Why I may switch from Google Search to DuckDuckGo.

Recently I encountered duckduckgo.com, and I am hooked. We all want solutions customized to our needs for a lot of things, online and offline, but does that include a search engine that displays results for queries based on dozens of factors?

The idea of DuckDuckGo is that search results are put in a far more logical order and presented in a manner that is visually appealing. It also attempts to be more transparent than Google, by keeping user information private instead of tracking users web habits. They have made the web site DontTrack.us, which details precisely how Google violates privacy and may potentially give personal information to insurance and law agents. I followed the explanation of bubbling at DontBubble.us, which details search engines returning biased results, driven by user conduct. The variety of different results connected to political matters for example, is upsetting.

The main idea involving DuckDuckGo is what they call Zero-click search. Whenever you search for something, it compiles the information and utilizes human-based input to give users what is generally considered the most relevant information. I've found their results to be better than Google in many cases, not only in simplicity but relevancy. It's also worth noting that there are a substantially decreased level of spam sites congesting up the results.

From an open source perspective, DuckDuckGo is about as close as possible to an ideal open source search engine. It uses “FreeBSD for the main operating system and Ubuntu for EC2 failover images.” It's also worth noting that Perl is employed on the backend.

There are numerous impressive things about DuckDuckGo. The way it presents information, the way it deals with user information, and the way it embraces open source indicates that they are wanting to get this done right. Not only that, its clean, fresh, and not bogged down with ads and spam. I highly recommend using it for a week straight and see what you think. In my opinion, it's on par with Google (if not better), and miles ahead of the rest.

The Kindle Fire's Blazin

Amazon has recently announced their first Tablet, the Kindle Fire. The tablet is rumored to run a highly customized version of Android 2.3. It is so highly customized that one may not even realize they are running an Android device. For reference here are the specs for the Kindle Fire put side by side with the Apple iPad 2.

Product	Apple iPad 2	Amazon Kindle Fire
OS (current)	iOS 4.3.5 (as of 10/3/2011)	Android 2.3
Apps	iOS Apps on Apple’s App Store (90,000+dedicated iPad apps)	Amazon Appstore for Android (Unspecified number)
Ebooks	Kindle, Apple’s iBooks	Kindle
Magazines & Newspapers	√	√
Browser	Safari & Other Webkit Browsers	Amazon Silk
Dimensions (in.)	9.5 x 7.31 x 0.34	7.5 x 4.7 x 0.45
Weight (lbs)	1.33 (Wi-Fi)/1.35 (GSM)	0.91
Display size (in., diag)	9.7	7
Display Resolution	1024 x 768 (LED bklight)	1024 x 600
Processor	A5 (dual core)/ 1 GHz	TI OMAP dual core/ 1 GHz
RAM (MB)	512	512
User Storage (GB)	16/32/64	8
Front Camera	0.3 MP	x
Rear Camera	0.7 MP (720p)	x
Camera Flash	x	x
Microphone	√	x
Audio/speaker	mono spkr, stereo headphone	stereo jack & spkrs
Wi-Fi	802.11 a/b/g/n	802.11 b/g/n
3G Radio (GSM)	UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA/GSM/EDGE	x
3G Radio (CDMA)	CDMA, EV-DO	x
Bluetooth	2.1 + EDR	x
GPS	w/3G	x
Battery Life, hours	10 (25 watt-hr)	8
Accelerometer	√	x
Magnetometer/Compass	√	x
Gyroscope	√	x
Video out	HDMI (w/ accessory), Wireless AirPlay for Some Apps	x
USB	x	√
Sensors	Ambient Light	x
Colors	Black or White	Black
Price US$ (Wi-Fi)	499/599/699	199
Price US$ (3G)	629/729/829	x

As you can tell the iPad 2 clearly has more features than the Kindle Fire. It is missing features found on almost all tablets today such as a camera, accelerometer, and GPS. Yet it is still getting a huge amount of buzz in the tech world. There are two solid reasons why this is the case. First is the ultra low price point. No other tablet from a major brand has been able to get anything on the market this cheap. As a matter of fact iSuppli.com has reported that the Kindle Fire will cost $209.63 to make. Second is something that Amazon has done that no other tablet manufacturer has been able to pull off. They have created their own ecosystem. Amazon provides all the media you will need for your device. You will be able to get your music, books, movies and apps all directly from Amazon. This is how they are able to lose money on the tablets themselves because they know they will make the money back on content.

So who will purchase the Kindle Fire? First off this is not an iPad competitor. No one is going to drop their iPad to get a Kindle Fire. But this is not Amazon's intent. They are not trying to compete with the iPad. This will however be a great tablet for people who do not want to dish out the money for an iPad yet still want the tablet experience. The small form factor will also be a draw for some. Seven inches is much more portable than ten inches.

Other tablet manufacturers besides Apple may need to be worried. No other tablets have really been able to stand out in the iPad dominated tablet world. The Kindle Fire will kill what little sales they are currently getting.

A rumor is brewing about a ten inch version of the Kindle Fire to be released early next year. There is also a fair chance that it will have some of the features that the current Kindle Fire is missing.

So really what Amazon is selling is a product that's primary purpose is to allow customers to buy more Amazon products. I see the Kindle Fire being a huge success.


Sources:
http://www.amazon.com/kindlefire
http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/ipad_vs._kindle_fire_spec_comparison_chart/
http://www.isuppli.com/Teardowns/News/Pages/Amazon-Sells-Kindle-Fire-at-Low-Profit-Margin-to-Promote-Online-Merchandize-Sales.aspx
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2393896,00.asp#fbid=Fv8bK_nqC5A