Duck Duck Go, Chrome and revenue for Linux Mint

[il_marcello]

Hi to all!

I just installed LM12 KDE, and I'm loving it

I noticed that the default search engine is Duck Duck Go, and that the search string contains t=lm, which I suppose is an identifier that allows DDG to count searches originating from LM. This is default in firefox.
Since I'd rather use chrome instead of firefox, I added DDG as default search engine in chrome and edited the search string to include the t=lm snippet (http://duckduckgo.com/?t=lm&q=%s).

Does this guarantee that my searches are counted against LM's total? Or is there anything else I should do?

As I said, I prefer chrome over firefox, but I want to support LM so if this method does not work I'll just switch back to firefox.

Thanks!
Marcello

[HughT]

Hi Marcello! You are correct to say that the string t=lm is the identifier which give DDG a count of searches from Mint. No such agreement has been established with Google - so that string won't contribute to Mint revenue. Firefox has recently released v10, now available in the repository, so it might be worth taking a look.
regards

[AlbertP]

It does not matter what browser you use, as long as you use DuckDuckGo with t=lm.

[il_marcello]

It does not matter what browser you use, as long as you use DuckDuckGo with t=lm.

Ok, that's what I thought.

I think it would be worthwhile to publish a blog post on the Linux Mint page with instructions on how to use DDG with the t=lm identifier on other browsers. I believe there are many people who would be willing to do this in order to support financially Linux Mint.

Cheers,
Marcello

[AlbertP]

I'm not sure if DuckDuckGo checks the browser agent if the OS is really Linux. But you can try it with t=lm.

[Pierre]

I had set all of my Mint versions ( old & older ) to DuckDuckGo
But:-
there was a major hiccup - the search results - were all very bad - in fact lousy

- they seem to always give a result for a US based locality.

so, I have, unfortunately, had to - go back to google,
to get some search results, that were actually, useful to me. . . . . .

[il_marcello]

I had set all of my Mint versions ( old & older ) to DuckDuckGo
But:-
there was a major hiccup - the search results - were all very bad - in fact lousy

- they seem to always give a result for a US based locality.

so, I have, unfortunately, had to - go back to google,
to get some search results, that were actually, useful to me. . . . . .

I actually find DDG to give nice results, comparable to those of Google. I'm in the Netherlands.

[AlbertP]

In my opinion DuckDuckGo is not yet very good at providing Dutch results. I searched on DDG for the Dutch book called "De aanslag" and the first result was an English page. Unlike google.nl which just gave me Dutch pages.

[HughT]

My earlier post on Sunday 10:41pm was incorrect, clearly I shouldn't answer questions when I've spent the evening at the pub.
Look at this page https://duckduckgo.com/params.html to see how regions and languages can be enhanced. Just add the appropriate string and bookmark it.

[AlbertP]

No need to bookmark the string, I just found that you can just go into your settings and set the region. After changing the settings it indeed searches in Dutch as well.

[Pythzor]

So am I to understand that making http://www.linuxmint.com/start/debian my homepage does nothing to help Linux Mint? By habit, I've been using this homepage on all my browsers on all my computers for over two years.

Bump

[Mohr]

Do I understand correctly that using standard Linux Mint creates income for Mint by Google and using DDG with Chrome creates income from DDG?

[Mohr]

I don't get it: You get a "search enhancer" that "enhances search results" from Google, but all it does is adding a code to your search to show Google that you are using Linux Mint .... what is the enhancement?

[Mohr]

Ok -- nobody knows it ....

So the answer is: We get fooled by those who are responsible?
It is obviously only called "enhancement" just to cheat you?

[cwwgateway]

AFAIK there isn't any "enhancement"; it's simply a way for LM to generate revenue, and I would think that using duck duck go (which I prefer) will be a better way to go in the future. Using the "enhanced" search you generate revenue for LM, and using DDG in firefox or chrome with the tag mentioned in a number of posts on this thread, you generate revenue for LM. It is very easy to change the home page, so I'm not sure if it's a big issue.

[igor83]

AFAIK there isn't any "enhancement"; it's simply a way for LM to generate revenue, and I would think that using duck duck go (which I prefer) will be a better way to go in the future. Using the "enhanced" search you generate revenue for LM, and using DDG in firefox or chrome with the tag mentioned in a number of posts on this thread, you generate revenue for LM. It is very easy to change the home page, so I'm not sure if it's a big issue.

As far as I'm concerned we the end users are making out like bandits with Linux Mint, when you compare what we get next to the $75 Windows kludge that can't network except to other Windows.
Linux Mint can set the home page to nowhere.nowhere and set the search engine to Yandex for all I care, if that's what floats their boat. It takes just a moment for the end user to change it, and guess what, I have to change it for any distro and any OS. Microsoft's Windows sets the home page to Microsoft, and the search engine to Bing, anyway. Firefox sets the home page to Google. In fact Firefox is annoying because they mess up the "New Tab" functionality; I always have to go in and edit about:config and eliminate that extremely unpleasant behavior, that sets a "New Tab" to be a history cluster. Apparently no-one has a decent home page anymore and home pages don't get any respect among the FF developers. But at least--for the present---this behavior can be fixed via about:config.

But anyway, the whole DuckDuckGo issue and search enhancement is small beans, small beans. Not any kind of issue. Browser has to be customized anyway, there's no getting around that and having any kind of decent browser experience.

[Mohr]

Sorry, but it is about trusting someone with your private data.
And they insert something that says it enhances your search and all it does is selling your private data to google and earning money with it?

I am absolutely happy if Mint earns money.
But why with cheating the users?

I still cannot fathom it, cannot believe it ....

[cwwgateway]

They aren't selling your private data... Any data that is sent is sent in the same way as when you use normal google, which may have its own privacy issues (that's a story for another day), but it's also the most popular search engine in the world (AFAIK; there's also that chinese one that has a lot of users due to the number of people in China). Also, where is it called an "enhancement" or anything of the kind? Anyways, it's obviously it is easy to change.

Finally, I'd just like to mention that Duck Duck Go is also installed by default (not sure if it is default, but it's at least an option), which is one of the few search engines that doesn't track you.

[Mohr]

Thank you for your reply, but ...

1. it's not at all easy to deinstall. Not at all ... it doesn't help to just deactive this "add-on" in Firefox. That's where you find it - on the one hand. But it is so deep in the system, it doesn't help to deactive this addon.

2. What I find most disappointing is the fact that they name it "enhancer" but it just enhances the possibility to sell private data. Of their own Linux Mint users. Who trust them and who have to trust them. I don't get it.

Do they really consider us being that stupid? Tell me!
Why do they think they need to cheat on us?

[cwwgateway]

Thank you for your reply, but ...

1. it's not at all easy to deinstall. Not at all ... it doesn't help to just deactive this "add-on" in Firefox. That's where you find it - on the one hand. But it is so deep in the system, it doesn't help to deactive this addon.

2. What I find most disappointing is the fact that they name it "enhancer" but it just enhances the possibility to sell private data. Of their own Linux Mint users. Who trust them and who have to trust them. I don't get it.

Do they really consider us being that stupid? Tell me!
Why do they think they need to cheat on us?

We are talking about a home page... You go into preferences and change it... And where is it called an "enhancer" - I'm not going to say that I'm sure that they didn't, but I have never seen it called an "enhancer." They don't get any of your private data - it just goes to google like it normally would.