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How and why Apple users should switch to DuckDuckGo for search

Apple users who care about privacy are moving to duckduckgo for search. these tips will get you started with it..

Like liberty for all, privacy demands vigilance, and that’s why Apple users who care about those things are moving to DuckDuckGo for search.

Why use DuckDuckGo?

Privacy is under attack.

It doesn’t take much effort to prove this truth. At time of writing, recent news is full of creeping privacy erosion:

• We’ve seen video conferencing solutions that surreptitiously install software on your Macs .
• A face-changing photography app perhaps implicated in the assembly of a vast database of faces .
• A household name in smart speakers has  shared private conversations with people you don’t know, including chatter you didn’t know was recorded in the first place.

And then there’s Duck Duck Go.

With Duck Duck Go, you are the searcher, not the searched

I think most Apple users know about DuckDuckGo. It is an independent search engine designed from the ground up to maintain your privacy .

It means the search service doesn’t collect information about you, doesn’t gather your search queries, and doesn’t install cookies or tracking code on your systems.

It now also provides highly accurate maps thanks to a deal with Apple that lets it use the also private-by-design Apple Maps service. To do this, the search engine is using Apple’s MapKit JS framework, which Apple created so website owners could embed maps in their sites.

Maps on DuckDuckGo are quite satisfying and will only improve as Apple introduces more detailed maps, better local business listings, and additional feature. You should see this service in action here .

How Apple Maps works on DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo added Apple Maps support at the beginning of 2019.

Since then, it has introduced a set of compelling improvements to how it works, thanks to Apple’s framework. You now get better implementation of Maps in your search, including the benefit of local search results. Additional enhancements include:

• Map re-querying : You can now refine search queries within the expanded maps view. You can also zoom in and out or move around the map to find other results that match your search.
• Local autocomplete : You will be provided with search suggestions as you type based on the local region visible on your map. Type fuel in a map of the Arizona desert, and you can see how many miles you’ll need to walk if your fuel runs out.
• Dedicated Maps tag : Look at the top of a search result, and you’ll find a Maps tab, which joins the images, videos, news, and meanings tabs.

There’s even a Dark Mode that is enabled when you switch to DuckDuckGo’s dark theme – when you switch, you’ll see the embedded Apple Maps also do so.

(Switch to dark theme in the search engine’s Settings, which you’ll find here . You can also discover much more information on how the search engine protects your privacy, primarily by not collecting it in the first place.)

How do they ensure your privacy when running map and address-related searches?  DuckDuck Go explains :

“With Apple, as with all other third parties we work with, we do not share any personally identifiable information such as IP address. And for local searches in particular, where your approximate location information is sent by your browser to us, we discard it immediately after use.”

How to set DuckDuckGo as default search on Apple devices

There are two ways to use DuckDuckGo rather than Google for search:

1. You can visit the DuckDuckGo.com website and use search in your browser there.

2. You can also change your Mac, iPhone or iPad’s default search service in order to use the far more private alternative. I think most readers know about this, but just in case:

• On a Mac:  Safari Preferences>choose the Search tab and choose DuckDuckGo in the drop down list of search engine choices.
• On iOS/iPad OS:  Settings>Safari and select DuckDuckGo from the options provided in the Search Engine section. You need to do this for all your devices individually.

Once you change your default search engine, all the searches you make in the future will be made using the more private service. You may even want to switch to using MeWe as a social network to replace Facebook while you’re at it.

Up next…

“We believe there should be no trade-off for people wanting to protect their personal data while searching,” the search engine explains. “Working with Apple Maps to enhance DuckDuckGo Search is an example of how we do this and pushes us further in our vision of setting a new standard of trust online.”

This is all well and good, but how do they see this experience extending itself in future?

I am not currently in possession of a working crystal ball, but here are two realistic and possible ways the service could be extended:

• Imagine how cool this would be with the addition of Apple’s delightfully lag-free Look Around Street View-killer.
• Imagine how embedded AR experiences could also become part of what’s on offer through the search service.

Why not? We know Apple takes this stuff seriously . It is surely only a matter of time until it declines Google for search .

Like liberty for all, privacy demands vigilance. Be vigilant.

Please follow me on   Twitter , or join me in the  AppleHolic’s bar & grill  and  Apple Discussions  groups on MeWe.

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Hello, and thanks for dropping in. I'm pleased to meet you. I'm Jonny Evans, and I've been writing (mainly about Apple) since 1999. These days I write my daily  AppleHolic blog at Computerworld.com, where I explore Apple's growing identity in the enterprise. You can also keep up with my work at AppleMust , and follow me on Mastodon , LinkedIn and (maybe) Twitter .

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I switched from Google to DuckDuckGo’s private search: 5 big takeaways

Google is far and away the most popular search engine—but sometimes it can feel more like Big Brother and less like a friendly assistant. Indeed, for those concerned about privacy, Google can overstep some boundaries by collecting your personal data, and serving you ads based on what it collects. Google does allow you to disable some personalization and tracking settings, but it’s ultimately up to the user to change them. Enter DuckDuckGo , a privacy-focused search engine with its own desktop extension and mobile browser app.

DuckDuckGo touts itself as the anti-Google, promising not to track or collect your data from the start. It offers a clean interface and familiar layout, and provides many of the features you’ve come to expect from a search engine—but without those invasive data trackers. (If privacy is a concern of yours, also consider switching from Google Chrome to Firefox .)

On paper, DuckDuckGo seems like a worthy competitor. But how does it really stack up to Google? To find out, I switched to DuckDuckGo and used the service exclusively for a week. Here are my five key takeaways.

1. DuckDuckGo is refreshing

DuckDuckGo’s privacy features surprised me with how liberating they feel. The service insists that it doesn’t collect user data or track you across different websites. It also doesn’t associate your browsing with your IP address, and won’t save your search history.

For someone who has used Google most of his adult life, this feels oddly refreshing. I barely remember a time when my every move wasn’t tracked, analyzed, and then marketed back to me through targeted suggestions and ads. Google has taken steps to address the issue by allowing you to disable search personalization under settings , but I suspect many users are still unaware of this option.

Using DuckDuckGo brought me back to a simpler time when a search engine was only there to answer questions like, “What is the best laptop under $1000?” or “What was Tim Robbins’ character’s nickname in Top Gun?” (It was Merlin.)

Privacy is the biggest draw of DuckDuckGo, and it applies it in a way that doesn’t feel restricting. The entire time I was using the search engine, I didn’t feel inconvenienced by the lack of personalization. Google’s (admittedly handy) Autocomplete prediction works by reflecting both real searches done by other users on Google as well as your own past searches. If you don’t like this, however, these settings can be changed by turning off personal results. Unlike Google, DuckDuckGo doesn’t auto-suggest new searches because it never collects your search history to begin with—this felt like a small price to pay for more private browsing.

Another refreshing privacy feature: DuckDuckGo actively blocks external trackers from following you around online. So, not only does the service itself keep your browsing private, it also prevents third parties from tracking you as well.

2. DuckDuckGo has a good UI

Before I started using DuckDuckGo, I had this image of a bare-bones search engine, a la early 2000s Google. It proved me wrong. Very wrong. The DuckDuckGo designers have put a lot of thought into usability, and it shows. The interface is aesthetically pleasing with a clean and simple layout that doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel.

DuckDuckGo’s UI is clean, minimal, and familiar.

Sam Singleton

Make no mistake, DuckDuckGo has a similar feel to Google (but then again, so do all modern search engines). Elements such as ad placements and knowledge panels are ripped straight from Google. This isn’t necessarily a knock on DuckDuckGo, however. The engine’s “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach to design works perfectly well. 

They’ve even cleaned it up a bit and added some welcome changes. For instance, DuckDuckGo doesn’t split results across pages. Rather, when you reach the bottom of a page, you can just click “See more results” in an endless scroll. This is a minor tweak, but it felt better than clicking back and forth through pages and pages.

3. Yes, you can escape from ads

This kind of goes along with the first point on this list: Since DuckDuckGo doesn’t track your browsing history, it cannot provide you with targeted personalized ads.

As you use its services, Google creates a profile on you based on personal data, such as your search habits and purchasing history. This data is then applied to ad targeting, leading to highly specific ads popping up on seemingly every website you visit.

For example, when I searched Google for stuffed toys to buy for my young nephew’s birthday, every website I visited for the next few weeks kept showing me Pokemon plushies in their banner advertisements. Google does allow you to control the personalization of ads under Ad Settings , but the onus is on the user to make the adjustments themselves.

I had none of those plushie advertisement hauntings while using DuckDuckGo. When I searched for something, the results page would show only a few related advertisements along the right-hand side, or above the first results. These ads were only relevant to what I was searching, and never followed me around while browsing other websites. In fact, while using DuckDuckGo, I noticed fewer advertisements in general. In a day and age when we’re constantly bombarded with flashing ads and pop-ups, this made for a really pleasant browsing experience.

Ads along the top and right side can be seen after a search (highlighted in red to make my point).

4. You’ll trade some search smarts for privacy

Google is great for finding things I just can’t quite remember. I enter a few random facts that I do remember, and it will usually will give me the answer. When I tried these same types of searches with DuckDuckGo, it just didn’t have the algorithms (or data?) to deliver. 

In the screenshot below, you can see that I was looking for the name of a movie ( Men Who Stare at Goats ) based on a random scene. Since I didn’t know the movie’s name, I instead searched using “film george clooney do you have superpowers scene”. Google returned the movie I was looking for on the first result, while DuckDuckGo simply couldn’t find it. Now this is a rather specific example, but users have come to rely on Google delivering great results with sparse inputs.

Google shows it on the first hit. DuckDuckGo, not so much.

Of course, one of the main reasons Google is so effective is that it collects and stores user data, and then tailors it for personalization. Without tapping into a massive library of contextual data, DuckDuckGo will continue to fall behind Google in returned result accuracy.

5. I really miss Google maps

After exclusively using DuckDuckGo for a week, I can say that I officially miss the way Google search seamlessly hooks into Google maps. Sure, DuckDuckGo has a maps feature provided by Apple, but it isn’t the same. Just like when I’m using an iPhone, I prefer to use Google Maps rather than the pre-installed Apple Maps. It just feels better in terms of the available data and its reliability.

The Google ecosystem offers a wide variety of features.

Something else I missed is direct access to the entire Google ecosystem. Both in my personal and professional life, I have come to rely on Google apps such as Drive and Google Workspaces. Google has done a great job connecting all of their features seamlessly together. Not being able to integrate these with my search engine experience felt like I was missing a piece of the puzzle.

Will I switch to DuckDuckGo permanently? Should you?

Should you switch to DuckDuckGo? It depends on what you want from your search engine. Do you value privacy above all else? Then go ahead and make the switch. Do you want the most accurate results and most advanced features? Then you’ll want to stick with Google.  

As for me, I plan to continue using DuckDuckGo. I’m a jaded millennial and I grew up in the age of internet data tracking. I had long ago accepted that my privacy would be sacrificed for more accurate results. But what I found from this little experiment was that, for the most part, what we’re all searching for online is pretty simple and straightforward. 

While Google is able to accurately guess what you’re looking for, a bit more hand-holding is required with DuckDuckGo. This doesn’t mean that DuckDuckGo can’t find what you’re after. It just means that you may have to modify your search parameters. The streamlined Google web browsing I’ve become accustomed to via cookies, auto-fill, and personalization are of course a convenience. But without these bells and whistles, the results are largely the same.

And I figure, if the results are the same, why not err on the side of privacy?

Author: Sam Singleton , Assistant Editor, PCWorld

Sam Singleton is PCWorld's VPN beat reporter and jack of all trades. When he's not on the hunt for the best computer deals he's covering VPNs, productivity software, laptops, and a wide gamut of consumer-grade hardware and software.

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Even if you love Safari, here are 5 reasons to try a new browser on your Mac

Safari is the default browser on every Mac, and it’s quite good. Apple has optimized it for its own chips and the macOS operating system, so it’s fast and syncs nicely to your iPhone and iPad. But there are plenty of other options out there. You’ve probably heard of them—Chrome, Firefox, Brave, DuckDuckGo–but if you’re a longtime Safari user, you might not think you need to stray. Here are five reasons why you might want to try out another browser on your Mac.

You mostly use Google services

If you tend to use web-based apps and services, you might find the experiences with those better on a different browser. Apple tends to focus on its own ecosystem of apps, and the web experience, even for iCloud, isn’t as good as other browsers. For example, Google has several popular web-based apps, such as Docs, Drive, and Maps, and while they can all be accessed using Safari, they tend to offer better performance and features when using Chrome. It’s not just Google services that work better in Chrome. Many services are optimized for Chrome and Firefox before Safari, so you’re likely going to get a better overall experience with another browser.  

If you’re fully invested in Google web services, Chrome is the better browser to use.

You want to customize your browser

While Safari does offer several extensions that enhance the browsing experience, it’s nothing compared to what Chrome and Firefox provide. Most of the popular extensions are on Safari, but it tends to be more likely that if you’re looking to use a web-based third-party extension on your Mac, there’s been more development work on it via Chrome or Firefox. From themes to games and utilities, the Chrome and Firefox add-on store are filled with helpful extensions and plug-ins that will make your browser more personal. Apple does let you customize the Start page with an image and links, but that’s basically it. On other browsers, the sky is the limit.

Most browsers have support for extensions and plug-ins, but not all developers create them for every browser.

You’re a web developer

Something that’s been pounded into my head in the recent coding classes I’ve been taking is that if you’re looking to test new web-based code that you might be writing (such as HTML, PHP, CSS, Java, JavaScript, and others), Chrome and Firefox offer the best web browsers to work as litmus tests of how your code will run once it’s published. The open-source community is fond of Chrome and Firefox, and developers use these browsers as a baseline. The school of thought is to make sure the code you’ve been sweating over runs cleanly in Chrome and Firefox, then test it on Safari and Microsoft Edge (which is available for macOS).

You value your privacy (a lot)

After years of data hacks and the larger revelation that giant tech firms have gladly sold your personal data to advertisers, browser companies have begun to make privacy a critical browser requirement, but if private browsing isn’t enough, there are some excellent options. 

Apple prioritizes privacy with Safari and the company has excellent features baked into its browser, but it’s still very Google search-centric. DuckDuckGo, which has made a reputation for itself as a privacy-centric company and has a search engine that works well with Safari, also has a Mac browser in beta that is built for security and privacy, with locked-down search, smart encryption, and automatic cookie blocking. And there’s also the Brave browser that blocks ad trackers, doesn’t use AMP, and has an independent search engine.

DuckDuckGo’s Mac browser is in private beta but the iPhone and Pad browsers are available in the App Store.

You use more than just Apple devices

Apple has developed Safari in macOS and iOS to the point where the two are essentially joined so it’s become easier to sync content such as bookmarks, passwords, and browser history between your Mac and iOS devices. This is fine if you are generally working with Macs, iPhones, and iPads every day. But if Windows or Linux is part of your workflow, Google’s Chrome and Microsoft’s Edge browsers have cross-platform functionality via the Google or Microsoft Live accounts you create with the respective browsers. This account is then used to sync your browser settings. 

If you use other platforms other than Apple’s using Chrome or Microsoft Edge will allow you to sync bookmarks and other browser settings.

The right tool for the job

No browser stands as the ultimate Swiss army knife for everything you’ll need. No web browser demands that you swear allegiance to it, and the best course of action is to download and install several web browsers and see which ones handle your day to day tasks the best. It’s a continuous browser war out there, there are no real winners, and even Microsoft went with an open-source model to appease its users. Keep this in mind, have the right tools at hand, and you’ll be all right in the long run. 

Author: Chris Barylick , Contributor

Chris Barylick is a D.C.-based technology journalist, loves writing about emerging technologies, video games, DIY projects, hardware, utilities, politics, and upgrades, and has written for Macworld since 2007. He is the owner of East Bay Mac Menders, SnarkFish T-Shirts, the Mistakes Were Made Dinocast, and has masters degrees in both Business Administration (George Washington University ’05) and Journalism (The University of Maryland ’23), and inadvertently wound up in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the “4 AM Guy” at the first Apple Store opening in 2001. He has accidentally set two hard drives on fire to date.

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DuckDuckGo vs Safari

DuckDuckGo is a web browser that was built mainly to respect the privacy of the users so this web browser is known for its transparency towards its users. It was built by DuckDuckGo Incorporation. The development credit for this browser goes to Gabriel Weinberg and his team. It supports various operating systems like Mac, Windows, Android etc. 

Safari is also a web browser used for surfing the internet and it was built by Apple. It was mainly used on the Mac operating system but it can also be used on Windows operating system. Initially, it was released in 2003, just like chrome it is also freeware. It is open source and is written using different programming languages like C++, Swift etc.

Following is a table of differences between DuckDuckGo and Safari:

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It’s Time to Switch to a Privacy Browser

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Google's admission that, yes, it does track you while you're in Chrome's Incognito mode , is just the latest in a long line of unsettling revelations about just how keenly Big Tech keeps an eye on our movements every time we connect to the internet. Billions of data records will now be deleted as part of a settlement to a class action lawsuit brought against Google.

As we've written before , Incognito mode and the equivalent modes offered by other browsers aren't as secure as you might think, particularly if you start signing into accounts like Google or Facebook. Your activities and searches as a logged-in user on large platforms can still be recorded, primarily to create advertising that's more accurately targeted toward your demographic.

Google, for its part, says it’s transparent about what data it’s storing and why—and in recent years it has made it easier for users to see and delete the information held about them. To really lock down your privacy and security, though, it’s best to switch to a browser not made by a company that earns billions of dollars selling ads.

And there are alternatives: Below we recommend several browsers built with user privacy and security as a priority. Even better, in many cases they can import data such as bookmarks and passwords from your current browser—Google Chrome, for example.

DuckDuckGo ( Android , iOS , Windows , macOS )

The DuckDuckGo browser blocks trackers at their source.

You might know DuckDuckGo as the anti-Google search engine, but the parent company has branched out to make its own browsers too. They keep you well protected online and at the same time give you plenty of information about the tracking technologies being proactively blocked.

DuckDuckGo starts by enforcing encrypted HTTPS connections when websites offer them, and gives each page you visit a grade based on how aggressively it's trying to mine your data. It'll even scan and rank site privacy policies for you.

When it comes to browsing data, this can be cleared automatically at the end of each session or after a certain period of time. Pop-ups and ads are snuffed out, and of course the DuckDuckGo search engine is built in, free of the Google trappings.

You also get extras like throwaway email aliases you can use in place of your real email address to protect your privacy, and everything about the browser and its features is simple to use: You don't really need to do anything except install them, so you're getting maximum protection with minimal effort.

Ghostery ( Android , iOS , Windows , macOS )

Ghostery comes with a range of tools to protect your privacy.

Install Ghostery on your mobile device or your computer, and straight away it gets to work blocking adverts and tracking cookies that will attempt to keep tabs on what you're up to on the web. There are no complicated setup screens or configurations to manage.

Like DuckDuckGo, Ghostery tells you exactly which trackers and ads it's blocking and how many monitoring tools each website has installed. If you do come across certain sites that are well behaved, you can mark them as trusted with a tap.

Or, if you find a site that's packed full of tracking systems, you can block every single bit of cookie technology on it (for commenting systems, media players, and so on), even if the site ends up breaking. A simple, private search engine is built in to replace Google too.

Ghostery's tools are a little more in-depth and advanced than the ones offered by DuckDuckGo, so you might consider it if you want to take extra control over which trackers are blocked on which sites—but it's simple enough for anyone to use.

Tor Browser ( Android , Windows , macOS )

Tor connects you to the Tor network, to keep your online activities more private.

Tor Browser markets itself as a browsing option "without tracking, surveillance, or censorship." It is worth a look if you want the ultimate in anonymized, tracker-free browsing—unless you're on iOS, where it isn't available (Tor recommends the Onion Browser instead).

The browser is part of a bigger project to keep internet browsing anonymous: Use Tor and you use the Tor Project network, a complex, encrypted relay system managed by the Tor community, making it much harder for anyone else to follow your activities online.

As well as this additional layer of anonymity, Tor Browser is super-strict on the background scripts and tracking tech that sites can run. It also blocks fingerprinting, a method where advertisers attempt to recognize the unique characteristics of your device.

At the end of each browsing session, everything gets wiped, including cookies left behind by sites and the browsing history inside the Tor Browser app itself. In other words, private browsing that leaves no trace is the default—and indeed the only option.

Brave ( Android , iOS , Windows , macOS )

Brave gives you a clean, speedy browsing experience.

Brave comes with all the tracking protection features you would expect: Ads are completely blocked, there are tight restrictions on the data that sites can gather through cookies and tracking scripts, and you're always kept informed about what's happening.

The browser comes with an optional built-in VPN, though it costs extra ($10 a month). You can also, if you want, use Brave to access the Tor network we mentioned with the Tor browser and take advantage of its anonymizing relay service that hides your location and browsing data.

There's no doubt about the effectiveness of Brave's tracker-blocking technologies, and getting around the web in Brave is quick and snappy. It's a comprehensive package and one that strikes a well-judged balance between simplicity and power for the majority of users.

Brave has regularly pioneered features related to innovative web technologies, including cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and (most recently) artificial intelligence; there's actually a new AI assistant built into it. In other words, it's not exclusively focused on security and privacy.

Firefox ( Android , iOS , Windows , macOS )

Firefox is part of a suite of privacy products from Mozilla.

Firefox has long been at the forefront of online privacy—blocking tracking cookies across sites by default, for example—and it continues to be one of the best options for making sure you're giving away as little data as possible as you make your way across the web.

Firefox also gives you a ton of information on each website you visit regarding the trackers and cookies that pages have attempted to leave, and which ones Firefox has blocked. Permissions for access to your location and microphone can be easily managed as well.

Aside from looking after the interests of its users, Firefox also scores highly for user customization. You can change the look and behavior of the browser in a variety of ways, and there are useful integrations like the built-in Pocket utility that saves web stories on your device so you can read them later.

Firefox developer Mozilla offers plenty of extras, including a free data-breach monitor that tells you when your usernames and passwords may have been exposed somewhere online, a free email alias system to keep your actual email address protected, and a VPN that costs $10 per month. It all adds up to a comprehensive package for keeping you safe online.

Safari (iOS, macOS)

Safari has been blocking tracking cookies for some time.

Apple continues to add privacy tech to Safari with each release on iOS and macOS—like requiring user authentication (such as a Face ID scan) when returning to a browsing session—though it's obviously not a browsing option if you're on Android or Windows.

Safari has long been blocking third-party tracking cookies that try to connect the dots on your web activity across multiple sites. It also blocks device fingerprinting techniques that try to identify your devices, and it reports back on the trackers it has disabled.

The browser can now also warn you when you try to use a password that's too weak on a new website or service, and it will make a suggestion of a stronger password if needed. Recent browser updates added support for logging in with passkeys too.

Safari operates against the backdrop of Apple's commitment to collect as little information about you as possible and to keep most of that information locked away locally on your device rather than on Apple's servers.

Update: April 6, 2024, 8:30 am: This guide was updated to include new guidance for DuckDuckGo and Ghostery, as well as to bring some descriptions of browser providers' data collection policies up to date.

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DuckDuckGo vs Safari – What is the Difference

When it comes to browsing the internet, there are countless options to choose from.

Two popular choices are DuckDuckGo and Safari, each with its own unique features and advantages.

In this article, we will provide an in-depth analysis of both browsers to help you decide which one is the best for your needs.

Overview of DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo is a privacy-focused browser that was launched in 2008.

One of its main features is that it doesn’t track or collect any personal information about its users.

It also has a feature called “!Bang” which allows users to search specific websites directly from the search bar.

DuckDuckGo also has a built-in ad-blocker and tracker blocker.

Pros and Cons of Using DuckDuckGo

One of the biggest advantages of using DuckDuckGo is the increased privacy and security it provides.

It doesn’t collect any personal information, and the built-in ad-blocker and tracker blocker help protect users from unwanted ads and tracking.

However, DuckDuckGo may not be the best choice for those who want to customize their browsing experience with a wide range of extensions.

DuckDuckGo differs from other browsers in that it doesn’t collect any personal information from its users.

It also has a built-in ad-blocker and tracker blocker which helps protect users from unwanted ads and tracking.

Overview of Safari

Safari is a web browser developed by Apple and is the default browser on all Apple devices.

It has a clean and simple user interface, and it is known for its speed and performance.

Safari also has a feature called “Intelligent Tracking Prevention” which helps protect users’ privacy by blocking cross-site tracking.

Pros and Cons of Using Safari

One of the main advantages of using Safari is its speed and performance.

It is also the default browser on all Apple devices, making it a convenient choice for those who use Apple products.

However, Safari may not be the best choice for those who are looking for a more customizable browsing experience, as it has fewer extensions available compared to other browsers.

Safari differs from other browsers in that it is the default browser on all Apple devices, making it a convenient choice for those who use Apple products.

It is also known for its speed and performance, which sets it apart from other browsers.

Comparison of DuckDuckGo and Safari

Comparison of privacy and security features.

Both DuckDuckGo and Safari prioritize the privacy and security of their users, but they go about it in different ways.

DuckDuckGo doesn’t collect any personal information and has a built-in ad-blocker and tracker blocker, while Safari has a feature called “Intelligent Tracking Prevention” which helps protect users’ privacy by blocking cross-site tracking.

Comparison of Performance and User Experience

Safari is known for its speed and performance, making it a great option for those who value a smooth browsing experience.

DuckDuckGo, on the other hand, is a more privacy-focused browser and may not have the same level of performance as Safari.

Comparison of Additional Features

When it comes to customization options, Safari may not be the best choice, as it has fewer extensions available compared to other browsers.

DuckDuckGo also has fewer customization options compared to other browsers, but it does offer a “!Bang” feature which allows users to search specific websites directly from the search bar.

Both browsers have the basic features such as bookmarks and history, but Safari has a feature called “Reading List” which allows users to save webpages to be read later.

In conclusion, both DuckDuckGo and Safari have their own unique advantages and disadvantages.

DuckDuckGo is a great option for those who prioritize privacy and security, while Safari is a great option for those who value speed and performance.

It ultimately comes down to personal preference and what features are most important to the individual user.

We recommend trying both browsers and deciding for yourself which one you prefer.

Remember that it’s important to consider all the factors such as security, performance, and customization options before making a final decision.

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How to give Safari a privacy boost with DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials

In this day and age, you should be doing everything in your power to boost the security and privacy of your browsing efforts. If you don't, you're being tracked, logged, and monitored by just about every site you visit. 

For some, that is simply not acceptable. 

If that sounds like you, and you're a macOS Safari user, you owe it to yourself to give Apple's web browser a helping hand with DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials. This browser add-on helps prevent online tracking by automatically blocking third-party trackers and even grades each site's privacy from A-F (A being trustworthy and F being absolutely not trustworthy).

I'm going to show you how to install and use this free Safari extension so you can extend the privacy of Safari. All you'll need is an Apple laptop or desktop and the Safari browser. Now let's add some privacy protection to your favorite browser.

Adding the DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials to Safari

Before installing, make sure to close Safari. Once you've done that, open the Apple App Store and search for DuckDuckGo in the search bar. You should see an entry for DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials. Click on that entry and then click Get ( Figure 1 ).

The DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials entry in the Apple App Store.

Next, click Install and, when prompted, either tap the fingerprint sensor (if your hardware has one) or type your user password. The installation will begin and finish very quickly.

Once the installation completes, close the App Store and open Safari. Near the top of the browser window, you'll see a notification warning that you need to turn on both "Privacy Protection" and "Privacy Dashboard" in the Extension Preferences ( Figure 2 ).

The next step is enabling these two features in Safari.

Click Turn On and Review and then, in the next window ( Figure 3 ), click the checkboxes for both Privacy Dashboard and Privacy Protection.

Enabling both features for DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials in Safari.

You'll be prompted to okay the enabling of the features, so make sure to click Turn On when asked.

Close and restart Safari. Next, visit any website you choose and you'll notice the small circle directly to the left of the address bar will display a grade for the site ( Figure 4 ).

Facebook earned a C privacy grade.

If you click on the grade a new popup will appear with all of the information you need to see. As you can tell, Facebook was upgraded from a previous D listing and DuckDuckGo has blocked 1 tracker ( Figure 5 ).

DuckDuckGo blocked a single tracker from Facebook.

You do not have to do anything to prevent DuckDuckGo from blocking trackers in Safari. This one-two punch of both Safari and DuckDuckGo tracker blocking should go a long, long way to keep your browsing experience safe from trackers keeping tabs on your comings and goings within the browser.

If you're concerned about your privacy, you should consider the addition of the DuckDuckgo Privacy Essentials extension a must.

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Best DuckDuckGo Alternative: Private Search Engines in 2024

Cloudwards.net may earn a small commission from some purchases made through our site. However, any earnings do not affect how we review services. Learn more about our editorial integrity and research process .

As far as privacy protection and anonymous searching go, DuckDuckGo is one of the best options out there, but some alternatives are just as good at providing relevant search results. Read our best DuckDuckGo alternative guide to learn about them.

Last Updated: 16 Jan'24 2024-01-16T10:36:00+00:00

All our content is written fully by humans; we do not publish AI writing. Learn more here.

Key Takeaways: DuckDuckGo Alternatives

• We selected the alternatives to DuckDuckGo in this list based on how well they refrain from tracking users and the unique features they have. 
• Our favorite alternatives to DuckDuckGo include Brave Search, Qwant, Swisscows, Mojeek and YaCy. 
• Two other options worth mentioning are Startpage and Gibiru. 

Known for its refusal to track its users, DuckDuckGo is one of the best privacy-focused search engines. It doesn’t track or store your search history, IP address or other personal information, and it has several unique features. Understandably, it can’t be for everyone. If you’re looking for a DuckDuckGo alternative, read our guide to learn about some of the best options. 

One of DuckDuckGo’s flaws is its over-reliance on third-party search engines for its search results. Although it has its own web index, DuckDuckGo generates its search results from over 400 sources, including Bing, Yahoo! Search BOSS, Wolfram Alpha and Yandex. Most of the options listed in this article rely mainly on their own web index or enable users to create their own indexes.

For some of the best statistics and facts about search engines, read our search engine statistics guide . 

Rewritten to include current information about DuckDuckGo alternatives and updated with new images.

The Cost of Privacy 

Google and other traditional search engines collect huge amounts of user data when people use them to search the web. Like most internet companies, they claim to use this data solely for improving the quality of service and providing personalized search results, which most users find helpful. However, this can lead to several repercussions for users.

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For example, Microsoft, which owns Bing, was accused of sharing its customer data with Facebook and other third parties in 2020 . Unfortunately, sharing user data with third-party services is not the only concern privacy experts have about search engines that track users. There is also a greater risk of data breaches, government surveillance and identity theft.

DuckDuckGo and other private search engines eliminate these risks by not tracking users’ search history, IP address and other information that could be used to personally identify them. 

When traditional search engines like Google and Yahoo were the only options, it was hard to imagine a world where search engines could provide a high-quality search experience without tracking users’ search history.

The emergence of private search engines has put an end to this doubt. However, they still have catching up to do in terms of returning relevant search results. Still, many private search engines have come up with unique ways to provide a rich and personalized search experience without tracking users.

DuckDuckGo and some other private search engines don’t offer personalization because they put a higher emphasis on privacy. This is sufficient for some users, but there are options that aim to provide the best of both worlds. Our list includes some of these all-rounders.

What Makes the Best DuckDuckGo Alternative?

All the DuckDuckGo alternative search engines we’re recommending take stringent measures to protect user privacy. Our top suggestions include:

• Brave Search — Lets users choose their search algorithms.
• Qwant — France-based search engine with a child-friendly version. 
• Mojeek — Private search engine that relies on its own web crawler. 
• Swisscows — Family-friendly private search engine located in Switzerland, which has some of the world’s best privacy laws. 
• YaCy — Censorship-resistant search engine that operates based on a peer-to-peer architecture.

Most mainstream search engines have earned a bad reputation for collecting data that can be used to personally identify users. Google is notorious for collecting your name, email address and contact details when you use services like Google Chrome, Gmail and Google Workspace. It uses this information to serve you personalized search results. 

Private search engines like DuckDuckGo distinguish themselves by not tracking unique identifiers, including your IP address and search history. This means the best alternative search engines to DuckDuckGo are other search engines that don’t track users . 

In addition to not tracking users, the best DuckDuckGo alternatives have rare standout features or benefits. One of DuckDuckGo’s unique features is “bangs” — short commands you can type into the DuckDuckGo search bar if you plan to visit a particular web page. Our list includes private search engines that come with similarly useful features.

The 5 Best DuckDuckGo Alternatives

Below are our favorite alternative search engines to DuckDuckGo, starting with Brave Search. 

1. Brave Search

• Remove ads for a fee
• User rated search rankings 
• Independent web index 
• Uses the indexes of other search engines 

Launched as the default search engine for the Brave browser in 2021, Brave Search has fast become a popular search engine. It does not track users and has an independent web index, which it uses to serve 92% of its search results. For the rest, it relies on Google and Bing. To prevent and minimize tracking, Brave Search retrieves Bing results via the server side and Google results via the client side (or on an opt-in basis). 

In a bid to enhance user privacy, Brave Search gives users the option to remove ads for $3 per month on the premium version. Its ads do not rely on trackers or records of your online activity. However, even non-targeted ads can be annoying, so we appreciate this feature. 

To learn about some of the best options for blocking ads on other search engines, read our best ad blocker guide. 

Be in Control of Search Rankings

Another way Brave Search distinguishes itself as an alternative search engine is in the way it determines which results rank highly. Most search engines use their own algorithms to determine website rankings, which sometimes results in biased rankings and low-quality search results.

Brave Search doesn’t have its own hidden algorithms, but it gives users control over what ranks using an open-source tool called Goggles. Currently in beta, Goggles lets Brave users choose their ranking algorithms for search results. Goggles can rerank results to boost content according to political affiliation, specific industries or content length. Additionally, you can create your own ranking category.

• Has its own web index
• Offers Qwant Junior for kids
• User-friendly interface
• Uses Bing’s search algorithm 

Qwant is a French search engine that has a lot of similarities to Google. It’s also the default search engine for the French government, which adopted it amid privacy concerns about Google. Qwant does not log user data and makes privacy its central focus.

Qwant has its own web index but supplements it with results from Bing. Like Google, Qwant allows you to filter search results according to categories, such as news, images, videos, shopping and maps. Qwant has also expanded and created search engines with specific users in mind, such as Qwant Junior and Qwant Maps.

Qwant Junior and Qwant Maps

Qwant Junior is Qwant’s child-friendly version, designed for children ages six to 12. Qwant Junior doesn’t show advertisements or adult content. It also offers educational content thanks to a partnership with the BayaM app.

Qwant Maps is a private web-based mapping service that includes a range of features to help users navigate their environment. This includes maps for virtually every part of the world, directions between different locations and local business information.

However, Qwant Maps is not as developed as Google Maps. For example, it doesn’t bring out many results for nearby places to visit and its business information lacks details like reviews, about and photos. 

• In-house web index
• Emoticons web search
• Small web index 

Mojeek launched as the first private search engine in 2006. It doesn’t store your search history or IP address, and it doesn’t set cookies on the websites you visit, so it can’t monitor your activity on these websites. In cases where a website requires it to set cookies, Mojeek asks you to confirm your agreement. You can instruct Mojeek to delete these cookies at any time.

To anonymize users’ IP addresses, Mojeek replaces each IP address with a two-letter code that represents the user’s country of origin. Mojeek also has its own index of web pages that doesn’t rely on the indexes of other search engines. Unfortunately, the index is small.

Environment-Conscious Search Engine Company

Mojeek’s web index requires it to maintain hundreds of servers. To reduce its carbon footprint, Mojeek built its servers in Custodian Data Center, a U.K.-based energy-efficient data center that won the Green Data Centre award for its fresh air cooling system. Mojeek is backed by a group of private investors, who it claims are dedicated to building eco-friendly businesses. 

4. Swisscows (formerly Hulbee)

• Family-friendly search
• Located in Switzerland 
• Provides helpful suggestions 
• Uses Bing’s web index

Swisscows is a great private search engine for users who are particular about protecting younger members of their family from explicit content. It is family-friendly by default, omitting explicit search results. It also has a feature called “semantic map,” a group of related search terms that appear on every search result page and provide helpful search suggestions. 

Swisscows does not collect cookies, IP addresses or search queries, keeping the search experience as privacy-friendly as possible. It has its own web index but also uses Bing’s web index. 

Located in Privacy-Friendly Switzerland 

As a bonus to its non-tracking qualities, Swisscows is located in Switzerland, which is home to some of the best privacy laws in the world. This includes Article 13 of the Swiss Constitution, the Federal Act on Data Protection and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). 

These laws force internet services to seek consent from their users before they store or process their personal data. This means Swisscows wouldn’t be able to use your data without your permission even if it did begin tracking its users. 

• No centralized control
• Broad range of content 
• Uncensored private search
• Requires some technical knowledge 

YaCy is quite different from every other private search engine on this list. It is a distributed open-source search engine that operates on an underlying peer-to-peer (P2P) network. No single person or group is in charge of its software. Instead, the software is distributed among hundreds of interconnected private computers run by members of the YaCy network.

Each YaCy peer crawls the internet to find and index web pages, which become available to other peers in the network. Typical privacy concerns are non-existent in the YaCy network since no single entity is in charge of user data. YaCy’s open-source software is not subject to any nation’s censorship laws (read our internet censorship guide to learn how censorship works around the world).

Access to a Diverse Range of Content 

YaCy provides a diverse range of content, made possible by thousands of independent web crawlers. It can even provide rare content that is difficult to find on centralized search engines. However, the quality of the search results is adjustable and depends on how you use it. For example, you can specify the sites you want to crawl and you can add your preferred sites to the network pool.

Honorable Mentions

While there are many private search engines, our list focuses on those that do an excellent job of preserving user privacy. We had to limit the ranking to five entries for the sake of brevity, but there are two more worth mentioning. 

1. Startpage

Startpage obtains its search results from Google Search, but still maintains privacy by not tracking users or storing personal information or search history. As a result of using Google’s web index, Startpage provides high-quality search results. One of its distinguishing features is its “anonymous view,” which masks your identity via a proxy while you visit websites that appear in its results.

Startpage didn’t make the main list because of how it handled its 2019 merger with Privacy One Group, which is a subsidiary of System1, a U.S. advertising company known for profiling users for targeted ads. After the partial acquisition, Starpage received backlash from users who wanted to know how it would continue to preserve privacy while doing business with an advertising company. 

Startpage failed to respond transparently to the queries until it was delisted from the popular website Privacy Tools. It later updated its privacy policy to clarify that it doesn’t make user data accessible to Privacy One Group. Understandably, the merger might still be concerning to some users. 

Gibiru bills itself as an “uncensored private search engine.” Not only does it preserve user privacy by not storing personal information, but it also provides access to content censored by major search engines like Google. Gibiru uses the Google search algorithm to generate search results but doesn’t censor them.

Gibiru also stands out for using AES-256 encryption, which makes user data inaccessible to any entity that does not have the encryption key for decrypting it. 

That said, it didn’t make the main list because of its relatively small web index. The search engine generated an average of five pages of results for most queries. 

Why You Should Use a Private Search Engine

Most mainstream search engines personalize ads and search results through the data they gather from users. This makes it easy for users to find answers, products and services tailored to their preferences. Unfortunately, this is often achieved through information gleaned from sensitive user data, such as medical history, financial records, political leanings and more. 

All the data compiled can potentially be leaked, hacked or shared with intelligence agencies. Luckily, private search engines offer a better alternative. They guarantee privacy by not keeping records of your search history, your IP address or any other information that could be used to identify you.

If privacy matters to you (and 2023’s data privacy statistics suggest that it should), consider using a private search engine. 

Final Thoughts: Best DuckDuckGo Alternative

Independent web indexes, no-tracking policies and good private practices sum up the factors to consider when choosing a private search engine. DuckDuckGo and the services we’ve listed as great alternatives to it meet these requirements. 

If you’re considering ditching DuckDuckGo for another service due to usability issues, consider reading our  how to use DuckDuckGo guide . We also wrote a full DuckDuckGo review if you’d like to find out its best (and worst) features.

Have you ever used any of the options we listed? Do you have other recommendations? What’s your best DuckDuckGo alternative? Let us know in the comment section below, and as always, thanks for reading.

FAQ: Private Search Engines Like DuckDuckGo

Some of the best search engines that provide unbiased search results are DuckDuckGo, Brave Search, Qwant, YaCy and Mojeek.

No, DuckDuckGo is an independent search engine company.

Some of the best alternatives to DuckDuckGo include Brave Search, Qwant, Swisscows and Mojeek.

Yes, DuckDuckGo, Brave Search, Qwant and Mojeek are some of the best private search engines.

I just tried swisscows. You guys try typing “Jan 6 Fbi” then scroll thru 20 pages… swisscows isnt truely uncensored… its just as bad as the worst

Why is it that it is only Google who understands that searching with a country-filter is not the same as searching in a specific language? I landed on this page because I am getting increasingly tired of DuckDuckGo failing to introduce a language-filter.

Brave and Qwant are top recommendations, but both are just as bad as DuckDuckGo for bi-lingual user!!!!! Language filter may be interesting for mono-lingual users, but more enlightened users who searches in two-three languages or more badly need a language filter.

Google Search is the largest search provider, because they know that making search as useful as possible is the best way to get a lot of users – regardless of respect for privacy or not.

Well, i recall DuckDuckGo getting into a controversy for being pretty biased RE: Rus Ukr. Devs talked about deliberately “deranking” that went against the mainstream narrative because anything that wasn’t mainstream was considered Russian propaganda. August raises a good point, and it too applies to Duckduckgo so i can only hope the otherwise informative article isn’t blindsided here and is using “best” loosely as in best right now when compared to a Google / Bing / Yahoo

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• Services & Software

5 Reasons You Should Use DuckDuckGo Instead of Google

DuckDuckGo offers mobile apps, browser extensions and more.

• Apple software beta tester, "Helps make our computers and phones work!" - Zach's grandparents

DuckDuckGo is the privacy-focused search engine that wants to take on Google.

It's no secret that some companies use trackers to keep tabs on where you go and what you see online. You might use a browser to look for a shirt online one day, and see nothing but ads for that shirt for days afterwards. These trackers and ads can be annoying, and one step some people have taken to combat them is to use  DuckDuckGo .

DuckDuckGo has positioned itself as a privacy-focused alternative to search engines like Google. DuckDuckGo has rolled out Android and iOS mobile apps,  browser extensions  and beta versions of its  Windows and Mac browsers to help keep your information secure, no matter if you use it on your phone or computer .

Here are five reasons why you should be using DuckDuckGo. 

Stop online trackers from spying on you

Online trackers are everywhere on the internet. Princeton's Web Transparency and Accountability Project found that Google trackers are present on about 75% of websites, while Facebook trackers are present on about 25% of sites. These trackers collect data on your interests and behavior on certain websites. While this data won't identify you, these internet habits, paired with access to your social media profiles, are enough to recognize you, according to a study from Princeton and Stanford universities . (PDF)

Online trackers are everywhere, and they track things like your habits and behavior on certain sites.

DuckDuckGo identifies and blocks these online trackers from sites like Google and Facebook. The search engine can also show you the networks that have tracked you over time to give you a fuller picture on how your data is being used. 

The privacy-focused search engine came under fire  in May, 2022 after some tracking scripts from company partner Microsoft were found while using DuckDuckGo's browsers. In August of that same year , DuckDuckGo expanded its third-party protections to include scripts from Microsoft.

You'll see fewer ads

When using DuckDuckGo you should see fewer ads overall.

If you run a search via Google, you might see ads in the top results of the search. You won't always see ads in those spots, but they're formatted similarly to normal search results, with just a bolded "Ad" and separator dot to distinguish them. 

When you search for something on DuckDuckGo, you'll see fewer ads in your search results and save some time.

In addition to fewer ads on the results page, because DuckDuckGo blocks online trackers, ads won't follow you across the web. If you use DuckDuckGo to search for something like a new food bowl for your pet, you won't keep seeing ads for pet bowls on different sites. These ads don't follow you around like said pet demanding you feed them despite having just given them food 5 minutes ago.

Websites should load faster

On top of collecting your data and causing ads to follow you around, online trackers also add extra data to websites you visit, slowing the website's load time. DuckDuckGo blocks these trackers, frees up bandwidth and lets websites load faster. 

Your search history isn't stored

How toilet paper should hang, according to the patent.

Let's say you get into a debate with your significant other over which way the toilet paper should hang. You say it should hang under. They say the patent for toilet paper clearly has the toilet paper going over, making that the correct way. You look up the patent and find that yes, the toilet paper is hanging over. You sit in disbelief, and now your search history will shame you unless you have the auto-delete function turned on in Google, or you go into My Activity in Google and delete the search. 

If you use DuckDuckGo, though, this blemish won't show up in your search history to begin with because the search engine doesn't save your searches. Each time you open DuckDuckGo is a fresh start, free from anything you may have searched for before. 

A downside to this is there are no suggested search options. Also, if you want to look at something you saw previously you won't be able to search for it in your history.

Google's Incognito mode keeps your search history private, too, but it does so by deleting your search history once you close the window. If you don't close the window, it's still stored. Incognito mode also still collects some of your information, like your location and search activity. 

Your search results won't be influenced by your browsing history

Google filters the results it shows you when you use it to search for something. Google shows you things related to your search it thinks you will click on based on the data it has collected on you. It doesn't bother showing you results it doesn't think you'll click. This means that depending on your search history, if you search for "coffee" your top result might be the nearest coffee shops, an article on the health benefits of coffee or the history of coffee.

DuckDuckGo will show you more robust search results because it doesn't filter your results. Some of the results you see on the first page of a DuckDuckGo search might show up on the second or third page of a Google search.

Because your search results aren't tailored to you and your interests, search results can feel imprecise when compared with Google. Some DuckDuckGo users on Reddit have said they have used Google for some searches when DuckDuckGo gives them irrelevant search results. This sounds like a downside, but it ultimately means DuckDuckGo is working properly.

For more on privacy, check out the best VPNs of 2023 and  privacy tips digital security experts wish you knew .

Correction, July 27:  Clarified an incorrect statement about the number of ads Google shows. Explained that trackers alone can't identify a person and outlined the ways your internet activity might affect your search results.

DuckDuckGo Help Pages

How to get duckduckgo / get the duckduckgo browser extension, how to get the duckduckgo safari extension.

Did you mean iOS Safari instead?

Installing Our Extension

• DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials extension : Changes your browser search engine to DuckDuckGo Search, along with other privacy benefits such as tracker blocking and encrypted website connections (where possible). Learn more about our Web Tracking Protections .

Changing Your Search Engine to DuckDuckGo

Click here for instructions on how to change the default search engine in Safari

However, please know that if you just use the search engine, we cannot offer our web tracking protections when you visit other web sites. To get that protection, you need to use our extension or browser. Our free web browser is available for Mac , Windows , iOS , and Android . It comes with seamless privacy protection built-in, including private search , tracker blocking , increased encryption , email protection , and more.

The Pros and Cons of DuckDuckGo's Privacy-Friendly Desktop Browser

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Google's Chrome has dominated the browser scene since its launch in 2008, but doesn't have the best reputation when it comes to keeping its parent company from spying on your activity, or for keeping your windows free of clutter.

While alternatives such as FireFox, Brave, and Opera offer greater privacy, each has its own issues. DuckDuckGo's new browser—currently in beta—promises to take care of your privacy issues and minor irritations. Here are some pros and cons of trying its privacy-friendly browser.

Pro: DuckDuckGo's Browser Is Private by Default

If you're a privacy-minded individual, your first impressions of a new browser can be frustrating. All the largest browsers have Google as their search engine. This is either because the browser is owned and distributed by Google, as with Chrome, or because the project accepts large sums of money for the privilege, as with Firefox. The deal, according to ZDNet , is worth around $400 million per year.

Once you've manually set the search engine to another option, you need to find extensions such as uBlock origin to stop sites from tracking you across the internet.

With DuckDuckGo's browser, you don't need to do this, as you'll find most of what you need pre-configured and ready to go.

If you conduct a search from the URL bar, it's carried out by DuckDuckGo (as you'd expect), and both tracking scripts and adverts are blocked.

Pro: No Gimmicky Rewards Scheme

Brave is one of the best privacy-friendly browsers , and while based on the Chromium engine, is effective in shielding you from adverts, trackers, and popups.

One of Brave's most vaunted options is its basic attention tokens, which allows you to "support content creators and earn tokens for ads you see in Brave". In return, you can use your tokens to buy gift cards.

This is a bit of a gimmick, and has a number of problems. Very few creators have signed up to the scheme, so essentially, you're running an adblock while feeling a sense of unjustified moral justification. And you're still seeing ads.

The DuckDuckGo has no such scheme.

Pro: DuckDuckGo's Browser Has a Private YouTube Viewer

If you're conscious enough of your privacy to install a privacy-focused browser, it's unlikely you want Google's YouTube video platform keeping records of what you watch, and when you watch it.

While you can watch YouTube without revealing anything about yourself by visiting through a privacy-friendly alternate front-end, such as invidio.us, the new browser has anonymity built-in. When you first click on a YouTube video, the browser will ask if you want to watch the video with Duck Player.

Duck Player hides your viewing activity from YouTube, and provides a clean viewing experience without ads.

Pro: DuckDuckGo's Browser Hides Annoying Web Clutter

Pop-ups are a scourge of the modern internet, and almost ever page you visit will have pop-ups asking you to either sign in with your Google account, or consent to or deny cookies. It's irritating and can ruin your browsing experience. While there are methods to block cookie consent pop-ups in your browser , these rely on extensions.

And while you can also configure your Google account to block sign in prompts , this approach relies on you being signed into your Google account while you visit websites—anathema to any privacy-conscious web user.

The DuckDuckGo browser will ask once if you want it to manage consent and Google pop-ups, then you never need to worry about it again.

Con: DuckDuckGo Hasn't Always Been Honest With Users

DuckDuckGo's 2023 effort isn't its first browser. The DuckDuckGo browser for Android launched to much fanfare in 2021.

In May 2022, DuckDuckGo acknowledged on its blog , that far from blocking trackers as it was supposed to, the company had an agreement which prohibited it from blocking trackers from Microsoft.

This was widely viewed as shady behavior.

We think it's unlikely that DuckDuckGo will indulge in such underhand business deals again, it's not impossible. Whether you trust them is up to you.

Con: The DuckDuckGo Browser Doesn't Support Extensions

Most mainstream browsers allow you to install add-ons and extensions. As well as protecting your privacy, these can help you customize your browsing experience, manage downloads, view different filetypes and more. There are hundreds of great browser extensions available.

Currently, DuckDuckGo doesn't support extensions, so if you've grown used to browsing the web a certain way, you're out of luck.

DuckDuckGo's Browser Is Great for Privacy

All-in-all, the features offered by DuckDuckGo's browser are welcome, and, if you can get over any mistrust of the company, one of the best options for keeping trackers and other annoyances off your computer.

If you want an even more private internet experience, consider Tails—the amnesiac operating system which runs from a USB stick.

• Do Not Sell My Personal Info

•  ⋅ 

DuckDuckGo vs. Google: An In-Depth Search Engine Comparison

Which search engine is better at finding the information you want, fast? We compare the features of DuckDuckGo and Google.

Google has grown into the dominant search engine that searchers rely on in almost every instance (at least in the United States), and let’s be honest — it’s for good reason.

The quality and depth of the results Google produces is what we’ve come to expect from the search experience.

But competitors are always going to be vying for search market share. Some of these alternative search engines are worth using, especially those that don’t fit the mold that Google made.

DuckDuckGo is one of Google’s more formidable competitors. This is especially true for those users who hold privacy as a critical component to deciding which search engine is best for them.

But DuckDuckGo has plenty more to offer searchers in addition to its increased privacy protections.

In this column, you’ll find an in-depth comparison of the features of two great search engines we love – DuckDuckGo and Google. Which search engine should you use?

Search Features

DuckDuckGo is a search engine founded in 2008 that claims it does not store the personal information of its users, ever. This means all searches done on the search engine are always anonymous.

Below the main search field on the website’s homepage, DuckDuckGo says:

“Our privacy policy is simple: we don’t collect or share any of your personal information.”

DuckDuckGo doesn’t follow its users around with personalized ads since it won’t store their search history, won’t track their IP address, and essentially has no personal data to sell. This is true regardless of whether the user is in private browsing mode.

And, with the growing concerns of everyday people surrounding user privacy, it’s obvious that DuckDuckGo is doing something right.

For the first time ever, the search engine surpassed 100 million searches conducted in one day in January of 2021.

DuckDuckGo separated itself from the competition early and often in terms of the privacy it offers its users – that same privacy other search engines have refused to offer until DuckDuckGo.

And recently, it’s taken an even stronger stance for user privacy, actively blocking other search engines from collecting user data .

Just take a look at its Twitter feed if you want to find out how pro-privacy this search engine is.

Major browsers are upping their privacy promises (a good thing), but unfortunately this does not mean they actually stop Google & Facebook tracking. To do that, you have to totally stop their trackers from loading, like the DuckDuckGo app & extension do. https://t.co/tIeufgGI7f — DuckDuckGo (@DuckDuckGo) March 30, 2021

But beyond privacy, what else does DuckDuckGo bring to the table?

For starters, it has a similar layout to Google, including:

• Search engine landing pages (SERPs) of 10 organic search results (both search engines usually served 10 organic search results on their respective Page 1s in March 2019; however, Google offers hybrid results for a variety of search types, including eight traditional organic results for a specific movie title on Page 1, with several ingrained search features built into the SERP like cast members, Google’s coveted “People also ask” feature, as well as image and video searches embedded in the top three results, all in addition to the basic movie Knowledge base on the left-hand rail of the SERP).
• A couple of ads at the top and the bottom of each SERP, give or take one or two (or all) and depending on the search query, its search volume, and the competition around its keywords and topics.
• A Knowledge Panel of information along the right rail of Page 1 of the SERPs, depending on the entity.

DuckDuckGo uses its web crawler, DuckDuckBot, and up to 400 other sources to compile its search results, including other search engines like Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex, and crowdsourcing sites like Wikipedia.

This is where DuckDuckGo’s Knowledge panel -like breakout box on the right rail with important details like name, address, phone number, website, etc., are drawn from, including Wikipedia.

DuckDuckGo also pulls information from user-review site Yelp, including reviews, addresses, phone numbers, and business hours for that panel as well.

Business-location directions are now provided exclusively by Apple Maps, a change from prior to 2019 when DDG defaulted to Bing Map.

Then, it also offered users the option to toggle between their preference of Maps provider among Google Maps, HERE Maps, or OpenStreetMap as the source (screenshot below to Directions options no longer available in DDG).

DuckDuckGo offers a number of other simple usability features and/or preference tweaks that help simplify the overall process for the user, many of which Google implemented first – but not all of them.

For instance, once a user has reached the bottom of a SERP, they can select to see more results and activate an endless scroll, which opens up the next SERP directly below the current one without opening a new page.

It’s a simple difference but it does make the user experience a bit cleaner, and the pages faster to load. It can also be turned off in the search engine’s settings if needed.

Category Pages are one of my personal favorite features of the DuckDuckGo platform, offering category lineups with brief descriptions and images that are presented in a clean, enticing way for a multitude of topics and categories.

And, like Google (although not as extensive), DuckDuckGo offers Instant Answers (comparable to Google’s Featured Snippets), which are pulled from more than 100 sources around the web.

There are also search-vertical options, including:

• Web results.
• Image results.
• Video results.
• News results.
• Maps results.
• Shopping results.

Of course, depending on which vertical a user searches with, DuckDuckGo will dynamically generate applicable search verticals that suit the query.

When someone searches for a food or favorite dish, DuckDuckGo will trigger the “Recipes” vertical for them (screenshot below).

DuckDuckGo also boasts search operators similar to Google that includes its trademark Bangs .

These are simple site- search commands the search engine also refers to as “!bang syntax” that make searching one website a lot easier (not that it’s never been done before, either).

For instance, if someone wants to compare their DuckDuckGo search results to that of Google, all the user has to do is add the Google bang to their query.

And, just as Google provides unique search features and effects daily , DuckDuckGo has some fun (and useful) ones, too.

DDG can help you come up with a secure password, change a query from lowercase to uppercase (or vice versa), identify a query’s character count, and even bust a rhyme.

Its anagram solver is probably pointless – but still a consistent, entertaining tool that will have its shining moments.

In addition to its usability features, DuckDuckGo’s biggest messaging points come from:

• The brand’s high standards for privacy.
• Being an efficient and respectable search engine despite its small piece of search market share (which is well below Ask, Yandex, Baidu, and all three “major players” in the United States, Google, Bing, and Yahoo).

On top of DDG hitting 100 million daily searches in January 2021, it also hit its highest share of the search market in the same month at 2.6% of the total search market share in the United States.

Throughout the world, DDG only owns about .63% of the total global search market share, making it the 10th most popular search engine in the world.

At the end of 2020, DuckDuckGo had completed nearly 24 billion searches – a 57% increase from 2019, in which DDG served 15 billion searches.

And this large rate of increase has been consistent over the years.

Compared to 2018 when DuckDuckGo served 9.2 billion searches, 2019 saw a 63% increase in annual searches.

Annual traffic also grew by 56% in 2018 and 55% in 2017.

This number is expected to continue to grow. The question surrounds if the 50%+ rate can be sustainable for years to come, which would obviously start to direct Google much more significantly.

Pros of Using DuckDuckGo

A staple of its foundation, DuckDuckGo preaches its desire to not track any information of its users or their searches and prides itself on offering the most private search engine on the market.

Easy to Use

Its clean interface and simple user experience make using the platform a somewhat unique search experience.

Usability seems to be a primary focus, and it shows. It’s also aesthetically pleasing while still following the basic concept and layout of other search engines.

Growing in Popularity

The more users, the more profit, the more resources = the better the search engine.

Cons of Using DuckDuckGo

Not as Good as Google ¯_(ツ)_/¯

It’s the up-and-coming search engine, while Google continues to be the premium gold standard.

DuckDuckGo simply doesn’t have the resources of big, long-standing search engines. But it’s getting more every year, including a $10 million investment at the end of 2018 when it was valued at nearly $75 million.

Tiny Search Market Share

DuckDuckGo only owned .22% of the total search market share in 2017, which is less than Ask, Yandex, Baidu, and all three “major players” in the United States (Google, Bing, and Yahoo).

This means there is room for a lot of growth, but it needs to sustain its increasing popularity for years to come to gain significant market share.

Always Playing Catch-up

Features, ideas, and practices of DuckDuckGo are going to shadow Google, for the most part, including doing the opposite of what Google is doing in terms of privacy.

This isn’t out of the norm for other search engines; they’re all chasing the big dog in Google.

Google is the O.G.

But why, exactly?

To start, it’s the most robust, vast search engine out there in more ways than one, with a family of tools and databases to accompany it and support its mission of delivering the most relevant, credible answers quickly and easily.

Google Maps is a powerful asset for the search engine. It boasts a plethora of significant information for businesses across the world, from names, addresses, and phone numbers to business-related photos, videos, reviews, and more.

And while Google’s attempt at establishing a human network with similar, useful information in Google+ proved futile, it illustrates the company’s dedication to not only improving search but owning and building high-quality vessels to improve it through its platform.

Like DuckDuckGo, Google offers specific search verticals to help simply searches, but with more options.

In addition to traditional web results and the above-mentioned Maps results, there are verticals for:

Additional search settings and tools can be used to further refine searches (shown below).

“The Google Search index contains hundreds of billions of webpages and is well over 100,000,000 gigabytes in size,” Google says .

This is, by far, the vastest of search engine indexes. And it’s one of the main reasons Google is the dominant player in search.

It isn’t just the largest search index; it’s also the smartest.

Google is constantly making updates to its algorithms and ranking signals, including the addition of artificial intelligence via RankBrain . This machine-learning mechanism is another reason Google dominates and delivers, with no competitor close in comparison.

It has the best crawlers, the best index, and the best algorithms, which is why I truly believe in the mantra, “If it’s not on Google, it’s not real.”

This is a playful statement based on Google’s incredible ability to identify search queries – and their answers – from unique long-tail searches without some of the most important pieces of information.

For instance, finding a film about a particular person or place without knowing the name of the movie, year of origin, or other seemingly critical information.

When I look for a 1980s skateboarding movie with a title I don’t know but remember the main character has blonde hair, Google delivers me the answer I am looking for right in Position 1.

The movie I was looking for is, of course, “Gleaming the Cube” with Christian Slater from 1989.

Other popular entities Google owns contribute to its powerhouse position, such as YouTube, Gmail, Play, AdSense, etc.

It also boasts one of the best (and free) productivity tool suites with includes Sheets, Docs, Slides, Calendar, and more.

And let’s not forget Google’s free tools for webmasters and marketers, including Google Analytics and Search Console .

What makes Google the true Goliath of the industry? It’s the combination of:

• Its vast network of Alphabet -owned tools and properties.
• Its unmatched ability to understand real-world entities and their relationship to one another ( things, not strings ).
• Its constant commitment to improving the Google Search experience for the short- and long-term.
• Its unparalleled leadership in the world of search and all things websites.

Of course, none of this changes the fact that Google is always extracting information from its users and applying it where it can for the gain of the company and/or the people paying the company for the extracted user data.

As more and more companies are adapting to – or building around – the idea of user privacy as integral, Google continues to find ways to leverage its loose policies on privacy as a tool to attract users because of the features it can offer by collecting and storing user data.

It’s no secret that Google is doing this, so it’s not ethically wrong; it’s just not known by the majority of users exactly what data is being used, what it’s being used for, or why it’s being used at all.

This has allowed Google to become one of the richest companies in the world, thanks to the targeted advertising sold on its own platform and through its many partners.

That doesn’t change the fact that it is currently the best search engine out there. And that’s in part due to the search engine’s ability to collect and store data to further improve its engine. Then further tailor it to each user through personalization.

DuckDuckGo delivers the same search results to every user since it’s not curating unique searches for each user based on their search history, interests, and web history.

That’s exactly why Google has become one of the most successful companies: the quality of its search platform.

Pros of Using Google

It’s the Best

Google has and will continue to accomplish feats other companies – including search engines – simply aren’t able to yet, if ever.

It’s a superstar brand that has been, not just in the thick of search since its inception, but pushing it to new heights anytime it can, and before all of its competitors.

It’s Unmatched

Google has the largest search index, the smartest search engine algorithm, and the largest portfolio of free tools that all fit right inside its search engine.

It’s the Dominant Power of Search

Yeah, it’s basically the same as the two points above. But it’s what truly matters.

Google is the best and has been for quite some time. And it has changed every American’s life since its launch in 1998.

It will continue to be ingrained in our lives for many years to come.

Cons of Using Google

It’s Hard Not to Feel Violated

Google also has the largest ad network, too. That’s thanks to data its compiled from its users and their behavior.

On the organic side, Google treats personalization as a benefit to the user, but that’s all achieved through data collection as well.

Overthink User Experience & Other Ideas

Google is always testing features and changes, big and small, to try and get an idea of what works best.

Sometimes, Google will change things and, afterward, it doesn’t seem like it was a change for the better.

But, that’s Google, and sometimes the changes (or lack of commonsense features) leave webmasters, marketers, and searchers scratching their heads.

It Isn’t Always Right (Still)

While it’s impressive in almost everything it does, Google’s full-blown launch of its Featured Snippet attribute led to a lot more noticeably wrong or misleading answers.

In trying to provide its best (and often auto-generated) quick answer for simple questions, Google sometimes has pulled incorrect information that still shows the computer can’t always outsmart (or outdo!) humans yet.

Which Search Engine Should You Use?

As someone who somehow used Yahoo mail for two solid decades, I can admit I am an iconoclast that prefers the less-common options and going against the current. However, this is not why I was still using Yahoo email in 2017. 😆

I used Yahoo mail for that long because I liked how it operated (until I had my account hacked , then said hacking was covered up) and I was comfortable with it.

As a news junkie and newspaper reader, Yahoo’s front page always enticed me to stick around, scroll, and read. And the stories are tailored to the user, so I was being served content I should and would eat right up.

Without at least scanning through and, I’m sure, storing some – if not most – of my user data, that Yahoo homepage would have never had been as successful as it was in terms of grabbing my attention and piquing my unique interests to read a bunch of content there daily. And I knew that after the first 12 years or so.

More importantly, I didn’t mind because it worked for me.

So, what does Yahoo have to do with whether you should use DuckDuckGo or Google?

What works best for you is the right answer here. It’s all about preference.

Both search engines can likely get you the answer you’re looking for and in a time-efficient manner.

Anyone who is passionate about privacy would likely lean toward – and prefer – DuckDuckGo solely for its strong privacy policies but also since it is a better-than-average search engine trying to do right for the people. And it does a strong job in achieving that.

That doesn’t change the fact that fewer and fewer searches are coming empty on DuckDuckGo – you’d be hard-pressed to identify one now on the fly.

So, it’s not like you can shoot over to Google to find something you can’t find on DuckDuckGo anymore.

The big difference is how the information is served to the user and how much data is collected and stored to serve it.

Because we already know if you can’t find it on Google – you likely can’t find it on DuckDuckGo either.

It’s pretty likely it simply doesn’t exist.

More Resources:

• 17 Great Search Engines You Can Use Instead of Google
• DuckDuckGo SEO: What You Should Know
• SEO for Beginners: An Introduction to SEO Basics

Image Credits

All screenshots taken by author, May 2021

Sam Hollingsworth is a native New Yorker currently helping lead SEO efforts for 829 Studios, as well as a seasoned ...