DuckDuckGo: Difference between revisions

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DuckDuckGo is an American software company focused on online privacy, and was founded in 2008 by Gabriel Weinberg.<ref> https://duckduckgo.com/about </ref>     

DuckDuckGo had removed/de-ranked certain content, raising concerns about the extent of its unrestricted search results.<ref> https://www.pcmag.com/news/duckduckgo-to-down-rank-sites-associated-with-russian-disinformation</ref><ref> https://torrentfreak.com/duckduckgo-removes-pirate-sites-and-youtube-dl-from-its-search-results-220415/</ref>

DuckDuckGo has had moments of questionable privacy. Examples of this include the incident where DuckDuckGo browser had specifically allowed Microsoft trackers to continue running, at the expense of user privacy.<ref> https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/duckduckgo-browser-allows-microsoft-trackers-due-to-search-agreement/</ref>

DuckDuckGo primarily generates revenue through showing ads in the search results. The advertisements are only indicative of the keywords used in the search.<ref> https://umatechnology.org/the-truth-about-duckduckgo-monetization/</ref> In addition to this, DuckDuckGo also earns income from subscription fees paid to access its Privacy Pro feature.<ref> https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/privacy-pro </ref> This subscription sells DuckDuckGo VPN, Personal Information Removal, Identity Theft Restoration, and Advanced AI models.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Weinberg |first=Gabriel |date=4 Sep 2025 |title=The DuckDuckGo subscription now includes more advanced AI chat models, along with VPN & more |url=https://spreadprivacy.com/ai-subscription/ |url-status=live |access-date=21 Nov 2025 |website=spreadprivacy.com}}</ref>

According to Statista, DuckDuckGo takes up around 2% of the U.S. search engine market. More prevalent search engines such as [[Google]], and to a lesser degree, [[Bing]], take up most of the search engine market.<ref>https://www.statista.com/statistics/1220046/duckduckgo-search-engine-market-share-by-region/</ref> However, when compared to other privacy-focused search engines DuckDuckGo is one of the most prevalent.<ref>https://www.cloudwards.net/search-engine-statistics/</ref>

DuckDuckGo had removed the search results for numerous popular pirate websites, including The Pirate Bay, 1337x, and Fmovies. DuckDuckGo responded that it was not intentional and the source of the issues was with [[Bing]]'s data. The search results for the mentioned website were restored by 19 April 2022.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Van der Sar |first=Ernesto |title=DuckDuckGo ‘Removes’ Pirate Sites and YouTube-DL from Its Search Results (Updated) |url=https://torrentfreak.com/duckduckgo-removes-pirate-sites-and-youtube-dl-from-its-search-results-220415/ |website=TorrentFreak |date=15 Apr 2022 |access-date=21 Nov 2025 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220419151120/https://torrentfreak.com/duckduckgo-removes-pirate-sites-and-youtube-dl-from-its-search-results-220415/ |archive-date=19 Apr 2022}}</ref> Many websites that could be considered questionable remained unsearchable, however, raising concerns about smaller search engines' reliance on data from Bing.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Van der Sar |first=Ernesto |title=DuckDuckGo ‘Restores’ Pirate Sites and Points to Bing as Culprit |url=https://torrentfreak.com/duckduckgo-restores-pirate-sites-and-points-to-bing-220419/ |website=TorrentFreak |date=19 Apr 2022 |access-date=21 Nov 2025 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220419102608/https://torrentfreak.com/duckduckgo-restores-pirate-sites-and-points-to-bing-220419/ |archive-date=19 Apr 2022}}</ref>

===Political censorship (''2025'')===