Privacy Focused DuckDuckGo Search Engine Surpasses 100 Million Daily Searches

[Uskompuf]

The privacy-focused DuckDuckGo search engine has seen tremendous growth recently surpassing 100 million daily searches on January 11th 2021. DuckDuckGo distinguishes itself from competing search engines by not customizing ads to a specific user instead showing ads purely based on the search term. Since DuckDuckGo was launched in 2008 they have grown from processing 100,000 searches a day to now over 100 million searches daily. For comparison, Google processes roughly 5.5 billion searches a day and Bing 200 million so while DuckDuckGo still has a long way to go to becoming a household name they have made remarkable progress. This latest round of growth can be attributed to the upcoming WhatsApp privacy policy changes which have reminded consumers of the importance of internet privacy and security.



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[ZeppMan217]

I'm more surprised by Bing's numbers than Duck's. 200 million searches despite being shoved in both Windows and Xbox?

 

[Fluffmeister]

For most things, "Google it" just rolls off the tongue... for everything else it will be "use DuckDuckGo you pervert."

 

[BArms]

I've tried to switch to DDG in the past but I often found myself just using google anyway, most of their searches were basically just Bing results. Has that changed much in the last 2 years?

 

[my_name_is_earl]

Google prioritize corporate website before independent one. It's hard to get any honest search from them.

 

[BArms]

Google prioritize corporate website before independent one. It's hard to get any honest search from them.

Very true. The first re-innovative search engine that produces results like Google did 15 years ago will ride a massive wave of money. Today all Google shows you is what CNN, Walmart and Hollywood studios want you to unless you use extremely specific keywords.

 

[Steevo]

Very true. The first re-innovative search engine that produces results like Google did 15 years ago will ride a massive wave of money. Today all Google shows you is what CNN, Walmart and Hollywood studios want you to unless you use extremely specific keywords.

-CNN -Wapo -SJW

 

[DemonicRyzen666]

google no longer uses the correct answers anymore for things, it now just uses what is popular, not what is correct.
Bing works like old google that's why Bing is coming up.

 

[PLAfiller]

I tried using DDG for while. Most stuff is OK, but image search seems not as good as, or at least it wasn't as relevant as Google's.

 

[qubit]

That's good.

 

[ExcuseMeWtf]

I've tried to switch to DDG in the past but I often found myself just using google anyway, most of their searches were basically just Bing results. Has that changed much in the last 2 years?

Yeah,

I use both fairly interchangeably for now, results are sometimes more relevant in one, sometimes in the other, no clear winner in that regard IMO.

 

[Vayra86]

I've tried to switch to DDG in the past but I often found myself just using google anyway, most of their searches were basically just Bing results. Has that changed much in the last 2 years?

Google prioritize corporate website before independent one. It's hard to get any honest search from them.

These are both true; although I'd say DDG > Bing results even today.

For me, DDG has been the one and only for a year now. If I do use Google, I find myself ending up in the same places all the time to find what I need. And if I use DDG, I find myself looking around a bit longer, sometimes missing the correct info for the search I entered, and then a few clicks later still find what I need.

Its a paradoxical thing. Either you let Google lead you through the woods of the internet, and you lose your chance to keep an open mind to the many sources available, or you use DDG and you see the internet for what it really is: a massive bin of information where you have to do careful selection and actually read what you're clicking on.

I prefer the latter now. And using DDG has not ONCE left me not finding what I needed, or needing a lot of time to find it. Sometimes its a second search, more often than not, I just get what I need right away. That's a small sacrifice for having a real view on what's what, and not one directed by Google's agenda. The influence is bigger than you might think, small nudges every day can create an alternate reality - look at recent events.

 

[INSTG8R]

Been using for years on all my devices.

 

[s3thra]

Good to see. DDG has been my default everywhere for the last few years. Search results are fine. Sometimes you need to be a bit more specific than Google for things that are region specific, but you get used to it by just typing in your country or area after a search term.

I find the !bangs feature especially helpful. For instance, if I want to search for videos of dogs on YouTube, I can type into Firefox “dogs !yt”. Or if I want to bring up the AMD article on Wikipedia, I can type “amd !w” and I’m taken straight to the page.

 

[1d10t]

Got mix feelings, somewhat DDG cannot provide "comfort" interaction in mobile even with their own browser. In desktop space however, it remain my sole search engine, well yeah, beside n*devista of course.

 

[prtskg]

DDG and ecosia are my defaults at the moment. Good for DDG to reach this milestone.

 

[Vayra86]

For most things, "Google it" just rolls off the tongue... for everything else it will be "use DuckDuckGo you pervert."

Yeah they really need something for that at DDG. Its always going to be better than 'Bing it' anyway so you can't possibly lose.

'Let's duck it'?

Or just

 

[Verpal]

Out of curiosity anyone here using any form of SearX instances too?

 

[NukeDukem]

Out of curiosity anyone here using any form of SearX instances too?

Yep. Jumpin between them very often. SearX image search is garbage tho. I don't use Google search for almost 4 years now.
I remember DDG being shady about some privacy policy's in the past, but I don't remember what exactly was is.
Qwant and Startpage are also viable alts. The are SFW friendly.

 

[TheUn4seen]

It's good and bad. Good they're gaining ground, bad because I've seen what happens to small, good companies which gain popularity. Google are typical corporate cowards, they'll just buy whatever they see as competition or use their influence to ruin it for everyone, just like they do with Chrome-specific trash they force companies to put in their code.

 

[claylomax]

Been using for years on all my devices.

Same here.

 

[Ravenas]

I'm more surprised by Bing's numbers than Duck's. 200 million searches despite being shoved in both Windows and Xbox?

Google is default on far more devices the MS Windows 1 billion.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Been using DDG for years now. Image searching is still a bit weak.

I am not surprised about Bing's numbers, after all, m$ crams it down your throat with IE and Edge as the default search engine. Same with Google and Chromecast. Too many people either dont bother, or remain spectacularly clueless, trying to add/change their browsers search engine, privacy be damned.

Oh and Startpage is not to be trusted anymore, they sold out to some Ad group ( https://restoreprivacy.com/startpage-system1-privacy-one-group/ )

 

[lexluthermiester]

DDG is ok as it's just Bing without all the crap MS piles on top. When they develop their own search engine and manage to get it right, they'll really start to shine.

 

[elghinnarisa]

its nice to see DDG going well, I like the place.
I do however mostly use google because everytime I try to switch I give up in frustration over the horrendously bad search results relative to what I search for. Maybe I am just too used to using google and how to corrently phrase my searches there to get the results I am after. But everytime I am trying to find some more obscure thing or problem solve something and I use DDG, its as horrible as using bing back in the days. About as useful as asking a magic 8 ball, which isnt helpful at all.

Hopefully it improves though.

I do notice that quite often though, I have a couple of friends who use nothing but DDG and they ask me help when they cant find what they need. Generally its in the top 3 options on google when I search for them. So they cant find it at all, top result in google when I try. Not exactly great.