DuckDuckGo is one of the alternative search engines that intrudes less on privacy than the ubiquitous Google.
It has improved a lot lately and works quite well for general web search. It’s nowhere near Google when it comes to local search.
However, DuckDuckGo (affectionately nicknamed DDG) has some cool features that most users aren’t aware of. If you’re an ardent DDG fan, you might enjoy enhancing your search experience with these tips.
1. Jump to a specific website
Type ! before the name of your favorite website and go directly to the website. It’s like Google’s “feel lucky” feature, but in DDG terms it’s called “bangs”.
There are short forms for websites, which will be suggested when we start typing.
By entering the search term right after the website name, you will get the required result from that website.
2. Convert text to ASCII
Figlet is one of the fun Linux commands. It converts any text into a decorated ASCII format.
Type fig before any search term; it will print its ASCII output. No need to open the terminal.
3. Check Social Media Status
Use ‘@’ in front of someone’s correct Twitter name to display their status (followers, etc.).
4. Generate a strong password
Type “password” followed by the number of characters to include and it will generate a strong and unique password for you.
5. Generate a random passphrase
Type ‘random passphrase’ to generate a passphrase, usually 4 words.
6. Get a cheat sheet
Type cheatsheet after the term for which you want the cheat sheet. If there is a cheat sheet for the search term, it will immediately show it on the search page.
7. Get color from color code
Type ‘color’ followed by the hex code of the color you want to check and it will show what that color looks like.
8. Generate a random number
Searching for “random number” will show a random number between 0 and 1
You can also specify the range to search.
9. Convert to binary and other formats
Type a binary number and append it with ‘binary’ to convert it from binary to decimal
Likewise, it works for hex and oct, but I’m confused as to their logic.
10. Find rhyming words
Type “what rhymes with” followed by the word whose rhymes you want to get. Help with your poetry skills, right?
11. Get the Ramanujan number, Pi and other constants
Type the name of the constant whose value you want and you get it directly in the search results page.
12. Check who is currently in space
Type ‘people in space’ and get a list of those who are currently in space. It also shows how long they have been in space.
13. Check if a website is down
If you want to know if a particular website is down for you or for everyone, just use the search query “is xyz.com is down”.
14. Get quotes on certain topics
Type a word followed by quotes, and it will give quotes related to that word.
15. Get Placeholder Texts
Search “lorem ipsum” and get 5 paragraphs of placeholder text. Useful for web developers perhaps.
16. Get any month’s calendar
Type calendar followed by day, month and year and it will give you an interactive calendar for that month.
17. Generate a QR code
Searching ‘qr’ followed by any text, be it a link or anything, will generate the respective QR code.
18. Get CSS Animations
Search ‘css animations’ for examples of CSS animations.
19. Develop a shortened link
You have a bitly or other shortened link but you don’t know where it takes you. Instead of landing on a spammy website, expand the shortened URL and view the actual website URL.
Use the expand keyword followed by the shortened URL and it will display the actual destination URL.
20. Get HTML codes for special characters
Search for ‘html chars’ and get a very long list of HTML entities and their description, if you press on it, show more in the result
21. Why should I use it?
This one is pretty useless. If you enter the term “why should I use it?” it displays “because it’s awesome” at the top of the search results page. Obviously, DuckDuckGo refers to itself.
22. Convert Case
It works in two cases. tiny
upper case
23. Encode a URL
Searching for ‘encoder’ followed by a URL will return an encoded result
24. Motherboard
Search for “Motherboard” and you can see the DuckDuckGo logo on the left side has changed. It shows a random logo from the selection of a few.
25. Get HTML Color Codes
Search for “color codes” and you get a color chart. Again, this one is more for web developers and designers.
There are many more…
My teammate Sreenath had this post idea. He says there are more “Easter Eggs” in DuckDuckGo and I believe him. But it will not be possible to list them all here.
If you know of any other cool DDG search features, share them in the comments. If you found your next favorite search feature, mention that too.