Google and other search services filter the websites so that it could match your likes and needs best. Google knows a lot about its users. Your search engine is aware of your gender, age, the person you mean when typing Luke’, the websites you would love to visit, etc. This is handy. Under such circumstances, it is all about getting the expected results. In addition, contextual ads coupled with discounts help your bargaining.
Some people would not appreciate that though. For instance, Internet activist Eli Pariser believes a filter bubble limits the liberties of a person blocking new ideas and important news.
The privacy-oriented search engine called DuckDuckGo recently reported over thirty million queries a day processed by its search service. DuckDuckGo has added 50% to its market value in a single year and continues to grow rapidly ensuring no or strictly limited intervention to the user’s personal data.
According to the message shared by the company, the growth rate is quickly progressing. Their Tweeter stated that DuckDuckGo reached the benchmark of ten million searches a day in seven years since launching the business. However, other ten million searches a day were added in two years only, and the third ten million daily searches came in less than a year. The company keeps its business records public so that anyone can verify the number of users visiting the search engine and ensure remarkable traffic growth.
DuckDuckGo becomes more and more popular because it keeps your private matters private. Its counterparts are rather infamous for setting up comprehensive profiles of their users. DuckDuckGo respects your privacy and is not going to collect your personal data or use cookies from the get-go. It does not track users’ search behaviour. It also takes care of your privacy as related to the websites you are browsing through. In particular, the engine prevents websites from knowing what search terms were used.
The company acknowledges the wide use of third-party resources, including search engines like Bing, free data sources like Wikipedia. And of course, it is also using its own web-crawler to get the index of search results.
DuckDuckGo is not aggressive in indexing websites like some other engines do. That entails the results DuckDuckGo returns might be a bit obsolete. At the same time, they are more stable than that generated by its renowned counterparts.
Big and small businesses intervene in our private life on a daily basis. Numerous data breaches expose personal data on a global scale. It is not surprising that DuckDuckGo and other privacy-oriented businesses like VPN services have increased usage. DuckDuckGo is worth trying if you are about to enhance your privacy when surfing the web.
The absence of user tracking is not the only reason to try DuckDuckGo. Folks admiring techy solutions would definitely appreciate custom searches available in a breeze. Actually, DuckDuckGo marketing sets it as a search engine for geeks.
A thousand reasons to try DuckDuckGo
To start with, DuckDuckGo provides options borrowed from Google:
- images ” image search;
- news ” news search;
- map ” search query to be integrated into OpenStreetMap;
- site: instagram.com, facebook.com ” search among pages of a particular website;
- f:pdf ” search through files of a given type;
- OR, “ , + ” basic operators.
Bangs
Entering several extra symbols enable searching YouTube or Wikipedia. !yt or !w The things called !bangs added to your query would redirect your search to the relevant website. These !bangs differ from the site: operator referred above that searches only through indexed pages of a website. In addition !bangs is a much faster way to get what you want.
My TOP !bangs
- !w ” Wikipedia.org;
- !yt ” Youtube;
- !lh ” Lifehacker;
- !flibusta ” Flibusta Library;
- !osm ” OpenStreetMap.
Google is always at your fingertips
DuckDuckGo provides a quick way to your get your favourite services. This is handy.
- !tr ” redirect to Google Translate without any language specified;
- !gten ” translate a phrase into English;
- !cache ” search through Google Cache;
- !gd ” search through Google Docs;
- !gmaps ” Google Maps;
- !inbox ” search through Gmail;
Social Networks
There are specifics codes for social networks too:
- !g+ ” Google Plus;
- !insta ” Instagram;
- !tw ” Twitter;
- !fb ” Facebook;
- !li ” Linkedin;
Other Useful Services
- !youtube2mp3 ” Convert YouTube video into mp3;
- !alt ” find counterparts for a given app;
- !similar ” look for a similar website;
- !archive ” Internet Archive;
- !websitedown ” whether a website is accessible;
- !similarweb ” website traffic statistic;
- !freepic и !flickr ” stock images;
- !bitly ” URL shortener;
- !virustotal ” check a website for viruses.
The deeper we dig, the more interesting things we might get. There are commands to search through the documentation for a couple of dozen programming languages and through hundreds of tech websites. Many programmers can find something in their niche.
There are currently 11,414 bangs and counting. This even includes the operators searching through the WOW game forums and San-Francisco Public Library catalogues. Besides, in case there is no !bang so far for the websites that you frequently explore, you can file an application for adding your custom !bang(s).
!bangs are remarkably easy to remember. However, if you cannot recall one precisely, just enter the exclamation mark and the first letter at the search bar. DuckDuckGo is to come up with suggestions.
Smart templates for coders
The content of the search engine blog suggests its administrators have recently put a lot of effort to have programmers among its users. Examples of commands that make their devs’ work easier:
- !php ” php.net;
- !pack ” packagist.org;
- !stackoverflow ” stackoverflow.com;
- !ghcode ” search through source codes of Github repositories;
- minify.js ” reduce JavaScript code size right at the DuckDuckGo main page.
Goodies
Now let’s review the other group of interesting features. Goodies stand for any tasty or pleasing thing. Now, Goodies also refer to the commands that, once entered in the search bar, produce immediate results.
Currency Converter
Just like Google, DuckDuckGo enables converting various sums from one currency into another.
Random Number Generator
This is priceless for the people suffering from decision-making.
Sunrise and Sunset
This is handy for arranging your trips. Information on whether particular time falls within dark or light hours is also available.
Calendar for a given month
To get one, just enter the name of the month and year.
Number of days between two specific dates
Let’s count how many days elapsed since a given event.
Timer
Conclusion
Gabriel Weinberg, the DuckDuckGo founder, once shared the greatest concern about his projects: Most people have not heard of us. Now you know how to help in overcoming this issue. I have no clue whether Google treats DuckDuckGo as its competitor, but for some reason, Google purchased the duck.com domain. DuckDuckGo’s search volumes and stats are miserable compared to the number of searches people do with Google but who knows, maybe Google is afraid of competition.
