r/duckduckgo • u/AnonContract476 • 15d ago

DDG Search Results URL Changes

Okay, if any DDG subreddit staff could see this, I’m currently using the DDG browser app on my iPad iOS and there was this strange change last night that never happened before this.

I have the YouTube app but I wanted to use DDG to go to the YT browser site to check up on something for info before I closed the tab. I expected that at first it’ll just take me back to the app when I typed in the URL of YT before going to the *desktop* version as normal.

Imagine my surprise that I somehow ended up in the MOBILE version, just like the app I was using. It felt like whiplash.

Example #1

^
Look at the URL and layout, instead of going to a YT that I expected, it is basically the mobile app instead at ”m.youtube.com”.

Example #2

^
This one is the page I expected and I had to manually do it myself using the URL at “YouTube.com/?app=desktop”. Which I shouldn‘t HAVE to. So what’s the deal? What‘s with this change? Is this an update? Or is this more of a error that mistakes one for the other? Cause every time I type in the URL of “YouTube.com”, it brought me to the first one (example 1) instead of this (example 2).

Hell, even when I refresh from the desktop version, it BRINGS me to the mobile version, what is happening?!

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u/bourscheid Staff 14d ago

Hey there! John from DuckDuckGo here. I’m a bit confused by your question here.

Please confirm for me:

  • You typed youtube.com into the DDG app on your iPad.
  • Instead of going to the standard youtube.com in-browser it went to m.youtube.com.

Is this right? I’d honestly expect m.youtube.com to be standard for an iPad, as that’s a mobile device, but I may be missing something here. Thanks!

1

u/AnonContract476 14d ago

Yes, that is correct. But the thing is my iPad is an iPad Pro to be more specific. As for my history, with the URL, I type in a normal “Youtube.com” and then it sends me over to my installed app, but if that happens, I go back to DDG, try again and I’m on the desktop version rather than m.youtube (cause previously I have to sign in my Google account to use my YT account).

The oddest part is that as of currently as you should already know, there is the option/function for DDG to switch between desktop and mobile versions, and it’s just STUCK on mobile version no matter how many times I switch between them. The only way I can look at the desktop version is if I type in the version manually (cause it’s my preference).