without thinking about Google is almost akin to blasphemy. It dominates search like anything. It’s a verb too mind you. Ask a normal everyday web user and he wouldn’t know anything other than Google to search the web with. Although Google has worked really well all these years in terms of directing us to the information we seek, it has had a a few rocky and tumbling months lately in terms of user trust and confidence. It has of course introduced changes but I think this is the right time to check out some new players on the block, like this search engine you might have never heard of – DuckDuckGo. DuckDuckGo is a web search engine that has been surging in popularity primarily because it does the things that people want Google to do, which it doesn’t. Let us take a look at 5 of its features that might compel you to say goodbye to the world’s favorite search engine forever. Cool Tip: Do check out these amazing features of Wolfram Alpha search engine that we talked about sometime back.
1. Privacy
This first and the foremost advantage of using DuckDuckGo is their privacy policy. It does not collect or share personal information. No search record is ever created on DuckDuckGo and thus no one can trace it back to you. On the other hand, Google gleans over all your search history and records the searches you have made across all it’s services. Even if you are not signed in and are searching as an anonymous user, Google still records your computer’s IP data. Well, an average user won’t care about that, but if you sit down and think for a while, it’s really creepy. One can tell so much about you if he just knows what you search on the web. Think about it!
2. Clutter Free With No Ads
Before we take up this topic, let’s compare search results for a search term in both Google and DuckDuckGo. When compared to Google, DuckDuckGo searches are clean and ad free (at least for the time being). The ads on Google’s search result pages seem to be increasing lately. They also started thrusting Google+ results in the search which has irked many. DuckDuckGo gives you what may be helpful to you and not what’s valuable to its pockets. Not sure how long this status quo can be maintained by them but so far so good.
3. Zero-Click Info
Zero-click Info is a feature of DuckDuckGo that summarizes some search results and provides you a consolidated answer right at the top of the search results. This information is fetched from websites like Wikipedia, Crunchbase, The Free Dictionary and other reputed sources. Zero-Click Info can be very useful at times when you want to know the quick meaning of something. After reading the Zero-Click Info summary, you might not need to open a link in the search result page.
4. !Bang
The !Bang feature of DuckDuckGo lets you search hundreds of renowned sites directly. Just next to the search button there’s a small arrow where you can select some of the popular websites. If the website is not available, you can use the command like !GT and then the search query to directly translate the text using Google Translate. You can have a look at all the !bang commands on DuckDuckGo bang page.
5. One Page to Display ‘em all
3 out of 10 times, a person does not navigate to the 2nd page of Google’s results. On an average, if an individual does not get what he is looking for on the first page, he changes the search query. DuckDuckGo on the other hand, does not have the concept of pages. All the search results on DuckDuckGo are listed one after another, and as long as you keep scrolling down these results will keep showing up on the same page.
Is it Better Than Google?
I haven’t had a lot of time to test DuckDuckGo but it should be safe to assume that in terms of the vastness and accuracy of results it is behind Google. Google’s index and algorithm is superior and making a complete switch from Google to DuckDuckGo might not be feasible. Having said that, some of the above features are sure to appeal to many search users out there and may be they will keep it handy as a secondary tool for trying out now and then. What do you say about this new search engine? Tried it out yet?
