DUCK-DUCK-GO (DDG) is an anonymity promoting search engine. It protects the privacy of its users and goes an extra mile doing so. Also,iIt compromises on personalized search based technology to make its users completely anonymous.

It shows the search results based on keywords searched. DUCK-DUCK-GO takes its results from various famous engines including Google, Bing and Yummly. Its software is free-ware and is widely available across the internet. Even some browsers like Safari come equipped with DUCK-DUCK-GO as a built in toolbar. It was launched in 2008. It is ad-based up to some extent but offers ad-free environment to the users who disable the ads. DUCK-DUCK-GO was a successful launch and by 2012 it had crossed 1.5 million searches daily. It guarantees not to utilize cookies to take after clients and it doesn’t gather any individual data on the individuals who utilize it. Some users prefer Duck-Duck-Go for their searching due to its strict privacy protection and robust operation.

Major contracts

TOR web browser, with the same privacy slogan as DUCK-DUCK-GO, set its browser’s default search engine to Duck-Duck-Go. In 2014, Apple included the link to DUCK-DUCK-GO by default in its Safari browser.

Also Mozilla added Duck-Duck-Go as the default search engine for Firefox browser.  DUCK-DUCK-GO earns its prime revenue by ad-contracts with Bing, Yahoo, Amazon and eBay. It was listed in Times magazine’s list of top fifty websites in 2011. Google and other top search engines regard it as a competitor. According to the latest statistics, Duck-Duck-Go handles 16 million direct queries every day. Duck-Duck-Go lacks a dedicated server and no country yet has claimed its censorship. Duck-Duck-Go does not track any traffic, cookies, IP addresses and ISP logs of its users.

 

Special features

Duck-Duck-Go allows its users to view a lot of information without even visiting the target web site. Users can even view social media profiles from within the search results. For example if you want to view a profile on LinkedIn, you do not have to login to LinkedIn for viewing it. Duck-Duck-Go uses the search engine of LinkedIn and other social media websites to compile detailed search results.

 

Searching for substitute apps

Duck-Duck-Go offers a detailed search without any geographical prejudices and preferences. This unique ability enables it to search for most of the internet and finding alternative apps and software becomes relatively easy. Results are not influenced by the likes and dislikes of other users.

 

URLs’ content expansion and compression

Duck-Duck-Go offers a service to expand the complex and uninterruptable URLs. Users can expand the URLs and also shorten it as and when required.

 

Password suggestion

Duck-Duck-Go generates both easy and complex passwords. This service requires the user to enter the number of characters preceded by the word “Password”.

 

Text edition and management

Duck-Duck-Go also provides a direct interface for text handling and editing. It changes case and orientation of the search strings. And allows the user to quickly calculate the number of characters contained in a search command.

 

Differences with google search engine

DuckDuckGo has some quite important differences when compared to other search engines such as Google. For starters, it does not store the IP address of its users or save any information related to them. Only information related to the keywords being used is stored.

This means that DuckDuckGo has no ability to customize the results. This can be good or bad depending on your preferences, but it means that all users receive the same search results when they search for the same terms.

This search engine also does not share data on user searches with the web pages they visit through search results. Come on, if you enter a page through DuckDuckGo, it will not know what terms you have used to reach it.

Usually, when you do a search on most commercial search engines, even if you do it in the private mode that most have, the criteria you have used in the searches are stored for the use of the search engine, and they are also shared with the pages that are visited. That is what DuckDuckGo does not share with them. They will know that you have entered their website, but not how you found them.

DuckDuckGo will also automatically force the version of a web encrypted with HTTPS, using the Firefox HTTPS Everywhere plug-in that also uses services such as TOR Browser. Normally this is usually forced internally in the browsers themselves, and although it is an increasingly widespread practice, DuckDuckGo forces it at the search engine level in case you use a browser that does not do this.

And finally, DuckDuckGo ** does not store your search history either. This means that there is no timeline with everything you have searched for, and they can neither use it to personalize your results nor can they give it to law enforcement if they are required for some investigation. In addition, it also helps that your search habits cannot be used by third parties.

Yes, DuckDuckGo saves the searches that are done, but it does so without identifiers that help you know who does them. The goal of saving these searches is simply to improve the results when someone writes wrong or missing some specific search terms.

But of course, although both services are almost the same in searches, Google has an ecosystem of services that DuckDuckGo lacks, and that can always be a point in favor of the world’s most used search engine. Although in truth, DuckDuckGo does not want to be Google, it simply seeks to be an alternative for those who want to maximize their privacy.

If we refer to Google strictly as a search engine, DuckDuckGo does almost the same as Google. The user writes what they want to search, press a button and get the search results. However, and although they look alike, the search results and their order are different. DuckDuckGo uses a slightly different search method and uses its own algorithms, so it is normal that the results are not the same.

If we refer to the rest of services offered by Google, DuckDuckGo is obviously not up to the technological giant. But neither does he intend it. DuckDuckGo wants to help Internet users protect their personal information, not only using their search engine, but also apps and extensions that protect privacy beyond the internet.

 

DuckDuckGo has its Bang!

To complement the lack of a native services ecosystem, this search engine includes a command system to use third-party services that Bang calls. It is a command that begins with an exclamation point, and is used to search for things in specific places.

For example, you can write! E for eBay or! And for YouTube. You can also search for terms with! Tw for Twitter,! Imdb for the IMDb service,! R for Reddit or!