What is DuckDuckGo and who uses this search engine?

We all know that Google is not the only search engine on the internet. Before Google, there was Yahoo! and there’s Bing available too. But what’s so special about DuckDuckGo? Privacy. Becoming an increasingly popular alternative to other popularly available search engines, DuckDuckGo is just second in the race, with a global market share of 0.63%. In the United States, it holds about 2.51%. As of Q1 of 2022, the search engine recorded around 8 billion queries.

DuckDuckGo is in the news due to its privacy-free search facilities. In an era where online tracking remains insufferable, here’s a search engine that lets you be, respecting your privacy. Most search engines today are built to deliver personalized outputs based on the information they collect, including your IP address, search history, and other data. 

The Basics of Search Engine

Typically, search engines are computer programs that process a user’s input to identify and gather pertinent data on the internet. The search engine sends out crawlers to locate web pages when the seeker types a keyword and hits ENTER. The web crawler, or the bot, hunts the internet for HTML files or web pages, collating all discovered information and indexing them. That is when you see a list of URLs when you type a search query. Search algorithms are used to execute this process, which also helps rank sites online. 

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Privacy Protection

Online privacy protection can seem extremely difficult, mainly if the right tools are not used. As a preliminary step, consider employing programs designed to assist you in maintaining your privacy. This is where DuckDuckGo comes in. The search engine improves your privacy because it does away with online tracking, keeps searches private, and does not personalize search results. All outcomes are based on anonymous data; nothing is retained by the search engine that identifies individual users. 

Categorically created as an alternative to other ‘popular’ search engines, DuckDuckGo does not rely on targeted advertising to support itself. Instead, it works on advertising principles in a way that protects rather than compromises user privacy. 

How does DuckDuckGo work?

In the same way, you would access Google or any other search engine; you can open DuckDuckGo on any browser. You can also add it as an extension or set it as a default search engine.

Follow these steps to make it your default search engine:

Click on the three dots (the menu) at the right-hand top corner of your Chrome browser.  

Click on ‘Settings’ from the dropdown.

Then, click on ‘Search engine’ on the sidebar of the ‘Settings’ page. After that, from the dropdown menu of “Search engine used in the address bar,” choose ‘DuckDuckGo.’

To add DuckDuckGo as an extension to Chrome:

• First, open the web page DuckDuckGo.com in Chrome.
• Then, click on the hamburger (the three lines) menu. 
• Click on “Add to Chrome” after selecting “App and Extension” from the dropdown 
• A Chrome Web Store pop-up appears where you have to click “Add to Chrome” again.
• You must confirm the action by clicking on “Add Extension” from the window that appears.
• It should now be added to Chrome; if you cannot see it, click on the “Extensions” icon on Chrome to pin it to the toolbar.

Performing A Search On DuckDuckGo

You can perform a search on DuckDuckGo just like you would on any other search engine, such as Google or Bing. Customize and fine-tune your results, and depending upon your query, you will visualize answers on top of the page. This is also the best answer to your search query.

For to those who value personal information privacy, DuckDuckGo is the way to go!