I've standardized on 'Duck it' which, I think we can all agree, sounds way more hardcore than 'Google it.' The only real problem I have with it is that saying 'I'm going to DuckDuckGo that' just doesn't flow as nicely as 'I'm going to Google that.' What is the verb for searching for something via DuckDuckGo? Duck with different themes, fonts, languages and privacy settings.

There are over 6,000 'bangs,' for everything from Stack Overflow to Twitter and Wikipedia. For example, the bang, '!a pancakes' will search for pancakes. ' Bangs' allow you to customize searches of specific sites and services. Think about that one for a second, because it's kind of awesome. Things like using 'inbody:' (or simply 'b:') to make sure that you will only get results where your search text appears in the body of the page. The Duck has some easy-to-follow documentation to allow you to master your searching as well – most notably, it's worth checking out the syntax page. Type out your search, then use the arrow keys (or 'j' and 'k') to move up and down the list of results. In fact, there are a few things about 'Ole Ducky' that I love. See also: 11 pointless but awesome Linux terminal tricks But I definitely haven't had any difficulties using 'The Duck' instead of Google. I never did a side-by-side search result comparison of the two, mind you. I've heard of some people who have tried using DuckDuckGo but ended up back on Google search because they feel like the Google search results were 'better.' While I can't say that DuckDuckGo provided me with any better search results than Google. Those are two of the easiest ways to win brownie points with me.

My initial reasons for opting to go with DuckDuckGo were pretty straight forward – they help financially support Free and Open Source Software, and they are dedicated to respecting my privacy by not tracking my search history. And, after months of using 'The Duck,' I find myself quite happy with the service. It took me, roughly, zero time to make the switch. See also: An interview with DuckDuckGo's founder on privacy and open source

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