The good folks over at DuckDuckGo have launched DuckDuckHack, a way for users to create some amazing instant answer plugins for DDG. One that came out earlier this month that I finally got to check out allows you to find out if a particular website is up or not. To use it just surf on over to DDG and enter your query like this: is duckduckgo.com up. No question mark needed.
Of course your results may have a different color scheme than mine does, but the results will always be the same as anyone else would get running the same search at the same time. Why? Because DDG refuses to track their users or put them in filter bubbles like the other big search engines (not to mention some web sites) will do. Check it out with websites that load slowly for you. You may find yourself wanting to put it in your bookmark bar so you can remember how to use it the next time the ‘net feels like it’s slogging through molasses.
