Slashdot Mirror
DuckDuckGo - Is Google Playing Fair?
Penurious Penguin writes "Privacy-oriented search-engine and Google-rival DuckDuckGo is contending possible anti-competitiveness on the part of Google. MIT graduate and founder of DuckDuckGo Gabriel Weinberg cites several examples; his company's disadvantages in the Android mobile OS; and browsers, which in Firefox requires only a single step to set DuckDuckGo as the default search — while doing so in Chrome requires five. Weinberg also questions the domain duck.com, which he offered to purchase before it was acquired by Google. His offer was declined and duck.com now directs to Google's homepage.
Weinberg isn't the first to make similar claims; there was scroogle.org, which earlier this year, permanently shut down after repeated compatibility issues with Google's algorithms. Whatever the legitimacy of these claims, there certainly seems a growing market for people interested in privacy and objective searches — avoiding profiled search-results, a.k.a. 'filter bubbles.'"
They didn't specifically purchase duck.com, though. They bought On2 Technologies, formerly known as The Duck Corporation, in order to acquire the VP8 codec, which became WebM, and got all the rest of On2's assets as part of the package. It seems unlikely that the real point of the purchase was to acquire duck.com, considering that VP8 is actually pretty important to them.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Since July 2, 1890. You shouldn't ask rhetorical questions that have actual answers.
Adding a search engine isn't "one click", you need to go to "manage search engines", scroll to the bottom, click "get more search engines", search for one, click "add to firefox", "allow", and then select it from the search menu. The effort in Chrome is roughly the same.
This is a fraudulent, astroturfed complaint.
Actually, just tested with Chrome. It's trivally easy. Once you've done a single search with DDG, it shows up in a list of "Alternative Search Engines" Try it right now. Do a search on DDG. Then go to settings. Under the search section, Click on Manage Search Engines, Look for DDG in the "Other Search Engines" section, and click on "Make Default". That's pretty simple. I mean, they could include DDG in their default list, but then WebCrawler, or AltaVista, or a multitude of other search engines would probably complain as well. If you've already done a search on DDG, it's the exact same number of clicks. "Wrench", Options, Manage Search Engines, Make Default. VS. Wrench", Options, Drop Down Box, Bing/Yahoo/Chrome.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
which is why DuckDuckGo, a so called "privacy oriented browser", uses bing for it's underlying searches. Any time you hear "anticompetitive search", it's 100% microsoft/fairsearch funded. It's not even remotely about privacy or security as a result of that. Anyone who believes duckduckgo is about your privacy when bing has your information, is misinformed.
Are you sure you're understanding how the site works?
Standard searches made via DuckDuckGo will not result in you personally being tracked by the underlying search engines. This is because your client isn't making direct contact with the underlying search engines - DuckDuckGo is collating the results together and presenting them. In that context, what you're saying is that buying a can of Heinz Beans from a supermarket results in Heinz tracking me - even though I have no direct contact with them (and assuming the supermarket isn't passing on personally identifying purchaser information to Heinz).
There's no Bing/Google tracking happening here:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=test%20search
Using a bang (such as !bing or !image) is where tracking can kick in because at that point you're most likely hitting a source site. This is comparable to ordering beans directly from Heinz.
This link would result in tracking from bing:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=!bing+test+search
DuckDuckGo is a multi-search engine. You're only making contact with the underlying search providers when you choose to, and at that point it's pretty clear because you're seeing a Google/Bing page.
-- Using the preview button since 2005
Duckduckgo isn't a browser, it's a search engine. It doesn't just use Bing. It pulls from over 50 different sources for search results
From http://www.pcworld.com/article/245129/are_duckduckgos_bing_ties_a_problem_for_linux_mint_.html
Bing doesn't get your information. Duckduckgo is an intermediary in the process and duckduckgo doesn't store your information.
It's time to take off that tinfoil hat and start wrapping the house instead.
No, when you are on www.duckduckgo.com, you show the list of search engines by clicking the small arrow, you see "Add DuckDuckGo" at the bottom, you click it and you are done. Admittedly, that's two clicks.
DuckDuckGo has made a whole host of guarantees that they will never track you, collect personal info, etc. They've built their entire brand around these guarantees. (Their billboard slogan is "Google tracks you. We don't.") You don't have to simply trust their goodwill; their self-interest will enforce this too. If they broke their guarantees, their company would lose its reputation very quickly, their brand would soon be worthless, and they'd likely be vulnerable to a host of lawsuits.
Google, on the other hand, freely admits that they do collect and use such information. You have to read the fine print and look around to get a better idea about how they plan to use that info, and they won't tell you at all about the unintended ways this info gets used (here's DuckDuckGo's page about that).