Are you Ready to ‘Join the Duck Side’?

Every day, around the world, thousands of searches are being conducted via the internet. These days we use a search engine for everything; when we need directions, for information to complete assignments, to find people and jobs and so much more.

Search Engines

Search engines facilitate our searches, locating relevant information across the World Wide Web. Results are ranked on sites containing the most relevant information.

The most popular search engine is Google. But in recent years people have started to become disillusioned with how Google works. Some of these people have started to use alternative search engines such as DuckDuckGo and Qwant.

DuckDuckGo works in the same way as other search engines. But, unlike the more well-known search engines like Google and Bing, DuckDuckGo does not store IP addresses or user details.

Google tracks you as you conduct searches of medical terms, places you are going, legal and financial issues and all the other personal, mundane things in between.

Why do they do this?

Quite honestly, they track you in order to wrap your personal data in a pretty ribbon and present it to their advertisers, who in return follow you around the internet; to make profit!

Even Private/Incognito mode is misleading, all that happens is your local browsing history gets deleted when you end a session on your device. Google is still tracking you, which means your activity could be available to websites you visit, your employer, your school and your internet service provider.

DuckDuckGo don’t track you, your private searches won’t be accessible in data profiles or by the Government. And Google don’t simply follow you through searches but across the platforms they provide – YouTube, Gmail and Chrome to name a few. To make it clearer, three quarters of the top million websites have Google trackers loitering in the background. In comparison, Facebook comes in second with trackers in only a quarter of the top million websites.

Why DuckDuckGo?

With the increasing interest in online media and how it impacts our lives, through documentaries such as The Social Dilemma, it’s time we contemplate whether the internet giants and all the benefits they have to offer are worth our lives being hacked into. But that’s a blog for another time. However, DuckDuckGo market themselves as a trustworthy alternative that offers the search tools we need without being all about profit and while our data remains safe (or perhaps safer?!).

DuckDuckGo do a great job of detailing where they differ from Google, but here a few reasons you might want to Join the Duck Side:

Privacy

DuckDuckGo do not collect or share personal data. Searches cannot be traced back to you. You might wonder why this matters unless you’re up to something dodgy. Think about it though; if you consider how often you search the internet, about a multitude of different issues, it’s a disturbing notion to think how much information can be gleaned about you from just your search criteria.

No Tracking

DuckDuckGo doesn’t track you. Adverts don’t follow you around the web trying to convince you to buy baby products simply because you bought your newborn niece a birthday present recently.

Ad-free

When you search across DuckDuckGo the pages are clean and ad-free. All that is returned is information that can help your search request and not data they are being paid to present you with.

Zero-click info

This is beneficial when you are looking to establish the meaning of something. Information is summarised from sites such as Wikipedia, and often you might not even need to click through to the page to obtain the information you’re after.

One Page Search

Search results are listed continually when a search is returned, which means no page 2 results. So, you just need to keep scrolling to find what you’re looking for.

Is it better than Google?

DuckDuckGo is a mere search engine. It doesn’t have a network of other platforms that over time pieces you together to create a digital identity.

As an individual concerned about privacy and uneasy about the tech giants knowing too much then DuckDuckGo is for you.

From a business perspective however Google’s platform probably adds far more convenience, and helps businesses meet many online, marketing and business objectives that far outweigh the negatives.

Search Engine Optimisation High Wycombe

So, there you have it. DuckDuckGo provides a great privacy centric search platform that helps you find the answer to your search. If that’s what you’re looking for give it a try and let us, here at Cyber Sushi Design, know what you think over on our Facebook page.