New daily record for search engine DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo, the search engine that respects the privacy of its users, has set a new record for use with more than a 100 million daily search requests for the first time.
Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo reached a major milestone in its 12-year-old history this week when it recorded on Monday its first-ever day with more than 100 million user search queries.
The achievement comes after a period of sustained growth the company has been seeing for the past two years, and especially since August 2020, when the search engine began seeing more than 2 billion search queries a month on a regular basis. The numbers are small in comparison to Google’s 5 billion daily search queries but it’s a positive sign that users are looking for alternatives.
The numbers are still too small. Why is anyone who reads this still using Google? It is incredibly trivial to switch. More important, you will find that you are getting better information in your searches, as DuckDuckGo does not play favorites nor does it squelch results from some websites because it disagrees with their politics.
And best of all, your privacy will be better protected.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
DuckDuckGo, the search engine that respects the privacy of its users, has set a new record for use with more than a 100 million daily search requests for the first time.
Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo reached a major milestone in its 12-year-old history this week when it recorded on Monday its first-ever day with more than 100 million user search queries.
The achievement comes after a period of sustained growth the company has been seeing for the past two years, and especially since August 2020, when the search engine began seeing more than 2 billion search queries a month on a regular basis. The numbers are small in comparison to Google’s 5 billion daily search queries but it’s a positive sign that users are looking for alternatives.
The numbers are still too small. Why is anyone who reads this still using Google? It is incredibly trivial to switch. More important, you will find that you are getting better information in your searches, as DuckDuckGo does not play favorites nor does it squelch results from some websites because it disagrees with their politics.
And best of all, your privacy will be better protected.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
My search engine for some time. Try it…
If you’re searching for info on any controversial topic, open tabs and run the search on Google, Bing and DDG. The compared results are illuminating, to say the least…
I now use DDG for my searches always (V-Man, great suggestion, I already see it without even trying yet your idea, but will) and order things from anyplace other than amazon if possible. I am happy to have contributed to DDG’s numbers.
Made the move a short time ago. Was not happy with searches from Google.
I switched to DDG a little over a year ago. I am happy with the search results and I am glad I was a tiny part of these numbers.
Dumbells use google…switched to ddk years ago…Heaven help us…
Started using DDG after the Parler censorship and happy with the switch. Also went from Chrome to Brave for browsing and from Google Messages to Signal. In a few weeks I’ll be able to kill my Gmail account. As a credit to Google, they make it really easy to leave their platform.
I use Pale Moon as a browser–open source Mozilla engine, but not affiliated with Firefox in any way. A long time ago, they delisted Google as a search engine, and put DDG as their preferred default. I’ve been perfectly happy with the results.
I’ve been using start page after the creators did a show on Coast to Coast, too many years ago.
Description on their front page;
“You can’t beat Google when it comes to online search. So we’re paying them to use their brilliant search results in order to remove all trackers and logs. The result: The world’s best and most private search engine”
This means they do a search for you on Google with “start page” identity, not yours. So they don’t have your information, and start page does not save it.. They also have a wide range of options in Settings that allows you unusual search options you didn’t know we’re available.
When DuckDuckGo came along, I do a search with both for different results, I usually find what I’m looking for this way.
I’m using DDG more and more as the results of my start page have been coming back with less pages. Certain sites are now unavailable from Google, they are censored/shadow baned.
Joe Rosario: Make sure you dig into Google and delete your history there as well, both with Google’s search function as well as your gmail account. I did that when I dumped gmail about eight years ago (I used to use it as an email backup but have better ways now). Unfortunately, I can’t tell you how. A DuckDuckGo search might find you the webpage that described how.
Used it for years. Good product.
I question to what degree you can disconnect from Google and Apple when you use their operating systems.
Just switched.
Gary
Try Linux.
Most can be loaded onto a 6Gb flash drive and ran entirely from the flash drive so your windows machine is left unchanged.
The only google operating system i use is on a 6 year old tablet for reading at work..
https://distrowatch.com/
Gary: Ah but I don’t. I have been on Linux since 2006. I’ve even posted a series here on Behind the Black showing people how to switch to it. See this post:
Midnight repost: Switching to Linux
Yes, I’ve had multiple Ubuntu builds, but never happy with photo and video editors. It worked great as a media server.
I was thinking of my android phone in my post above.
Everyone should check which DNS service their ISP is using to connect you to where you want to go.
In Windows 10, go to ‘settings,’ then ‘network & internet,’ then scroll down to ‘advanced settings,’ then click on ‘view network and connection properties.’
(“Google Public DNS,” is the largest DNS service in the world. where btw, the querying address is stored for 24-48 hours, and the ISP and location information is stored permanently on google servers.) ((and only God and Mitt Romney, apparently, know what that giant Data Vacuuming Center in Utah scoops up on op of everything else…))
Gary: I see. Well, I don’t have a smart phone and never intend to get one, though if I did I would now look into the Gab phone.
Been using DDG for years – love it!
For those few times when you’d like to see what Google would return for a search, simply append “!g” (without the quotes) to your search string and DDG will run the search using Google, preserving your anonymity.
Thanks for the heads up. I just switched to ddg yesterday and so far so good. I guess I will miss those adds for everytime I would google a product.
Only time I go to Google is to search for DuckDuckGo.
If you haven’t already, check out VPN. I opted for a fixed server/address, so that financial services don’t think I’m trying to break into my account. It will also allow you to run a server from home.
In the time since Mr. Zimmerman graciously hosted my ramblings about Linux on Behind the Black, Linux has quietly has made great strides. Not just in design and development but also the way Linux is financed and governed, bringing more resources into the Linux realm then ever before. Rapid kernel development delivers more and more hardware support at the same time as hardware manufacturers are moving to support open standards and Linux. The Linux kernel now encompasses more processes in house resulting in more streamlined and standardized operating system designs. This in turn brings in more developers. Software packaging and development have been simplified with better management those pesky dependencies, again bringing more developers into the Linux corral. All this behind the scenes, making Linux more relevant then ever. Witness the Linux sub-system for Windows.
A user will find more elegant and powerful desktop environments and more software choices then ever as well as easier installation. All wile using less resources. In the past point releases of Linux have been the norm and this has some advantages. Stable, easy to manage and relatively small in size. But you need to replace the operating system and software about every five years or so when a release reaches it’s end of life and is no longer supported. Some distributions LinuxMint for example have a facility to allow you to do this while leaving your files in place, but it remains a point release, with fixed versions of software not necessarily the latest while still having a fixed end of life. This applies to Mac and Windows as well.
As Arch Linux and it’s derivatives like Manjaro enjoy wider use well behaved easy to manage long lived rolling Linux releases are possible. The operating system and software are contentiously upgraded as new operating system features and software versions become available without waiting for a release point. You will always the latest stable version of everything. This allows contentious support over extended periods of time, decades while immediately enjoying the latest Linux has to offer. The file system and your files and settings and other tweaks remain in place.
Now, I’ve been using Duck Duck Go since it’s inception not just for privacy but also for consistent search results. Many is the time I have told someone to Google that and find they are looking at a different search result. Let that happen a few times especially in business and you realize Google ain’t so great.
I thank Mr. Zimmerman for his continued advocacy of privacy freedom and Linux. It really is better.
Thanks James
What is the best EMail service that doesn’t use Google, Microsoft, or Amazon servers?
ProtonMail out of Switzerland. Give it a try.
https://protonmail.com/
I just switched to ProtonMail and have been happy with it with one exception – since it’s a privacy focused application, it does not allow access to the contact list from any other application, including your phone app. So, if you run PM on your smartphone, you cannot dial from the PM contact list and you do not get caller ID for those contacts. You can copy and paste a number from PM to your phone app, but there’s no direct access. I’m still trying to decide if that’s a workable option for me. They also have a Calendar app in Beta, but there’s no linkage between dates in the Contact list in PM (birthdays, anniversaries) and the Calendar, since the dates are encrypted. Just a couple of things to consider.
It seems one cannot import bookmarks to the Dissenter browser. It’s be such a simple thing, it’s silly if it really isn’t implemented.
@Gary
I’ve just started using Zoho mail (silly brand names is disease of our time). It’s user interface and functionality is very much like Gmail that I’m used to.
I can report from Sweden that all the largest alternative media channels online have been erased here too. And have not only their crowd funding services but also regular bank accounts cancelled. 87 percent of parliament is United in that all cricism of the regime must but criminalized “once and for all”. This is global, when the US sneezes…
Thanks..Proton Mail looks good.
What chat avoids Microsoft, Google and Amazon servers?
James and Bob, (or anyone else) can you run windows software on Linux?
jhon: The simple answer is yes, with caveats. For example, for years I used Eudora as my email program. Unfortunately, when I upgraded my hardware to a 64 bit machine the Wine emulator for Eudora no longer worked and I had to switch to Thunderbird as my email program.
Generally, one tries to switch to open source programs, such as OpenOffice and Thunderbird and Brave that work on all platforms. My graphics program is Gimp, also open source.
However, I still use a small handful of Windows programs, running them either with DOSBOX (a DOS emulator) or Wine.
Sorry..meant messaging service.
https://itsfoss.com/best-messaging-apps-linux/
Gary–
Way over my pay-grade, and correct me if I’m mistaken;
One can use various programs on various operating systems, to minimize the Usual Suspects from collecting data, but in the end your computer needs to access the internet, via a DNS service, to send & receive. and if it point to IP addresses 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4, = Google DNS server.
(don’t use Linux, so excuse if I sound like a newbie)
“How to find my DNS server IP address in Linux”
https://www.tecmint.com/find-my-dns-server-ip-address-in-linux/#:~:text=How%20to%20Find%20My%20DNS%20Server%20IP%20Address,you%20can%20use%20the%20following%20dig%20command.
Gary–
for my bank, my computer always shows up as unregistered (just the way I like it) [I clean my browser cache with the intensity of someone with OCD on amphetamines], requires I do the 2-factor authentication to access my account, but a minor 1st world annoyance. (on the theory if it’s tooo easy for me to get to my bank account, it’s way tooo easy for someone else.)
Using DDG, Qwant and Startpage for diversified results. The two European engines sometimes spit out intriguing stuff.
I use Duck Duck Go, but it still sucks somewhat. Search “American Inventors” and select Images. Why those weird results?
Duckduck uses Microsoft Bing
DDG is not so great as many are making it out to be.
Basically, they just use Bing’s results and tweak them a bit.
This is obvious by doing a search on the exact title of an article on say, Epoch Times on a hot news topic, and having nearly all slots on the first 2 pages being filled with Leftist rags.
Regarding “American inventors”, “American-African” is on the title of many of those pics that rank high for that search, so you get a bunch of pics of guys no one has ever heard of.
Still, DDG is way, way better than Google. I went there for the first time in over a year the other day, did an exact search for the title of a book (Great Controversy) that has been on my web site for over 20 years, and was surprised to see how poor Google’s results were – mostly just links to wiki, amazon, google sites etc.
I am currently running DDG on my TOR Browser but I have been using Startpage on my non TOR browser for years, a little better privacy protection.
But I have to say it. Startpage doesn’t pull in the information it used to. I am not certain, cut I think it is because it relies too much on the Google Indexes.
I have seen things just up and disappear from Start Page searches that just a few weeks earlier got me good results.
Been using DDG for almost a year and very satisfied with it, but readers should be aware that DDG staff political donations have been exclusively to Dems. The people running DDG are just as far to the left as those running Google, FB, and Twitter, but at least they manage to maintain professional integrity and keep their political bias out of their work.
“Private Search Engine Comparison”
(May 2020)
https://www.startpage.com/privacy-please/privacy-advocate-articles/private-search-engine-comparison
Mark, google and bing bring up the same list of images for that search. IIRC, google came up first with it, others just seem to have followed suit.
“Mark
January 21, 2021 at 4:18 am
I use Duck Duck Go, but it still sucks somewhat. Search “American Inventors” and select Images. Why those weird results?”
More than likely because every single African American high school kid was recently told to look for African American inventors. And more than likely it has been happening for the last 10 years.
As with all search engines the more frequently a subject comes up the higher its ranked.
Look up the name Jackson and tell me when you find President Jackson.