question about duck duck go

By John Lipsey, 20 December, 2023

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

Hi all,
I recently, as in just last night, started using the Duck Duck Go web browser for Mac.
Over all, I like the experience, though I did manage to lock it up completely once. That, however, is not why I'm writing this post.
When I press CMD L for the location box, as soon as I start typing, autocomplete suggestions pop up in a dialog and I can't seem to continue typing. I must hit escape, then type a character, hit escape, type another character, etc.
This is not an ideal way to enter URLs, and I was wondering if there's a fix for this? Am I just doing something that could be done in a more efficient manner?
Thanks in advance! :)

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Comments

By Brian on Sunday, December 17, 2023 - 13:31

Hi,

The latest update of the DDG browser kinda jacked up autocomplete of websites. Do this to get around it.

1. Launch Duck Duck Go.
2. Press Command + 'L' to enter Address bar.
3. Type any letter. The moment you do, autocomplete will highjack the control. However..
4. Press Shift + VO + 'M' to open the context menu, then while still holding VO, press Down Arrow until you find a checkmark next to 'Auto Complete Suggestions'. Uncheck this with VO + Space.
5. Now you can use the Address and search bars like normal.

HTH. 😎

By mr grieves on Sunday, December 17, 2023 - 13:31

When I first tried this - about a week ago probably - I was finding that when I was typing in the location bar, DDG wouldn’t read out the characters. I’d hear something like “popup window” after the first one. But whatever I typed in seemed to work and appear when I pressed enter. I have characters and words spoken in VoiceOver.

I just tried again now and the autocomplete seems to work fine for me and be accessible? Not sure if there has been an update over the last couple of days or whether it’s just another random VO thing and it’ll be broken again tomorrow.

Or maybe that’s the bugfix Macos update I installed yesterday. (Umm
 perhaps not)

By Brian on Sunday, December 17, 2023 - 13:31

If it works for you, then its all good. 😎

By mr grieves on Sunday, December 17, 2023 - 13:31

Oh, no fair, I wanted it to be broken too. Now I just feel like I’m missing out.

But, no, wasn’t meaning to gloat - my first impression was that it wasn’t working because I wasn’t getting any feedback so just wanted to check it wasn’t that. Also might be worth another try.

It still seems ok for me but it did say “Dialog as before but autocomplete still seemed usable.”

By Brian on Sunday, December 17, 2023 - 13:31

We can't all have broken hardware/software. Somebody here has to have properly functioning accessible products, otherwise, we will all go to Android and Linux. đŸ«Ł

By mr grieves on Sunday, December 17, 2023 - 13:31

That isn't exactly how I would describe my experience of using the Mac.

I think maybe the DDG autocomplete experience is a little different depending on what you are typing in. I start typing applevis and it works great. If I do a more complicated search it says Dialog at random times but does just about manage it. So in any case, could do with a bit of refinement.

Do we know if this is accessible by purpose or is it just a happy accident?

By Brian on Sunday, December 17, 2023 - 13:31

If you mean to ask if Duck Duck Go is accessible on purpose, I'm thinking yes, simply because of the fact that Apple provides developers with an accessibility framework, and that said developers have a tendency to ignore it.

True story.

And as I mentioned above, to remove that 'dialog' thing, when you are in the text field just VO+Shift+M or VO+Command+Space to access the 'Actions menu', then arrow down and uncheck 'autocomplete'.

Easy peasy lemon squeazy.

By John Lipsey on Sunday, December 24, 2023 - 13:31

That solved it. Thanks so much! :)

By Brian on Sunday, December 24, 2023 - 13:31

Glad to hear it! đŸ„ł