Google is certainly a 100% essential tool for programming. I use it constantly, every day, and I am sure basically every single developer does the same. The most essential point in the post, imo, is that on any given project you have to wade through the details of dozens of components and tools. There's only so much room in the average brain.
I've tried to use DDG for programming but I've found that Google's efficiency is just too good to make DDG worthwhile. I guess I've decided to take the privacy hit in regards to developing activities.
you can use DDG as a default search engine, and search in google when you want by adding the "g!" flag to your query. it will kick you over to a non(less?)-tracked version of Google.
and you might find DDG is much better for devs. they have built in language guides and various other conveniences.
Right, agreed, "search engine" is what I should have said, although I suspect that even among developers Google search would be the heavy winner in terms of use.
