It seems that anything that returns "++" (EDIT: in the "About" box), in this case "Notepad++", breaks their internal regex because it seems not to be sanitized properly

The breaking code using chrome dev tools seems to be:

n = new RegExp("^(https?://)?([\\w\\.-_]\\.)?" + o.toLowerCase().replace(/[-\s]/g, "") + "\\.");

In this case "o" is "Notepad++" which might be the first result.

The browser returns this error:

Invalid regular expression: /^(https?://)?([\w\.-_]\.)?notepad++\./: Nothing to repeat

Also happens with C++ https://duckduckgo.com/?q=c%2B%2B&t=ffab&ia=web

    [\w\.-_]

    [\w\.\-_]

Hi all (CEO & Founder, DuckDuckGo here). Looks like something may have broken in a release that went out today -- it is triggering a JS error. We're looking into it now and should have it resolved soon.

UPDATE: this should be fixed now.

Using POST, HTTP/1.0 and lite.duckduckgo.com, with no Javascript of course, I got results. Not suggesting any of those are requirements. I'm just reporting that the no results experience is not universal.

Here is the first page of results:

  https://notepad-plus-plus.org/
  https://onlinenotepad.org/notepad
  https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/9MSMLRH6LZF3?hl=en-us&gl=US
  https://notepad-plus-plus.org/downloads/v8.5/
  https://sourceforge.net/projects/notepadplusplus.mirror/
  https://notepad.js.org/
  https://notepad-plus-plus.org/downloads/v8.1.9.3/
  https://notepad-plus-plus.org/downloads/v8.1/
  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/help-in-notepad-4d68c388-2ff2-0e7f-b706-35fb2ab88a8c
  https://www.techspot.com/downloads/2010-notepad.html
  https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus
  https://www.onlinenotepad.io/
  https://anotepad.com/
  https://www.howtogeek.com/902619/open-notepad-in-windows/
  https://notepad.plus/
  https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/
  https://www.digitalcitizen.life/start-notepad-windows/
  https://notepad.uptodown.com/windows
  https://www.dictionary.com/browse/notepad
  http://www.my-notepad.net/
  https://notepad.id.uptodown.com/windows
  https://notepad-classic-windows-10.en.softonic.com/

Below is a quick script for DuckDuckGo searching, if only want first page of results. yy025 makes HTTP from URLs. yy046 URL-encodes input, e.g., "+" to %2B. The address 127.22.10.55 is a TLS forward proxy.

         usage: echo query string|1.sh > 1.htm
                firefox ./1.htm
                links -no-connect ./1.htm
    
         #!/bin/sh
         
         h=duckduckgogg42xjoc72x3sjasowoarfbgcmvfimaftt6twagswzczad.onion
         h=lite.duckduckgo.com
         read x;
         x=q=$(echo "$x"|yy046);
         export httpMethod=POST;
         export Content_Type=application/x-www-form-urlencoded;
         export Content_Length=${#x};
         export httpVersion=1.0;
         export Connection=close;
         echo https://$h/lite/|yy025|if sed w/dev/stderr;then 
          echo $x;echo $x >&2;fi \
         |socat stdio,ignoreeof tcp:127.22.10.55:80

For that query, the Chrome developer tools console spits an error like so:

>d.7527c434450544045365.js:1 Uncaught (in promise) SyntaxError: Invalid regular expression: /^(https?://)?([\w\.-_]*\.)?notepad++\./: Nothing to repeat (at

I feel like Google has the same issue. Nowadays, searching for anything on Google yields between 3 and 17 results. Few years ago, I received millions of results for the same searches.

so does "cplusplus"

It seems to have to do with some kind of metadata is fetched and then used as a regular expression (to change markup in some other part of the page?); it's assumed that the text can be used as a regular expression without quotation but in the case of the doubled "+" character it becomes a non-valid RE.

Seems to happen with any query containing "otepad".

"Windows os" instead yields just nonsense

What causes this?

Unrelated to this issue, but I get peeved when HN commenters rave how DuckDuckGo results are far superior to Google's, and yet the other day I entered "DuckDNS" on DDG, and it was nowhere to be scene in the top 3 pages. Meanwhile on Google and Brave Search, it is the first result.

Probably because they've been piggybacking off other's search indexes for a while, and the Western World seems downright opposed to actually providing an accurate index of the actual content of the Internet.

There's only so much you can do when your primary index builder's search indexes are probably more accurately reconstituted from https://www.lumendatabase.org/lumendatabase

than their live index.

But hey, that's the price of innovation, right? Can't denormalize access to frigging anything. Have to maintain the info asymmetry.

I signed up for Kagi finally. Still figuring out if it's worth it, but the more important thing is that I was moved to even consider it and do it.

The mighty yegg does not answer such questions.

But if you must know: it's talent exodus coupled with deteriorated market share.