a long way in improving it-- and having another partner should go a long way toward improving Apple Maps.

Glad to see the pro-privacy movement gather steam.


I don't think this is restricted to Macs, is it?

I get re-directed to https://www.apple.com/ios/maps/ on my windows PC when trying to go to http://maps.apple.com
 
https://duckduckgo.com/privacy

Kind of a long read, but this DDG page explains a lot of what you are asking about.

The short version is by using cookies, Google can track a lot of what you do even without you being signed in. DDG says they do not do that.

DDG still sends out a tracking pixel to themselves. It's to inform them how the user uses DDG, but they said there is no personal information in that pixel.
 
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I get re-directed to https://www.apple.com/ios/maps/ on my windows PC when trying to go to http://maps.apple.com
On your PC can you do a DDG search for nearest pizza then click Maps in the results page. On macOS that opens a new tab with the Apple Map in the browser. Does it work the same on your PC?

Screen Shot 2019-01-15 at 12.47.13 PM.png
 
On your PC can you do a DDG search for nearest pizza then click Maps in the results page. On macOS that opens a new tab with the Apple Map in the browser. Does it work the same on your PC?

View attachment 815901

Still openstreetmap for me. I assume it hasn't been rolled out to everyone yet?

Directions still has a dropdown for Bing Maps, Google Maps, HERE Maps, and OpenStreetMap.

How interesting.
 
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For those who didn't know, you can use !<something> to run a DuckDuckGo search in another search engine. The one many people tend to use is !g to send the search string to google. For example "hotels in London !g". The !g can go anywhere but I usually stick my ! things at the end.

However, I think it's better to use !s which sends the search to Startpage.com (which sends the query anonymously to google).
 
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For those who didn't know, you can use !<something> to run a DuckDuckGo search in another search engine. The one many people tend to use is !g to send the search string to google. For example "hotels in London !g". The !g can go anywhere but I usually stick my ! things at the end.

However, I think it's better to use !s which sends the search to Startpage.com (which sends the query anonymously to google).

https://duckduckgo.com/bang

That is a nice DDG feature. I use the !a one for Amazon all the time. There is a long list if these "bangs" at the link above.
 
Still openstreetmap for me. I assume it hasn't been rolled out to everyone yet?

Directions still has a dropdown for Bing Maps, Google Maps, HERE Maps, and OpenStreetMap.

How interesting.

If I search an address, it comes up in Apple Maps within the browser window in Chrome on my Windows PC. It's definitely Apple Maps. But if I need directions, then it defaults to Bing or I can pick one of the other services, but not Apple Maps.
 
If I search an address, it comes up in Apple Maps within the browser window in Chrome on my Windows PC. It's definitely Apple Maps. But if I need directions, then it defaults to Bing or I can pick one of the other services, but not Apple Maps.

Sweet, I just tried it again - I can't get an Apple Maps - but my guess is that it is rolling out. Nice :D
 
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I switched to DuckDuckGo about three years ago. At first I used the "!g" (send search request to Google) a fair bit, but - at least for me - nowadays DDG gives me just as good results as Google.

I'm not 100% sure if that means DDG is getting better, or Google is getting worse though. :p

One of my favorite DDG tricks is what Google used to offer as "I'm feeling lucky" - you type in your query and just add an exclamation point afterward. DDG will take you directly to the first result.
Yeah Google wants to show you an ad before you click through
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I've used DDG for years now! I also refuse to say Google-it... Does Google pay us to say it.. NO!

I'm stoked Apple Maps is linked to DDG now and that means Apple must be making progress with their mapping project and shows they are moving into a services model instead of all hardware.
Apple Maps has grown a lot in the past couple of years plus their work with OpenStreetMaps will insure that some of the data will be openly available. Note: this does not include data from TomTom and Yelp. More like the road updates.

Their terms for using MapKit JS is crazy! $99 yearly developer fee (same one use for all their other services) gets you more hits, views, etc per month than Google does for the year. Our Google cost more that quadrupled last year and now we maintain a OSM server which is cheaper.
 
I really enjoy DDG and have always used and preferred Apple Maps. This is great. If you haven’t already, go to settings and change your default browser to DDG.
 
Nice, but Apple Maps will continue to be inferior because they still restrict it to iOS & Mac.

Why can't they just allow http://maps.apple.com ?

Why would it be inferior because it is restricted to iOS and Mac? ( It is inferior to Google Maps, but it has nothing to do with that restriction )

Maps isn't free. Apple is having a very low limit for its MapKit Beta framework. I record Apple gave some preliminary pricing somewhere but I can no longer find it. These are included in every Apple devices purchase, as Apple has recently break them out into their Services revenue.

I wonder what pricing is DuckDuckGo getting from Apple.

It is quite obvious they have other choice like Mapbox, but doing it with Apple means they get some free advertising ( like now ) to Apple customers who are privacy conscious. And Apple gains some additional source of revenue as well.

And to those who said Apple should switch away from defaulting to Google. Google is paying $9B per year for that, and forecast to be $12B in 2020. I am very happy for Android and Google to continue funding Apple.
 
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I've been moving to DDG over the past year with mixed results. Having a good map interface will go a long way in improving it-- and having another partner should go a long way toward improving Apple Maps.

Glad to see the pro-privacy movement gather steam.


I don't think this is restricted to Macs, is it?

They’re saying they want an Apple Maps app for Windows and Android.
 
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