I switched from Google to DuckDuckGo's private search: 5 significant takeaways

Google is far and away the most common look for engine—but sometimes it can come to feel much more like Major Brother and less like a friendly assistant. In truth, for people worried about privacy, Google oversteps some boundaries by collecting your personalized info, and serving you ads based on what it collects. Enter DuckDuckGo, a privacy-focused lookup motor with its individual desktop extension and cellular browser app.

DuckDuckGo touts alone as the anti-Google, promising not to track or obtain your details. It presents a clean interface and acquainted structure, and presents many of the options you’ve arrive to assume from a search engine—but with no these invasive details trackers. (If privacy is a concern of yours, also think about switching from Google Chrome to Firefox.)

On paper, DuckDuckGo appears like a deserving competitor. But how does it actually stack up to Google? To find out, I switched to DuckDuckGo and applied the provider completely for a 7 days. Here are my 5 important takeaways.

1. DuckDuckGo is refreshing

DuckDuckGo’s privateness functions surprised me with how liberating they come to feel. The service insists that it does not obtain person data or keep track of you throughout unique web sites. It also doesn’t associate your browsing with your IP address, and will not conserve your research historical past.

For someone who has made use of Google most of his grownup lifestyle, this feels oddly refreshing. I barely try to remember a time when my each transfer wasn’t tracked, analyzed, and then marketed back to me via focused recommendations and advertisements. 

Using DuckDuckGo brought me back to a less complicated time when a lookup engine was only there to remedy questions like, “What is the best notebook under $1000?” or “What was Tim Robbins’ character’s nickname in Major Gun?” (It was Merlin.)

Privacy is the most significant attract of DuckDuckGo, and it applies it in a way that does not experience proscribing. The overall time I was working with the lookup motor, I didn’t feel inconvenienced by the lack of personalization. Contrary to Google, DuckDuckGo won’t vehicle-counsel new lookups since it doesn’t acquire your lookup heritage, but this felt like a compact selling price to pay back for much more private searching.

One more refreshing privateness element: DuckDuckGo actively blocks exterior trackers from next you close to on the internet. So, not only does the service alone hold your searching personal, it also helps prevent third functions from tracking you as properly.

2. DuckDuckGo has a excellent UI

Just before I commenced applying DuckDuckGo, I had this graphic of a bare-bones research engine, a la early 2000s Google. It proved me incorrect. Incredibly erroneous. The DuckDuckGo designers have place a large amount of believed into usability, and it shows. The interface is aesthetically satisfying with a clean up and straightforward structure that does not try to reinvent the wheel.

Sam Singleton

Make no oversight, DuckDuckGo has a identical experience to Google (but then all over again, so do all modern-day search engines). Aspects these as ad placements and awareness panels are ripped straight from Google. This is not automatically a knock on DuckDuckGo, nonetheless. The engine’s “if it ain’t broke, really don't resolve it” method to layout operates completely well. 

They’ve even cleaned it up a little bit and extra some welcome improvements. For instance, DuckDuckGo doesn’t break up success throughout webpages. Alternatively, when you arrive at the base of a web page, you can just click on “See much more results” in an countless scroll. This is a minor tweak, but it felt far better than clicking again and forth through web pages and pages.

3. Of course, you can escape from advertisements

This kind of goes alongside with the to start with place on this record: Since DuckDuckGo doesn’t keep track of your browsing history, it simply cannot supply you with focused individualized ads.

As you use its providers, Google results in a profile on you dependent on own info, these types of as your lookup practices and buying background. This info is then utilized to advertisement focusing on, foremost to hugely distinct adverts popping up on seemingly every single internet site you visit. For example, when I searched Google for stuffed toys to purchase for my younger nephew’s birthday, each site I frequented for the subsequent handful of months retained displaying me Pokemon plushies in their banner advertisements.

But I experienced none of these identical ad hauntings when using DuckDuckGo. When I searched for a little something, the final results webpage would exhibit only a couple similar commercials alongside the suitable-hand facet, or earlier mentioned the very first effects. These adverts were only applicable to what I was looking, and hardly ever adopted me around while browsing other sites. In point, although using DuckDuckGo, I recognized much less adverts in basic. In a day and age when we’re constantly bombarded with flashing adverts and pop-ups, this built for a actually pleasant browsing practical experience.

Sam Singleton

4. You will trade some research smarts for privateness

Google is fantastic for locating matters I just simply cannot pretty don't forget. I enter a couple of random details that I do try to remember, and it will generally will give me the response. When I tried these same sorts of lookups with DuckDuckGo, it just did not have the algorithms (or info?) to deliver. 

In the screenshot beneath, you can see that I was seeking for the identify of a motion picture (Males Who Stare at Goats) centered on a random scene. Since I didn’t know the movie’s title, I instead searched employing “film george clooney do you have superpowers scene”. Google returned the movie I was seeking for on the initially final result, even though DuckDuckGo just could not uncover it. Now this is a rather certain example, but people have occur to count on Google providing fantastic results with sparse inputs.

Sam Singleton

Of system, one particular of the most important motives Google is so successful is that it collects and merchants person info, and then tailors it for personalization. Without tapping into a large library of contextual knowledge, DuckDuckGo will continue on to tumble behind Google in returned consequence accuracy.

5. I definitely overlook Google maps

Following exclusively utilizing DuckDuckGo for a week, I can say that I formally skip the way Google search seamlessly hooks into Google maps. Guaranteed, DuckDuckGo has a maps characteristic presented by Apple, but it is not the same. Just like when I’m employing an Iphone, I prefer to use Google Maps alternatively than the pre-put in Apple Maps. It just feels improved in conditions of the out there details and its reliability.

Sam Singleton

One thing else I missed is immediate obtain to the entire Google ecosystem. Equally in my private and expert lifestyle, I have appear to depend on Google applications this sort of as Push and Google Workspaces. Google has done a wonderful work connecting all of their attributes seamlessly alongside one another. Not staying capable to integrate these with my look for engine practical experience felt like I was lacking a piece of the puzzle.

Will I switch to DuckDuckGo completely? Really should you?

Must you swap to DuckDuckGo? It depends on what you want from your look for engine. Do you benefit privateness over all else? Then go ahead and make the swap. Do you want the most exact outcomes and most superior features? Then you’ll want to stick with Google.  

As for me, I prepare to keep on employing DuckDuckGo. I’m a jaded millennial and I grew up in the age of web data tracking. I had prolonged ago recognized that my privacy would be sacrificed for extra correct success. But what I identified from this minimal experiment was that, for the most component, what we’re all looking for on line is quite very simple and uncomplicated. 

Although Google is equipped to accurately guess what you’re wanting for, a little bit a lot more hand-holding is expected with DuckDuckGo. This does not signify that DuckDuckGo simply cannot locate what you’re soon after. It just suggests that you may perhaps have to modify your look for parameters. The streamlined Google net searching I have turn out to be accustomed to by means of cookies, vehicle-fill, and personalization are of system a usefulness. But devoid of these bells and whistles, the results are largely the exact same.

And I determine, if the outcomes are the very same, why not err on the side of privacy?