User Traffic on DuckDuckGo Skyrockets

DuckDuckGo, a search engine focused on privacy by not tracking user data, has skyrocketed in user traffic by over 600 percent since 2013.

2013 saw the revolutionary discoveries of Edward Snowden, a former CIA worker, who revealed classified information of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). The revelations informed the public that the American government was monitoring its citizens by tracking their interactions, movements, consumption habits and data. Understandably, this discovery led to a significant amount of controversy amongst the American citizenry, and opened up the realm of debate concerning privacy issues.

As a platform that generates trillions of searches yearly, Google aggregates data from its users to sell to advertisers for profit. “Google tracks you on all of these other sites because they run huge advertising networks and other properties like Gmail and photos… so they need that search engine data to track you,” explained Gabriel Weinberg,the Jewish founder of DuckDuckGo. “That’s why ads follow you around the Internet.”

On the other hand, DuckDuckGo solely generates profit from keyword advertising that advertisers bid for. For example, if one were to search “cellphone,” advertisements for various cellphones would automatically pop up on the search page. It’s as simple as that – no tailored ads that follow you around the Internet, like with Google.

“What consumers don’t really understand is that their data is being leaked for other reasons they don’t even realize,” explained Weinberg of Google.

According to Weinberg, browsing incognito does not help either, as Google is still tracking your every click, and your Internet service provider (ISP) is still monitored.

The search engine further demonstrates its commitment to privacy and efficiency by allowing users a less amount of clicks to find what they are searching for. This is done through features, such as instant answer, themes and !bangs.

Putting ! before a search for a specific website allows users to search pages that are present solely on the given site that is being searched. !bangs are currently available for a number of other sites, including those of Facebook, Twitter and eBay.

As a budding tech company, DuckDuckGo is slowly garnering traction from the public, and hopes to help users concerning search privacy.