Internet Search Tips for Software Developers
Top DuckDuckGo search features for software engineers
Being a software developer is a commitment to lifelong learning, problem solving and constant change. Search engines are a key part of any software developers’ arsenal.
In this article, I will share some tips on how you can utilize DuckDuckGo (search engine) in your quest to finding relevant information and getting things done efficiently.
DuckDuckGo is a search engine with a strong focus on user privacy. In addition, it has a ton of nice features that make it distinct from other search engines.
Check Website Status
Knowing if a website is up and running is something most software engineers do often and so do I.
With DuckDuckGo you can easily check whether a website is up and running including its response time and response type. Simply type the website name followed by down? in the search bar.
You can also use an IP address in place of the website name as I have done below.
Shorten a URL
Sometimes you want to share a link in a short and nice-looking format. Especially in presentation slides or documents. DuckDuckGo allows you to do just that.
Simply type short url followed by the long URL.
Expand a short URL
As a complementary feature to shortening a URL, DuckDuckGo also offers the option to expand a short URL, i.e. to get the entire URL in its original form.
To expand a short URL simply type expand followed by the short URL as in the figure below.
Check language syntax
Want to get core syntax about some of the popular programming languages like JavaScript, C#, Python, C, HTML, PHP etc.
Simply type the name of the programming language followed by syntax in the search bar. For example, to get core JavaScript syntax, type js syntax as below:
Generate lorem ipsum
Filling up websites under development with some placeholder content is a thing, we, developers do often. With DuckDuckGo you can easily generate lorem ipsum paragraphs.
Simply type lorem ipsum in the search bar as below and you will get some 5 paragraphs of lorem ipsum content.
Find cheat sheets
In DuckDuckGo you can easily get shortcuts or tips on a particular technology by using the cheat sheet command.
The cheat sheets range from operating system shortcuts, commands, IDE shortcuts etc.
Take a look at the cheat sheet search in action below.
Validate JSON
If you are a developer chances are very high that you have worked with JSON as a file formatting standard or for data interchange.
You can easily validate whether the content you have is valid JSON or not, right within your search engine. Simply type the following in the search bar: validate json then press enter.
You will then be presented with an input box where you can paste or type the JSON content you want to validate.
Generate password
Having strong password is key to remaining secure online. With DuckDuckGo you can easily generate a strong random password by simply typing generate password in the search bar.
The generate password command has several options, which we will not cover here. For more options when generating a password, you can take a look at this article here.
Find HTML5 special characters
To list HTML5 characters, simply type html chars in the search bar.
By default, only a few characters will be listed, simply click on the Show More button to list more characters.
Find alternative products
Finding alternative tech/software products to the ones you know is not only fun, but an eye opener and could potentially save you some money.
Simply type: alternative to followed by the product name. For example, to find alternatives to Photoshop, the image processing software, simply type alternative to Photoshop as below:
Find npm packages
You can easily find npm packages and installation instructions by typing npm followed by the package name as in the figure below.
Utilize color picker
As a developer I use color pickers a lot, especially when it comes to front-end design or development.
DuckDuckGo provides you with a built-in color picker. Simply type color picker in the search bar and voilà.
Conclusion
So, there you have it. DuckDuckGo also contains other features like in-built calculator, stop watch, changing character casing, dark theme etc.
You will find that there are a lot of features on offer, most of which are not yet available in mainstream search engines.
