What is the Purpose of DuckDuckGo?
You’ve probably heard about DuckDuckGo, or maybe your friends recommended it. People say it’s the best browser to protect your privacy online. But what does that mean, exactly?
In this article, we’ll explain the purpose of DuckDuckGo and how it functions. As you’ll see, this browser has so many benefits, you may want to give it a try!
It Protects Your Privacy
DuckDuckGo is an alternative to commercial browsers that track your information. Its founders were so concerned about their online security, they decided to create a private browser.
If you’re worried about sharing your information with Google, DuckDuckGo is the perfect place for you! You can be completely anonymous – the browser not only won’t know your name, location, age, but even your IP address will be hidden!
Even if you’re not concerned about search engines tracking you, you might want to learn more about the subject. Undoubtedly, Google knows more about you than anyone else. Using incognito mode when browsing doesn’t help much. Granted, the websites you visit may not be saved in your history, but that doesn’t mean Google won’t track you.
As Google itself says, that information may be available to your employer, school, or your Internet service provider. But not with DuckDuckGo! As stated on their website, there’s no way to tie your search queries or search history to you or your IP address.
It Provides Unbiased Search Results
As already mentioned, DuckDuckGo doesn’t keep any information about you or the things you’ve previously searched for. This means that each time you enter DuckDuckGo, it’s like entering a new browser that doesn’t know anything about you and offers you unbiased results.
If you believe that results on other browsers are unbiased as well, you can do a quick experiment. For the best comparisons, use a person much younger or much older than you and of the opposite sex. Those who want to go beyond can even reach out to a friend who’s living in another country.
All you have to do is type the same query into Google. It can be anything: who’s the best surgeon or best guitar player? Don’t be surprised if you end up with completely different search results! This simple exercise has opened the eyes of many people and made them switch to DuckDuckGo.
DuckDuckGo provides the same search results to everyone, as their goal is to deliver results relevant to the words you entered and not what they think you might be interested in.
Moreover, this browser is an ideal solution for people who want to get informed about things going on in other countries. Other browsers usually offer filtered results, adapted to people from your region and culture. Whereas DuckDuckGo allows you to see original news and make your own judgments.
Ads Policy Is Different
The following situation has happened to everyone at least once. Let’s say you searched for a particular pair of Nike shoes but then decided not to buy them. Thereafter, you’ll be seeing ads promoting those shoes everywhere! It’s enough to search for something once, not to have it haunt you all over the Internet!
But that doesn’t happen to DuckDuckGo users. The browser doesn’t retain information about your previous searches, nor anything else about you – your sex, age, region, etc. Therefore, you won’t get that kind of ad. But how do they create ads, then? Well, ads are based only on the thing you’re searching for at the present moment.
That said, you may be seeing sports shoe ads if you were looking for them. If that bothers you, just open a new tab, and they’ll disappear. Each time you open the DuckDuckGo browser, or even a new window, you get a fresh start. How fantastic is that?
Last but not least, DuckDuckGo has fewer ads than most commercial browsers. It also has an option that allows you to block the ads! While other search engines are bombarding you with advertisements, DuckDuckGo leaves the choice to you.
Does It Have Any Flaws?
DuckDuckGo isn’t perfect; it has some minor flaws. The company is much smaller than Google and other search engine giants, and they’re still working on improving search results. Allowing people to turn off ads doesn’t help much, as the company is losing a lot of money that way. As you can see, they put their users first, profits second.
Some people complain that DuckDuckGo doesn’t show enough images when you search for them, and that’s true. And unlike Google, it doesn’t provide a date of when an article was published. This can be somewhat misleading. Therefore, we wouldn’t recommend you DuckDuckGo if you have to write a paper and require accurate information.
However, DuckDuckGo still provides excellent results, and that’s enough to satisfy most people.
Give It a Try!
We hope that you now have a better understanding of DuckDuckGo and the reason why it was created. It’s not possible to explain everything in words – sometimes you have to try it yourself. That’s why we suggest you trial DuckDuckGo for a couple of days and see whether it works for you.
You could compare it with a browser that you usually use – the results would be interesting! Have you ever tried DuckDuckGo? Did you like it? Is there anything you’d like to change? Let us know in the comments section below.