DuckDuckGo: How This Privacy-Focused Search Engine Works

Is the balance between privacy and user experience possible?

Everyone knows that Google’s success is due, in part, to the constant tracking of its users. The premise is very simple: the better the algorithms know us, the more effective the results are that appear in searches. Because of this, we have already explained how to delete the browsing history associated with your Google account.

Many think that this behavior is legitimate and that it is the price to pay to have the best possible user experience. But that is not what those responsible for DuckDuckGo. They believe that another Internet is possible. Will they be right?

What exactly is DuckDuckGo?

Before we dive into how DuckDuckGo works, let’s learn some facts about its history. We have to travel back in time to the year 2008 to attend his birth. In February of that year he is born from the hand of Gabriel Weinberg DuckDuckGo search engine. Its objective is none other than to improve the user experience in the field of Internet search engines. However, it was not until 2010 that the company made the riskiest decision: do not track the user or their search history. We can say that this is the official path of this search engine towards privacy.

In 2012, DuckDuckGo is updated with a new design that, according to the company, prevented users from running away when viewing the results page. That same year was when the million searches a day for the first time. 483 days later, on June 10, 2013, its users make two million searches in the same day. This fact coincided with the revelations of espionage by the NSA.

Since then, the popularity of this search engine has not stopped growing. For example, in 2014 it was included as an option in Safari for iOS and macOS. So did Firefox itself, which at that time had a higher market share. And it seems that the privacy-focused strategy continues to attract more users. Without going any further, in the year 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, the official figures take us to 50,000 million searches.

A portfolio of services that diversifies

DuckDuckGo is primarily an Internet search engine. However, as has happened with other similar companies (see the case of ProtonMail), the number of services offered has increased remarkably. The central axis of all of them, how could it be otherwise, is privacy. What’s DuckDuckGo up to lately?

• Web navigator. DuckDuckGo has its own web browser that, today, nothing else is available for macOS.

• Mobile apps. Its mobile applications serve for the user to enjoy anonymous browsing by the user.

• Browser extensions. They improve privacy when browsing the web by blocking ads and website trackers. Thus, all the power of DuckDuckGo is transferred to browsers such as Chrome, Edge or Firefox.

• Email. It is not a traditional email service. Therefore, we cannot consider it as a real alternative to Gmail and others. However, @duck.com addresses are responsible for forwarding the mail after having blocked all traces that include the messages.

How DuckDuckGo works

After these explanations, surely you already have a complete perspective of what DuckDuckGo is and the story behind it. privacy-focused search engine. In the same way, we have explained other projects that the company has launched. Now it’s time to focus on how it works, what your searches look like, and the user experience it offers. Will it be a good rival for the almighty Google? Let’s see.

Simple user experience

visit the DuckDuckGo home page it will not produce in you any surprise. At the top is the logo and, approximately in the center, a text box where you can enter your queries. If you visit the web from Chrome, there is also a button that invites you to download the official extension designed to reinforce your privacy when browsing the Internet. Oh, and if you’re a dark mode lover, you’ll quickly realize that the browser’s color palette fits the bill perfectly.

Getting started searching on DuckDuckGo is as easy as typing a few keywords into the text field. As you type, some search suggestions are offered to you, just like other engines do.

When you press the Enter key, the results of the query appear on the screen. Everything is similar to what we already know from the competition: a list of vertical links that includes the meta description of each page.

Depending on the searches you do, the following information is displayed:

• knowledge zone. Includes snippets from Wikipedia and other similar sites with additional information for the entered term. It appears when writing the name of someone famous, a country or a company, to give just a few examples.

  

• maps. When searching for local businesses or geographic areas, DuckDuckGo displays them on a map. It also offers a section dedicated to this feature. Be careful, it is not a service of its own, but the cartographic data of Apple Maps.

  

• Images and videos. This is a multimedia friendly engine. It has two sections dedicated to images and videos to locate all kinds of audiovisual media. Based on the query entered by the user, these also appear in the general results.

  

• Tools. As with the competition’s search engines, DuckDuckGo offers some tools directly on its results page. This is the case of the calculator, which appears when entering a mathematical operation, or guitar chords. Most of these commands work only in English.

  

• News. This is a filter that limits the results to current articles. It is perfect to describe the last hour on some specific topic.

  

As you have seen, DuckDuckGo offers a user experience that is almost identical to that of other Internet search engines.

Advanced browser options

What we have shown you so far corresponds to the basic operation of this privacy-focused search engine. But what about its advanced options? Here are some that you will like.

• Save personal settings. Imagine that you have spent time configuring the browser. Now it’s to your liking, but you notice that DuckDuckGo doesn’t allow login to sync preferences. No problem: you can upload them to the cloud, protect them with a password and recover them whenever you want.

  

• Change the appearance of searches. Can you imagine changing the Google font, the page width of your results or the background color? It’s nonsense! But not for DuckDuckGo, since it allows you to change those and other values ​​so that you adapt the appearance of the interface to your liking.

  

• Topics. As if modifying the elements of the searches as you wish was not enough, the search engine includes six themes so that you can choose the one you like the most.

  

• !Bang. No, it’s not a typo. The !Bang are quick commands to search specific Internet sites. For example, writing !a before your query, the results that appear are exclusively from Amazon (and on Amazon). Check all the !Bang available here. Additionally, other classic commands identical to those of Google work, such as the classic site:geeknetic.es to search specific domains.

  

Can DuckDuckGo replace Google?

DuckDuckGo is an excellent alternative to Google. Its main asset is privacy, since it rules out the storage of search histories, it does not include trackers and it does not store the user’s IP address. Likewise, it does not share personal data with the websites you visit and prioritizes the HTTPS protocol in any case.

Does all that mean that it can completely replace Google? It depends on the type of user you are. DuckDuckGo solves most queries correctly. Not surprisingly, the search engine has been mainly provided by Bing, which is a remarkable alternative to Google.

Despite its good attributes, for advanced users who need to gather information on the Internet or do research on a topic, it is an option that falls short. Additionally, it lacks some useful sections that are present in Google, such as the cards for series, movies and music albums or the question box. Finally, if you want to search for a nearby business, DuckDuckGo is not the best option. The integration of the extensive Google Maps database into Google search is simply second to none.

End of Article. Tell us something in the Comments!