Use regional settings in !bang operators

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in DuckDuckGo Forum • 1 year ago

when i set the region settings to french (for example), this is what i expect from !bang operators: french result if it is possible.

For example, why !g go to google.com and not google.fr (or google.com with param hl=fr) ?

Another example, i expect result from the french version of the php documentation (fr.php.net) when i use !php

Also,it would be great to have different regional versions of !bang for google or other search engine (!gfr, !guk, !gcn, !yahoofr ...).

Replies(10)

eet_fuk

Réf.: Use regional settings in !bang operators

1 year ago

Another example, i expect result from the french version of the php documentation (fr.php.net) when i use !php

Hi,

The PHP manual search (http://www.php.net/manual-lookup.php?pattern=query) is quite smart because :
1. It redirects you to the closest server to your current location
2. It automatically use your language (reading the Accept-Language HTTP header I suppose)

The 2 are independent so for example if you are french and living in the UK, it will redirect you to http://uk.php.net/manual/fr/.

Currently DDG correctly handles the second point (the most important), but not the first.
If you type "!php something" you will be redirected to the us server but the results will be in your language.

Comment

Guest

Réf.: Use regional settings in !bang operators

1 year ago

minor off-topic aside:

The PHP manual search (http://www.php.net/manual-lookup.php?pattern=query) is quite smart

php.net's "intended behaviour" might be quite smart, but in my experience it tends to be quite stupid - I've ended up on manual pages in all sorts of languages, with entirely different locales listed in the url to the language they're in - the most baffling l18n of any site I've ever visited.

(my Accept-Language has "en")

Guest

Réf.: Use regional settings in !bang operators

1 year ago

The PHP manual search (http://www.php.net/manual-lookup.php?pattern=query) is quite smart because :
1. It redirects you to the closest server to your current location
2. It automatically use your language (reading the Accept-Language HTTP header I suppose)

well in fact, i haven't seen that because i use chrome on osx and it doesn't work in this browser!!!

but it works well in safari for example.

You can't rely only on http header, this is why i think regional settings are safer

Comment

yegg13

Re: Use regional settings in !bang operators

1 year ago

I actually have a few regional bangs in the UK region after getting several requests for them, but building them out across the board is very time consuming. But I'll add some google ones on the next update.

Comment

yegg13

Re: Use regional settings in !bang operators

1 year ago

The !g and !a bangs should now be region aware.

Comment

Guest

Re: Use regional settings in !bang operators

1 year ago

I still miss regional variants for other countries. For example in the calendar view: In most european countries, Monday is the first day of the week, not Sunday. For Wikipedia zero-info I wish for a result from the respective country. If you are in Poland, !w DuckDuckGo should direct to https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/pl/wiki/Duck_Duck_Go

Comment

Guest

Re: Use regional settings in !bang operators

1 year ago

Any progress or even will to develop on that area?

yegg13

Re: Use regional settings in !bang operators

1 year ago

A little, but not close to really launching. There was a chrome extension someone pointed out recently that links to other language Wikipedias -- that might be a quicker solution (to provide regionally aware additional links).

Guest