While Google has just celebrated its 25th anniversary, one of its fiercest competitors has also blown out its own candles. THE search engine alternative DuckDuckGo has just celebrated its 15th anniversary.
Is it really possible to dethrone Google? While the famous search engine still powers 90% of searches carried out in France and around the world, the competition is still not exhausted. The proof: DuckDuckGo still has great ambitions for the future.
Figures that remain marginal
In a blog post published on the occasion of the firm’s 15th anniversary, CEO Gabriel Weinberg once again reiterated his desire to offer an alternative to Google ” designed for Internet users“. Underlying this, we can obviously see the desire to offer a tool that is less hostile to privacy than Google.
DuckDuckGo was also born from the observation that it was necessary to offer, in 2008, an alternative to “frightening power and disturbing surveillance of companies such as Google and Facebook“. At that time, however, Google was barely 10 years old, Facebook not even five, and Edward Snowden’s revelations about the extent of digital surveillance were not going to happen for a few more years.
Despite everything, even after the Cambridge Analytica scandal and its chilling lessons about the importance of online privacy, and the countless controversies that Google has suffered over the use of personal information, DuckDuckGo has never managed to break through. significantly. Although it enjoys great success, the search engine only represents 0.7% of searches carried out on the Web in France and less than 0.6% worldwide.
A public ripe for changes in habits
However, Gabriel Weinberg still believes in it and explains that the DuckDuckGo web browser as well as the extensions for Chrome and Firefox have been downloaded 250 million times. A success certainly less important than that of Google Chrome, but which still allows DuckDuckGo to be “a healthy, profitable business that protects user privacy instead of exploiting it“.
A recent survey published by the Kantar institute indicates that 68% of French people are aware of tools to protect their personal data online (and that 48% use at least one). The awareness is there, DuckDuckGo still has to find how to effectively capitalize on it.
Download
- Privacy protection.
- Unfiltered or personalized search results.
- Availability all over the world.
DuckDuckGo is a free search engine available on smartphones and computers. Its particularity is that it does not spy on its users by retaining neither the IP address nor the location of Internet users. This way, all users have access to the same unfiltered search results!
DuckDuckGo is a free search engine available on smartphones and computers. Its particularity is that it does not spy on its users by retaining neither the IP address nor the location of Internet users. This way, all users have access to the same unfiltered search results!
Source : DuckDuckGo
10