DuckDuckGo Search Skill

Overview

This skill provides web search capabilities using the DuckDuckGo search engine via the duckduckgo-search Python package. It enables text, image, video, and news searches with various filtering options.

Installation

pip install -U duckduckgo_search

Core Functionality

Text Search

from duckduckgo_search import DDGS

# Basic text search
results = DDGS().text("python programming", max_results=10)

# Advanced text search with filters
results = DDGS().text(
    keywords="python programming",
    region="us-en",           # Region: us-en, uk-en, cn-zh, etc.
    safesearch="moderate",    # on, moderate, off
    timelimit="m",           # d (day), w (week), m (month), y (year)
    backend="auto",          # auto, html, lite, bing
    max_results=10
)

Image Search

from duckduckgo_search import DDGS

results = DDGS().images(
    keywords="butterfly",
    region="wt-wt",
    safesearch="off",
    size=None,               # Small, Medium, Large, Wallpaper
    color="Monochrome",      # Color filters
    type_image=None,         # photo, clipart, gif, transparent, line
    layout=None,             # Square, Tall, Wide
    license_image=None,      # any, Public, Share, ShareCommercially, Modify, ModifyCommercially
    max_results=100
)

Video Search

from duckduckgo_search import DDGS

results = DDGS().videos(
    keywords="cars",
    region="wt-wt",
    safesearch="off",
    timelimit="w",
    resolution="high",       # high, standard
    duration="medium",      # short, medium, long
    license_videos=None,    # creativeCommon, youtube
    max_results=50
)

News Search

from duckduckgo_search import DDGS

results = DDGS().news(
    keywords="technology",
    region="us-en",
    safesearch="moderate",
    timelimit="d",          # d, w, m
    max_results=20
)

Available Regions

Region Code	Description
wt-wt	Worldwide (No region)
us-en	United States
uk-en	United Kingdom
cn-zh	China
jp-jp	Japan
kr-kr	Korea
de-de	Germany
fr-fr	France
in-en	India
au-en	Australia
ca-en	Canada
br-pt	Brazil
ru-ru	Russia

Search Operators

Use DuckDuckGo search operators for advanced queries:

Operator	Example	Description
Exact match	`"cats and dogs"`	Search for exact phrase
Exclude	`cats -dogs`	Exclude term
Require	`cats +dogs`	Require term
File type	`cats filetype:pdf`	Search PDFs, docs, etc.
Site	`dogs site:example.com`	Search specific site
Exclude site	`cats -site:example.com`	Exclude site
In title	`intitle:dogs`	Title must contain
In URL	`inurl:cats`	URL must contain

Proxy Support

# Using Tor Browser
ddgs = DDGS(proxy="tb", timeout=20)

# Using custom proxy
ddgs = DDGS(proxy="socks5://user:password@host:port", timeout=20)

# Via environment variable
import os
os.environ["DDGS_PROXY"] = "socks5://user:password@host:port"

Error Handling

from duckduckgo_search import DDGS
from duckduckgo_search.exceptions import (
    DuckDuckGoSearchException,
    RatelimitException,
    TimeoutException,
    ConversationLimitException,
)

try:
    results = DDGS().text("query", max_results=10)
except RatelimitException:
    print("Rate limit exceeded. Try using a proxy or waiting.")
except TimeoutException:
    print("Request timed out.")
except DuckDuckGoSearchException as e:
    print(f"Search error: {e}")

CLI Usage

# Text search
ddgs text -k "python tutorial"

# Search with region
ddgs text -k "news" -r cn-zh

# Search and save to CSV
ddgs text -k "research filetype:pdf" -m 50 -o results.csv

# Image search
ddgs images -k "landscape" -m 100 -d

# News search
ddgs news -k "technology" -m 50 -t d -o json

Result Format

Text Search Results

{
    "title": "Page Title",
    "href": "https://example.com",
    "body": "Page description..."
}

Image Search Results

{
    "title": "Image Title",
    "image": "https://original-image-url.jpg",
    "thumbnail": "https://thumbnail-url.jpg",
    "url": "https://source-page.com",
    "height": 3860,
    "width": 4044,
    "source": "Bing"
}

Video Search Results

{
    "content": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=...",
    "title": "Video Title",
    "description": "Video description...",
    "duration": "8:22",
    "provider": "YouTube",
    "published": "2024-07-03"
}

News Search Results

{
    "date": "2024-07-03T16:25:22+00:00",
    "title": "News Headline",
    "body": "News article description...",
    "url": "https://news-site.com/article",
    "image": "https://image-url.jpg",
    "source": "News Source Name"
}

Best Practices

Use context manager for proper resource cleanup:

with DDGS() as ddgs:
    results = ddgs.text("query")

Set reasonable max_results to avoid long wait times
Use region parameter for localized results

Implement retry logic for rate limiting:

import time

for attempt in range(3):
    try:
        results = DDGS().text("query", max_results=10)
        break
    except RatelimitException:
        time.sleep(2 ** attempt)

Use proxies for high-volume searches to avoid IP blocks

Notes

This library is for educational purposes only
Not intended for commercial use
Respect DuckDuckGo's Terms of Service
Package has been renamed to ddgs (use pip install ddgs for newer version)

duckducksearch