DuckDuckGo
would show more results consistent with conspiratorial positions than Google. But the sites put forward by the search engine
respectful of personal data
are also less reliable on average than those of its competitor.
In the United States, several voices from conspiratorial or conservative circles are speaking out against Google. According to them, DuckDuckGo displays results that are more in line with their opinions and points of view.
The right and antivax prefer results from DuckDuckGo to those from Google
During one of his podcasts last year, Joe Rogan, who channels a lot of criticism for his antivax talk, explained that if he was looking for ” specific cases of people who have died from side effects of a vaccine he had to go to DuckDuckGo to find information he couldn’t find on Google.
” Google is actively suppressing search results that don’t fit traditional left-wing views added another conservative podcaster, Ben Shapiro, who advises his listeners to use DuckDuckGo rather than Google.
For its part, DuckDuckGo replies that it tries to limit the dissemination of false or misleading information and that its panel of users presents a wide variety of political orientations, denying that it has become the benchmark for conspiracy theorists.
DuckDuckGo shows results from less trusted sources
Intrigued, the New York Times compared the top 20 results returned by Google and DuckDuckGo for more than 30 queries related to conspiracy theories and topics popular with the American right to determine if there is indeed a difference between the two search engines.
And according to the tests, DuckDuckGo has a real tendency to display links to sources that are less trustworthy than those put forward by Google. The latter can also display pages whose reliability of the information provided can be questioned, but in a smaller volume and generally appearing lower in the results.
To judge the level of relevance of websites, the New York Times relied on resources such as the Global Disinformation Index, NewsGuard or a study published in the journal Science.
Two recent studies have already determined that Bing promotes content supporting conspiracy theories more than Google. As a reminder, DuckDuckGo largely uses the Bing algorithm for its results.
On the same subject :
DuckDuckGo claims 47% growth in 2021
To download
- No ad tracking
- Respect for privacy
- Hybrid Index
In terms of the interface, DuckDuckGo plays the security card: it is freely inspired by Google’s design! This is about the only similarity between the two American search engines. Indeed, the duck site wants to be radically anti-registration of users. Since its inception, it has made a point of never recording the private data of Internet users and not targeting its results.
In terms of the interface, DuckDuckGo plays the security card: it is freely inspired by Google’s design! This is about the only similarity between the two American search engines. Indeed, the duck site wants to be radically anti-registration of users. Since its inception, it has made a point of never recording the private data of Internet users and not targeting its results.
Source: The New York Times
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