As developers, we rely on good search results every day. Easily finding what we need can make a significant difference in how productive we are. A new search engine called You.com promises a lot of features specifically targeted to developers and aims to make our workflow faster. I wanted to compare it to DuckDuckGo (a popular and also privacy-oriented search engine) and Google, probably the default for most developers.
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As developers, we rely on good search results every day. Easily finding what we need can make a significant difference in how productive we are. A new search engine called You.com promises a lot of features specifically targeted to developers and aims to make our workflow faster. I wanted to compare it to DuckDuckGo (a popular and also privacy-oriented search engine) and Google, which is probably the default for most developers.
Query #1
python euclidean distance
To kick things off, I wanted to know how to calculate the euclidean distance in Python. Both You.com and Google presented great results from StackOverflow and relevant sites. The main difference I found was how the results were presented.
You.com allowed me to preview and copy coding snippets from StackOverflow in a side panel right from the search results page. Not bad. Further, I didn’t have to click on each link individually but could see multiple answers simultaneously in the horizontal bar. Most websites I rely on are supporting these features - StackOverflow, W3 Schools, and Towards Data Science, to name a few.
With Google, I also found what I needed, though it took me more time than with You.com. I first had to click on the website, look around and find where the answer is (potentially getting distracted by other content on the website).
DuckDuckGo’s results were similar to Google’s, though I didn’t like that the first two links were ads when even Google didn’t show me any ads for this query.
Query #2
python array length
I wanted to test You.com, DDG, and Google on a pretty basic query and looked at how to determine the length of an array in Python. Again, all engines did a good job ranking results. All three engines showed me a W3Schools page and a relevant askpython.com article with the answer.
However, again, You.com results were way easier to access, thus saving me time. I could directly see and copy the answer from the search results page. I also found You.com’s results in the apps very nice visually.
Using Google and DDG, I also found what I searched for - yet had to open the website first or find the answer buried in Google’s quick facts app, which both took me more time. DDG again showed ads that I found distracting.
Query #3
genetic algorithm python code
I recently saw a Youtube video modeling natural selection in Python. I decided I wanted to try out something similar myself. When searching for example python code of genetic algorithms, Google and DuckDuckGo provided some great libraries and blog articles.
I was overall satisfied with the results yet liked You.com’s results even more. Articles from Towards Data Science to view in a horizontal view, as well as Github repos to browse right from the search results page, provided me with more diverse search results and a better overview of the topic quicker. DuckDuckGo’s ads were again distracting and not really relevant.
Query #4
best python machine learning course
I have wanted to deepen my machine learning skills for a while now, so I searched Google, DDG, and You.com for the best machine learning courses with Python. I think the screenshots give a pretty good impression of how different the results were.
On Google, the first 4(!) sites were ads. I barely saw an organic result on the first page without having to scroll. DDG did a better job here, only showing me two ads and some relevant articles. In comparison to that, You.com’s results were excellent. The first results were Coursera courses neatly presented in its own app and with the ability to scroll horizontally to get a quick overview of the courses. Not having to visit the site and still getting all the information I need is a real-time saver.
The next result was a recent blog article with some great and high-quality course recommendations. Reddit is a great and valuable source for any queries. I also set Reddit as a preferred source and saw multiple threads from different subreddits right from the search results page.
Conclusion
With all three search engines, you will be able to find what you need. However, You.com’s special focus on developers and features like the ability to copy code snippets from the search results page and app support of commonly used sites like StackOverflow or Github are making finding what you need faster and easier.
