Google Vs. DuckDuckGo
Today while sitting at home with a single click one can access all the possible news, information and happenings across the globe. Thanks to the search engines that mine data and provide it in a presentable form. The search engines were first developed in 1990. But until 1993 people were unaware of this technological advancement. In 1993 first private search engine was launched. In late 1990’s these search engines were used to earn money and then came Google in 2000. Google rose to prominence and today only Google has 71.11% market shares of all the other search engines. Today on average 230 search engines are listed and work on a different basis. But in past several years, Google has been under fire for its privacy policy change. Not only this, but biased or differentiated information has also bothered a lot of Google users. It is a crystal clear fact that Google uses algorithms to refine searches and provides differentiated information. Hence to cover this gap many new search engines have entered the market. DuckDuckGo is one of them.
DuckDuckGo, a search engine that has managed to get 10 million searches per day is emerging as a strong search engine. The rising popularity of this search engine can be predicted from the steady increase in its searches. Since 2008, when DuckDuckGo was launched it has come a long way. The main purpose of developing this search engine was to keep the privacy of the user safe. It not only protects the privacy but also avoids the filter bubbles that are used by other search engines. Their motto is to provide all the possible information without tracking the user. Gabriel Weinberg, the founder of DuckDuckGo is based in Paoli, Pennsylvania, United States. It is a small company that back then had only 21 employees and works under the slogan that “A SEARCH ENGINE THAT DOESN’T TRACK YOU”.

www.howtogeek.com
In 2008 DuckDuckGo was also added into safari browser, a browser used in Apple products. Hence DuckDuckGo is efficiently working and making its customers happy and satisfied. It all started when Washington Post clearly stated that:
“Weinberg’s non-ambitious goals make him a particularly odd and dangerous competitor online. He can do almost everything that Google or Bing can’t because it could damage their business models, and if users figure out that they like the DuckDuckGo way better, Weinberg could damage the big boys without even really trying. It’s asymmetrical digital warfare and his backers at Union Square Ventures say Google is vulnerable.”
The story does not end here but DuckDuckGo has managed to take a front position by providing unique and distinctive features that Google and other search engines lack. In fact, it takes several hours to refine a search in Google. Most of the time the search is clouded due to additional advertisements. Another distinctive feature of DuckDuckGo is the Bangs. It allows you to find desired results by just adding an exclamation mark. It will directly land you to the page. The recent change also shows the list of famous bangs used by people which make it more convenient to search.
DuckDuckGo also added Directions to a website but it excels in providing interfaces. It means that one can select whichever mapping site be it Google map, BING or Apple maps. Unlike Google, DuckDuckGo provides a unique feature which allows you to choose services on your own.
In today’s world security is the main issue. DuckDuckGo has a solution to the biggest problem i.e. Password generation. It has this unique feature that one can generate the strongest password of our own choice. Just type a password and the digit you want its length to be. DuckDuckGo itself will generate a strong and secure password. Google, on the other hand, has no such option of generating a strong password and even if it has it does not guarantee security.
Another additional feature is History Keeping. We all know that Google not only saves history but also sells it to other agencies to generate revenues. DuckDuckGo doesn’t track you and has no interest in saving your history. In this way, your search history is safe and cannot be manipulated later on.
All these features differentiate DuckDuckGo from Google giving a clear vision that it is much better than other search engines of today. It’s promising features are the reason a lot of people are ditching Google and are moving towards this privacy oriented search engine. After all privacy and safety are all that matters.
- Published in Technology