DuckDuckGo Search Engine: A Google Alternative that Does Not Track

Sieeka Khan, Tech Times 22 January 2021, 12:01 pm

A search engine that is focused on privacy is making a buzz right now. The DuckDuckGo search engine is easy to use, you just need to go to duckduckgo.com instead of bing.com or google.com.

You can then search for topics, as you normally would on Google or Bing. The difference is that DuckDuckGo promises to protect your privacy and not to track you.

You can also make DuckDuckGo as your default search engine in browsers like Safari, Firefox, Chrome and Edge.

Whenever you search from your browser's location bar or a new tab page, you will then be taken to DuckDuckGo instead of Bing or Google. DuckDuckGo is built into modern web browsers as one of the default options, and switching the browsers just takes a few taps, according to Wired.

DuckDuckGo actually looks much like Google. It can search for images, websites, videos, shopping web pages and news articles. It also has maps with navigation that is powered by Apple Maps. It also shows dictionary results, Wikipedia integration and other instant answers like Google.

However, DuckDuckGo does not offer the exact same search results that Google does. The results will be different, according to The Guardian.

Also Read: Which Google Alternative is the Best? Here Are Top 5 Search Engines of 2020

How Does DuckDuckGo Protect Your Privacy?

Google has an account system and it has the history of the users' searches all stored in the Google Activity by default.

Google also uses your resent activity to customize all of your search results in an attempt to deliver a more personalized and relevant search results. Google remembers your search history even if you are not signed in and they connect it to a browser cookie.

Google also tracks you across other websites through the tool Google Analytics. Google also tracks the YouTube videos that you've watch, tracks your movement through Google Maps and more.

Google tracks a lot of data that it uses to customize your search experience and shows you personalized advertisement. There are a lot of data that feeds into Google AdSense, which then shows you personalized advertisement on numerous websites that you visit.

DuckDuckGo, on the other hand, does not remember your search history at all. The company does not even log the IP address that is linked with a search in its server logs. There is also no such thing as a DuckDuckGo account, and DuckDuckGo also does not tie search history to any personalized cookie.

Since it does not track any information about the user, DuckDuckGo also does not serve you customized search results based on your browsing. There is no filter bubble showing you different search results from the ones that others see.

How Does DuckDuckGo Work?

According to the Help Pages of DuckDuckGo, the search engine gets its results from over 400 sources. As DuckDuckGo's documentation states, they also have more traditional links in the search results, which they also source from multiple partners, thought most commonly from Bing, and basically none from Google.

So DuckDuckGo is more than Bing, but most of the search results from the website are sourced from Bing's website. DuckDuckGo says that it never shares private information with any of its partners. When you search on the site, the servers communicate with Bing and the partners do not see your IP address or know anything about you.