I'm still puzzled after all these years : why would anyone use search engine bangs instead of directly configuring custom searches from their browser's URL bar ?

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danhor 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

It takes a bit of effort to add all you would want and, for me personally, bangs can be anywhere instead of having to be at the start of a search query as is needed for custom search keywords.

	▲	BlueTemplar 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		Well, it would take effort to add custom bangs too, it's not like DDG has pre-made bangs for every website...

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freediver 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Bangs through Kagi work cross-device, on every browser you use whether it supports custom searches or not.

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macintux 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Because I know how to use search engine bangs, and I have no idea what a “custom search” would look like.

After probably 15 years of using DDG the bangs are just part of my muscle memory. Why bother changing things?

	▲	BlueTemplar 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		Well, my question then is why didn't you use custom search before DDG added bangs ? Today in Firefox : right click on a search field, add search engine. Pretty sure that this evolved from that separate search field that browsers used to have in addition to the URL field ?