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DuckDuckGo

Robert Sheldon
By
Published:Oct 20, 2023

What is DuckDuckGo?

DuckDuckGo is an independent company that offers products geared towardinternet privacy. The company, officially named Duck Duck Go Inc., is best known for its first product, the DuckDuckGosearch engine. The company has since released its own webbrowser and extensions for third-party web browsers that also focus on internet privacy. The DuckDuckGo name is based on the traditional children's game: Duck, duck, goose.

Gabriel Weinberg founded the company, based in Paoli, Pa., in 2008. The company obtained $3 million in venture capital in 2011 and additional funding subsequently. It generates revenue through advertising that appears in the search results.

The DuckDuckGo search engine is designed to protectuser privacy. The company does not track users, save userInternet Protocol (IP) addresses or log otheridentifying information. It does not maintain a record of its users' search histories or which sites they visited. DuckDuckGo retains aggregate search terms; it does not associate any terms with users. Because of these practices, DuckDuckGo has no search or browsing data to turn over to third-party organizations such as law enforcement agencies or governments.

The only personal information the company retains is what users have voluntarily provided, such as theemail addresses of those who sign up for the privacy newsletter. The company's policy is to retain the data only as long as it's needed for its stated purpose, an idea closely aligned to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). After that, the data is deleted, unless applicable laws require it to be retained for a longer period.

Unlike Google, DuckDuckGo does not personalize searches, which can skew results and create what is called afilter bubble.Personalization constrains search results based on user-related information, such as location, personal preferences or search history. With DuckDuckGo, search results are never personalized, although a user can filter results based on factors such as locality, time duration or media type. The search engine never targets the results to the specific user.

DuckDuckGo is sometimes referred to as a hybrid search engine because it compiles results from multiple sources, including its owncrawler, DuckDuckBot;crowdsourced sites such as Wikipedia; specialized sites such as Tripadvisor; content sites such as Musixmatch; and dedicated sources such as Dark Sky. The search engine also retrieves traditional links and images from sources such as Bing. DuckDuckGo filters out results that appear to be fromcontent mills.

From the user's perspective, the DuckDuckGo search engine works much like Google, Bing or other search engines. Users go to the DuckDuckGo search page (https://duckduckgo.com) and enter their search terms into the text box at the top of the page, as shown in Figure 1. The results are listed below the search box, beneath any ads that might be included along with the results. In some cases, a small box that contains topic-related information is added to the top of the results, just below the search box. This is known as an Instant Answer.

Screenshot of DuckDuckGo search results
Figure 1: Screen capture of DuckDuckGo search results for the query: 'what is a book?'

Search results will often include Instant Answers, depending on the topics being searched. For example, they might be included for queries such as flight status, recipes, rhyming words, calculations or statistics. An Instant Answer might also serve a functional purpose such as providing a stopwatch or generating astrong password. In addition, the results might include a box of information to the right of the results.

DuckDuckGo searches also support the !bang feature, which provides shortcuts for searching specific websites. The shortcut is preceded by an exclamation point, followed by an abbreviation. For example, if a user types "!gh python," the user will be redirected to theGitHub site, where a search for "python" will be performed directly on that site. The DuckDuckGo website includes a search feature for finding specific !bang shortcuts.

DuckDuckGo browser and browser extensions

DuckDuckGo's browser, available formacOS, Windows,iOS andAndroid devices, provides private search, tracker blocking, enhancedencryption and email privacy protection. Figure 2 shows the browser on a Mac computer, with multiple tabs open, similar to what users would see in other browsers.

Screenshot of DuckDuckGo browser on a Mac
Figure 2: Screen capture of the DuckDuckGo browser on a Mac.

Unlike other browsers such as GoogleChrome or MicrosoftEdge, the DuckDuckGo browser prioritizes the user's privacy over all other considerations. As such, it is well aligned with increasingly broad privacy laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act. But the browser is not as feature-rich as these other browsers. For example, it does not offer a reader's view, and it cannot sync data such as bookmarks orpasswords between browsers on different devices. In addition, theWindows edition of the browser is still in publicbeta.

Five privacy rights in the California Consumer Privacy Act
The California Consumer Privacy Act addresses five key privacy rights.

Most users turn to the DuckDuckGo browser primarily because of its multiple layers of privacy protections. The browser blocks most third-party tracking requests and preventsfingerprinting scripts from loading. When users visit a website, they can view which requests have been loaded and which ones have been prevented from loading. A user needs only to click the shield icon at the left of the address bar to see this information, as shown in Figure 3.

Screenshot of tracking requests blocked by DuckDuckGo
Figure 3: Screen capture showing tracking requests blocked by DuckDuckGo.

DuckDuckGo uses encrypted connections, where possible, to preventinternet service providers and Wi-Fi snoopers from tracking a user's browsing history. The browser also protects against embeddedsocial media content that contains tracking code, and it provides access to a free email protection service that's available only through the browser.

DuckDuckGo also offers iOS and Android editions of its browser, providing users with an easy way to use the DuckDuckGo search engine and view webpages without sacrificing their privacy. Figure 4 shows the browser window on an iPhone. As with the desktop versions of the browser, the user can filter the results by region, date range and media type.

Screenshot of DuckDuckGo browser on iPhone
Figure 4: Screen capture showing the DuckDuckGo browser window on an iPhone.

DuckDuckGo also offers anapp protection feature that's available only to the Android browser. The new feature, currently in beta, blocks third-party trackers in the apps installed on the local Android device. It can even prevent tracking when the apps are not being used.

In addition to its own browser, DuckDuckGo offers extensions for several of today's leading browsers, including Chrome,Firefox, Safari, Edge and Opera. The extensions add features such as tracker blocking and encrypted website connections. As with the DuckDuckGo browser, the extensions let users view the tracking requests that have been permitted and prevented, as shown in Figure 5. The extension also rates the webpage in terms of its privacy.

Screenshot of how DuckDuckGo handled tracking requests
Figure 5: Screen capture showing how the DuckDuckGo browser extension handled tracking requests.

In summary, DuckDuckGo is all about protecting its users' privacy, whether they use the search engine, the browser extensions or the browser itself.

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Continue Reading About DuckDuckGo

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