Let's chat about bangs (!)

Description of the issue:
I love DDG-style bang search - it’s incredibly useful. And when I saw this feature added to Brave Search, it was significant contributor to my decision to switch over. However, I’ve found the bang definitions occasionally confounding (why does “!h” go to hoogle dot haskell dot org? What about “!dict” going to dict dot org/bin/Dict? Surely there are more-frequently searched sites that could use these shorter spaces).

My biggest issue is that bang definition sources are opaque. I can’t find anything in the Brave public github, and while I can search the ~12k bangs, there’s nowhere for me to correct issues when they stop functioning. For example, I applaud that examine dot com has “!examine”, but their search URL is two years out-of-date, and now hits an ugly 403 page (“/search.php?q=fish%20oil”), where it should be “/search/?q=fish+oil”. How do I note this issue? If this list was in a github repo, I could create an issue, or make a PR to patch it myself.

I understand that control of these bangs has the potential to be as contended as top-level domains, and therefore opening discussion to their definitions is a potential pandora’s box for the Brave community and maintainers. I also know I can override my local settings to add bang definitions that meet my own needs. That being said, I’m curious to learn more about how we can make bang definitions transparent and community-supported.

Edit: DDG has a bang edit/request form here: https://duckduckgo.com/newbang. Do you use the same dataset they do? If so, it’d be awesome to point people to that form. Otherwise, it’d be great to have a similar form.

Brave Version (check About Brave): n/a

Operating System: n/a

@broguinn

Brave Search has incorporated the DuckDuckGo list of !bangs. Says, somewhere in Brave documents.

A comprehensive list of !bangs:

https://duckduckgo.com/bang_lite.html

GIVEN: !bangs work in the Brave Search Engine’s search field at:

https://search.brave.com/

ALSO: !bangs work in the Brave Browser URL Address Field - IF Brave Search is set to be the browser’s default search engine.


Thanks for the reply. The issue I’m having isn’t with the functionality of bang completion in search, it’s with documenting and maintaining this list. Was it copied over once from DDG, is it synced per-release, or more frequently? If I want to change something, is DDG the right place to do it?

@broguinn

I do not recall at this moment, how Brave has incorporated the DuckDuckGo !bangs list, but I imagine that Brave does coordinate Brave Search’s usage, with DuckDuckGo’s list.

Search Engine maintenance being part of the Search Engine Competition.


Searching for articles that may interest . . . :

What are bangs, and how can I use them in Brave Search?

https://search.brave.com/help/bangs

What !bangs can I use in Brave Search?

https://support.brave.com/hc/en-us/articles/4410152384781-What-bangs-can-I-use-in-Brave-Search

What is the bang for automatically navigating to the image tab and video tab results in Brave Search?

What is the bang for automatically navigating to the image tab and video tab results in Brave Search?

DuckDuckGo article - How To Use “!Bang” Shortcuts on DuckDuckGo Search

https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/features/bangs/