I have noticed the same, and find myself using the !g feature in DDG a lot for searches... I suspect this could be related to Google knowing that you tend to search for code (i.e. Ruby) a lot, thus bumping related results to the top. Since DDG avoids storing context for users (from what I gather), I wonder if they'll ever be able to deliver the same quality of results as Google do.
Maybe he could add a 'context' flag on the search. Instead of the engine trying to discern what you are looking for from your history, maybe there could be a way you could tell it. #programming, #cooking, etc. Not sure what the UI should be.
There are some stupidly named plugins & libraries out there, not to mention films and music too. Sometimes you need context. One of my favorite bands is called Perfume, results are terrible unless I provide context or type their name in kanji. I say "one of" but there aren't any others <3
I'm thinking more along the lines of collecting the info that google does, but not attaching it to people. Turn it into some sort of group profile that I can elect to be a part of for a particular search- so if I search 'mixers' as one group I get mozilla dev network results, and as a different group I get kitchen equipment, and as a still different group I get local singles' meetups. The difference in the last group is that I wouldn't also get numbers for local divorce lawyers showing up as ads.
