DuckDuckGo is a privacy-focused search engine that doesn’t track you. Alternative search engines to Google, Bing and Yahoo are growing rapidly. This article introduces DuckDuckGo and how it protects your privacy.
What is DuckDuckGo?
DuckDuckGo is a privacy-focused search engine. To use it, you just need to visit duckduckgo.com instead of google.com or bing.com. Then you just use it as you normally would with Google. But the difference here is that DuckDuckGo promises to protect your privacy and not track you — I’ll explain this in more detail.
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You can also set DuckDuckGo as your default search engine in browsers like Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge. Whenever you search from your browser’s search bar or in a new tab, you’ll be taken to DuckDuckGo instead of Google. DuckDuckGo is integrated into modern web browsers as one of the default options, and switching takes just a few clicks.
DuckDuckGo looks a lot like Google. It can search web pages, images, videos, articles and shopping sites. It has built-in maps powered by Apple Maps. DuckDuckGo also has dictionary citations, Wikipedia integration, and other instant answers, just like Google.
Of course, DuckDuckGo doesn’t provide the exact same search results as Google. DuckDuckGo results will vary.
How does DuckDuckGo protect your privacy?
Google has a system that contains your account and search history, stored in Your Google activity by default. Google also uses your activity to customize search results, to provide more personalized, relevant search results. Even if you’re not logged in, Google still saves your search history and associates it with browser cookies.
Of course, Google also tracks you on other websites through Google Analytics, tracks the YouTube videos you watch, knows your location through Google Maps, etc. Google tracks a lot of your data and uses it to customize your experience — showing you personalized ads. A lot of this data is fed into Google AdSense, which shows you the ads you want on many of the websites you visit. (You can view your Google account activity data and delete it.)
DuckDuckGo does not save your search history. According to DuckDuckGo, the company doesn’t even record the IP address associated with the search in its server logs. There is no such thing as a DuckDuckGo account, and DuckDuckGo does not tie search history to a personalized cookie.
Because it doesn’t track any information about you, DuckDuckGo also doesn’t provide you with customized search results based on your browsing. In other words, there’s no “filter bubble” that shows you search results that are different from what other people see.
How does DuckDuckGo work?
According to DuckDuckGo’s Help Page, DuckDuckGo pulls results from more than 400 sources. For example, some “Quick Reply” results come from Wikipedia.
As DuckDuckGo’s documentation says: “Of course, we also have more traditional links in search results, which we also source from a variety of partners, although most commonly from Bing (rather than from Google).”
Therefore, the majority of the site’s search results are derived from Bing’s crawl data. DuckDuckGo says it never shares personal information with any of its partners. When you search on DuckDuckGo, DuckDuckGo’s servers communicate with Bing (and its other partners), and those partners don’t see your IP address or know anything about you. So they can’t track you.
How does DuckDuckGo make money?
DuckDuckGo is free. So how does it make money? Simple — DuckDuckGo makes money through advertising.
These ads are not personalized at all. They are only associated with individual searches. So when you search for “lawn mower,” you will see ads for lawn mowers in the search results. Then, when you search for “dishwasher,” you’ll see ads for dishwashers.
You will not see lawn mower ads displayed on other websites. DuckDuckGo doesn’t even save what you just searched for. And, for many results, DuckDuckGo has even fewer ads than Google itself.
Who owns DuckDuckGo, and is it safe?
DuckDuckGo is owned by a company called Duck Duck Go, Inc. The company is headquartered in Paoli, Pennsylvania and had 124 employees worldwide as of January 2021.
This search engine was launched in 2008, more than a decade ago. Since then, DuckDuckGo’s traffic has continued to increase over time. As of January 19, 2021, there were more than 102 million searches being performed on DuckDuckGo every day.
DuckDuckGo is safe and legal — it is not a new company. It is one of the few search engines offered as an option by default in all major web browsers and is widely trusted.
Is DuckDuckGo good, compared to Google?
DuckDuckGo is not the same as Google – as its documentation says, many web search results come from Bing.
Whether DuckDuckGo is a good alternative to Google depends on what you’re looking for and where you live. If you just want to try the new experience of DuckDuckGo: Try using it and experience it. Switch your default search engine to DuckDuckGo and see if you’re happy with the results.
Note that results will not be personalized based on your history. Google does a lot of personalization based on your past activity, and you may have to be a little more specific when searching on DuckDuckGo to find accurate results.
However, since the beginning of 2021, DuckDuckGo’s search results have improved significantly. If you want to keep your searches private, avoid using services owned by big tech companies, and avoid overly personalized search results and ads, DuckDuckGo is the search engine you should try
Frequently asked questions
Does DuckDuckGo really protect my privacy?
DuckDuckGo does not store your search history and does not track your IP address. It does not create individual user profiles, so there are no personalized search results.
How does DuckDuckGo make money without personalized ads?
DuckDuckGo displays ads related to your search keywords, but does not link them to individual user profiles. Therefore, ads are not personalized and do not track you across other websites.
Is DuckDuckGo better than Google?
This depends on your needs. If privacy is a top priority and you don’t need personalized search results, DuckDuckGo is a great choice. If you need highly personalized results, Google may be better suited.
