Can DuckDuckGo Become the Anti-Google? (marketplace.org)

"Recently, a privacy-oriented search engine called DuckDuckGo raised $10 million from a Canadian pension fund," reports Marketplace.org, saying the privacy-focused search engine is "trying to establish itself as the anti-Google." An anonymous reader quotes their report: "So it's like Google, except when you search on it, you're completely anonymous," said Gabriel Weinberg, CEO of the company. The searches are encrypted. The site knows where you are, but only while you're searching, and it doesn't store your personal information. "We serve you the search results and we throw away your personal information...so your IP address and things like that. And we don't actually store any cookies by default. And so when you search on DuckDuckGo, it's like every time you're a new user and we know nothing about you..." Weinberg said about a quarter of Americans have taken some action to protect their privacy, and DuckDuckGo searches have been growing about 50 percent a year.
"We are proud to have a profitable business model that doesn't rely on collecting personal data," the company tweeted in June, and this week they also shared a quote from a Harvard Business Review article that asked "How far can the surveillance economy go?"

"Most consumers are either unaware of the personal info they share online or, quite understandably, unable to determine the cost of sharing it -- if not both."

Comments

I might try it

[110010001000]

Link? Never mind, I'll Google it.

I made the switch everywhere over a week ago

[oldgraybeard]

and everything seems to be working out well. The one thing that is annoying is the add DuckDuckGo dialog and the Cookie Dialog close each time you start your browser (DuckDuckGo is my home). Wish I could just go in to the options and turn them off for good. Maybe I can but I did not see that during my quickie setup.
Other than that I like it so far!

Just my 2 cents ;)

Re:I made the switch everywhere over a week ago

[Freshly Exhumed]

Change the URL to https://start.duckduckgo.com/ and those things should go away once you configure the settings. Let us know.

Re:I made the switch everywhere over a week ago

[svanheulen]

In the top right corner is a button to open a menu. In that click on "Other Settings." Chenge your settings the way you like (there's an option to get rid of that nag). Then on the right side there's a button that says "Show Bookmarklet and Settings Data." Click on that to get a URL with all your settings in it.

Re:I made the switch everywhere over a week ago

[aaarrrgggh]

Have used DDG for years as my primary search engine on my desktop, but unfortunately I don’t think the results are nearly as effective as Google.

The most basic issue is that meaningful information is never displayed directly in the results. If I search for EURUSD on Google, I get the actual exchange rate. On DDG, I have to click a spammy link to get it. I also have better luck with highly technical searches in Google. But, for 80% of the stuff it is good enough.

Works for me!

[mspohr]

I've been using DuckDuckGo for about a year as the search on my main computer. I've found it always gives me good results...i.e. what I'm looking for... It's fast. I've never felt the need to switch to a different search engine.
It does have ads but these are clearly labeled. The ads seem to be targeted to my search terms which is appropriate.

Liar?

[Anonymous Coward]

DuckDuckGo's results are a compilation of "over 400" sources,[45] including Yahoo! Search BOSS; Wikipedia; Wolfram Alpha; Bing; its own Web crawler (the DuckDuckBot); and others.[3][45][46] It also uses data from crowdsourced sites, including Wikipedia, to populate "Zero-click Info" boxes – grey boxes above the results that display topic summaries and related topics.[10]

There's that little problem with DuckDuckGo

[Anonymous Coward]

It's an American business, based in the U.S. That means they're susceptible to government subpoenas and gag-orders, just like any other American business.

When intelligence agencies deliver a court- and gag-order that says they want all searches originating from a particular IP, and youre not allowed to say a word about it, then DuckDuckGo obeys and begins recording the data and hands it over. They are not above American law, and whoever gets the court order either obeys or goes to federal prison, it's just that simple.

You may want to consider switching to startpage.com and select their EU servers in the settings. It's also another anonymous Google-backed search engine, but the EU part makes it a better choice.

Re:There's that little problem with DuckDuckGo

[KiloByte]

When intelligence agencies deliver a court- and gag-order that says they want all searches originating from a particular IP, and youre not allowed to say a word about it

That's why it's vital to do all searches over Tor -- which DuckDuckGo supports well, unlike infinite captcha loops on Google.

People prefer convenience over privacy, but once there's no convenience cost, there's no reason to not use the safer way,

It's good, but its results are somewhat lacking

[demon driver]

I use DuckDuckGo for quite some time now, and in most cases it works well. Just like Google, though, in harder cases it tends to lists loads of results which have no relation whatsoever to the search terms, even if the terms were typed in double quotes – only that DuckDuckGo's result are even worse than Google's. Sometimes they just can't admit not having found anything useful, it seems.

Not bad... but could use a few changes

[Noishkel]

DuckDuckGo is a decent enough search engine and I generally support it, but it has a few small frustrating problems with it that I'd like to see changed. First off, it's 'safe mode' content filter is on by default. This is annoying to those of us that are knowledgeable enough to realize how big of a problem cookies are and keep them disabled or filtered by default with a browser add-on. While that's not always an issue, as with any filter list you can get things filtered out erroneously. And my second companion is actually directly linked to my first one. If you do auto delete your cookies you get two pop ups for the site each time you load it. One asking if you want to add DuckDuckGo to your browser and the other suggesting you make them your star page. Neither are hardly deal breakers, but still annoying.

I certainly hope so

[zerofoo]

I've switched as many services I can to companies that, at a minimum, care about individual privacy.

I used to use Google's cloud products exclusively - no more. It's Protonmail and Duck Duck Go for me - for now. Apple, under Tim Cook, seems to be taking privacy seriously as well.

I am willing to pay for services that advertise privacy as a feature.

So just like Google, only not remotely like Google

[dgatwood]

The problem with not knowing anything about the user is that it often significantly reduces the quality and usefulness of search results. For example, consider a search for "string".

• When I search while logged in as me, Google returns the Java String API as the second result, because it knows that this is what I am probably looking for (though admittedly, it still doesn't recognize that I'm more likely to be asking about C++).
• When I search in Safari's private browsing mode using an IP address obtained via my cell phone hot spot, the programming results don't start until the bottom few slots on the front page, and instead it talks about the textile.

Neither result set would be appropriate for both audiences. (Every now and then, this goes hilariously wrong, and I have to add "-programming" or "-science" or whatever for some search, but most of the time, it's right.)

The thing is, a lot of people complain about tracking, but the fact of the matter is that all that tracking is done to produce better outcomes for the user. Whether that data is used to improve search results or to improve ad targeting, the user benefits by getting results that are more tailored to his or her interests and seeing less crap that he or she won't have the least bit of interest in. Far from surveillance, I would call that personalization. As long as Google aggressively protects the data that they collect and keeps it private, I find it to be a good thing.

But obviously, different people have different perspectives, and some folks are more distrustful of data collection than others. For the folks on the distrustful end of the spectrum, it is good that alternatives like DDG exist. And no matter where you fall on that spectrum, I think you'll agree that there is a strong need for tough privacy laws, to ensure that if Google's management decides to retire and move to Bermuda, the next batch of execs won't be allowed to use that data in different ways that violate our privacy, such as selling it to the highest bidder, or giving it away to companies that do research for political parties, or publishing our private information for all to see.

Re:Is it still so anonymous when used in Chrome?

[lgw]

Chrome openly sends everything you type into the omnibox to Google "for your protection". Purging all Google products from your life is the only safe way.