“Apple is in an outright war with Google and lawsuit wins against Samsung while helpful to the tune of a few hundred million dollars are great, to compete with Android the company must attack the very core of Google which is search. DuckDuckGo is the more secure alternative to Google Search. It isn’t as robust or as useful but at least the chairman of the company didn’t say that if you don’t want people to know what you are doing online, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place,” Rich Tehrani writes for TMCnet. “While Google spreads itself thinner and thinner, the opportunity may exist to take on their core competency.”
“In order to compete with Google, you need to at least think the way they do,” Tehrani writes. “Google does search amazingly well. In addition, they have been buying content like Zagat’s and scraping other content to keep searchers within the Google home page – not needing to go to particular websites for more detail.”
“Bing hasn’t been a strong counter to the company and Google is a monopoly for all practical purposes,” Tehrani writes. “For competitive reasons, Apple should be the number one choice as an acquirer of DuckDuckGo…”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If you really want to wage thermonuclear war, wage thermonuclear war.
Related articles:
Why Google really, truly, deeply hates Apple – May 30, 2014
Is Apple’s next big thing search? – April 7, 2014
Why doesn’t Apple do its own search engine? – March 13, 2014
DuckDuckGo launches ‘DuckDuckGo Search and Stories’ for iPhone and iPod touch – June 27, 2013
DuckDuckGo search engine surges 33% in wake of PRISM scandal – June 20, 2013
Pure search engine DuckDuckGo sees usage soar – November 12, 2012
Yep! And I seldom say “yep.”
I installed the Duck-Duck-Go Safari extension a few weeks ago. I’d been relying on Yahoo up until then, but Yahoo delivers the same paid search results as Google. The author praises Google’s results, but maybe that’s because he’s never used a search application that returns only the most relevant results, and not results designed to sell you something. DDG doesn’t do paid placement of search results, so you get the most relevant results, and you can actually feel the difference. You’re in control of your results, not someone on the other end who’s selling your viewing experience. Go to Safari>Extensions and search for the Duck-Duck-Go extension. You’ll love it.
You can get the extension for Safari on the desktop here:
https://extensions.apple.com/?q=duckduckgo
I downloaded the extension, then quit and started Safari. Safari>Preferences>Browser does not list DDG. How do I get it to be the default?
You should be able to search via the URL bar at the top and it will just take you to DuckDuckGo instead of Google or whatever default you have.
Jeffrey, you shouldn’t have to do anything. Once it’s installed DDG will be your default search engine. If you want to change some options or even disable it, look for it in Preferences>Extensions.
–> There is a second DuckDuckGo extension called DuckDuckGoBar created by Victor Quinn:
https://github.com/vaporstun/duckduckgo-safari-extension/tree/master/DuckDuckGoBar.safariextension
The last update was in 2010, but it works fine. It adds a DuckDuckGo search bar below the Safari toolbar.
–> AND I also access DuckDuckGo searches using Glims, which you can check out here:
http://www.machangout.com
I have provided a bunch of new Glims search parameters over at its MacUpdate page, including a couple for DuckDuckGo. Scan down the page’s comments and reviews to find them.
I did the same. I like it so far.
Whilst at it download the mobile app DuckDuckGo Search & Stories, just updated. Funny photo finds, & fascinating stories
i use Epic browser, works for me, blocks trackers as a plus, and lots of ads
Downloaded. Like it
They may as well buy Yelp! while they are at it too. The combination of duckduckgo and Yelp! with Apple Maps, etc. would be very compelling.
Oh please, please do this. At least offer it as an option if they don’t buy them.
Why _buy_ DuckDuckGo? Just encourage it’s use by making it default or something.
But in any case be prepared for the massive PR fit that Groggle will throw, I hear they’re writing cheques already. It’ll make Maps press coverage seem almost trivial.
Why buy DDG? In case one of their arch enemies figures to buy it and pull the carpet out from under Apple’s feet.
I doubt they would sell, after making respect for user privacy a moral foundation of their offerings, knowing that any purchaser would have little compunction about dismantling those protections.
Yes, it is widely believed that everyone has his price. Yet one wishes for the rare exception to this cruel axiom.
This is already a problem since DuckDuckGo doesn’t do most of their own indexing. They use Yandex and Bing.
If those (especially Bing) pulls the run DuckDuckGo is in trouble.
My go-to search engine for the last six months. I still use Bing and Google on occasion, but for 95% of searches, DuckDuckGo is great.
If you haven’t tried DuckDuckGo yet, you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised. It just got an overhaul with new features:
http://duckduckgo.com
DuckDuckGo does not track you nor does it filter bubble you the way Google does. I’d love to see Apple buy it and then make it the default search engine on all Apple products.
And if you want a backup to DDG, try Blekko.
If Apple truly wanted to injure Google, it would do this. However, I think Apple just wants Google to get out of Apple’s sandbox and go play in its own sandbox.
The problem is that Google isn’t going anywhere.
Apple will have to “convince” them to go.
They will never convince them to go, as Apple’s mobile “app based” strategy is already a threat to Google. To counter that is the reason that Google launched Android in the first place.
You can also see all of the new features of DuckDuck go here:
https://duckduckgo.com/whatsnew
I’ve got the Duckduckgo app on my iPhone and mini. I have bing on Safari. Fu;k Gaagle.
Get the DDG Safari extension for your Mac. You’ll love it.
Just did, nice!
Free DuckDuckGo iOS app:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/duckduckgo-search-stories/id663592361?mt=8
Apple can only do this when there’s a viable, truly comparable, sticky option.
Otherwise people will just switch back to Google.
We’d quickly see headlines from stats showing 90% of iOS users switching back to Google and in people’s minds this would just make Google even stronger than they are now.
But they can’t get any weaker without more competition, and I’ve been dreaming of apple search for a long long time, and will I will keep dreaming because this isn’t going to happen.
I like it. I like it a lot.
That name has to DuckDuckGo.
Should Apple acquire them, the name will be changed to Searchlight
Or Sherlock?
Searchheavy. 😉
Why?
Does DuckDuckGo actually do anything search related better than Google? Seems like its only killer feature is that some people put naive trust in its security based on it not being run by a giant multinational corporation – how’s that supposed to work after it gets acquired by Apple?
If Apple has a unique plan to do actually do search better than Google, what do they need DuckDuckGo for?
Apple doesn’t just do things for the sake of revenge. If that’s what If Apple changed into that, it would be sad company with pathetic products.
You mean like that Google company you work for?
Excellent response!
By cleverly implying I have a much better paying job than I really have, and deftly avoiding every point I actually made, you really showed me what’s what.
I now have much to reconsider in light of your incisive rebuttal.
Bravo, sir or madam, bravo!
I wholeheartedly agree! DuckDuckGo has been my primary search engine (Bing is a backup). I tell everyone to use DuckDuckGo. Been pretty much successful in getting people to convert.
I could be totally off base, but isn’t DDG just a way to use other search engines anonymously? Kind of like a man-in-the-middle they conduct the search for you and strip out all the ads and your identity.
No. DDG is it’s own search engine.
No. DDG could not afford to compete against Google or anyone else, so they use Google and other search engines to get their results.
No. DDG could not afford to compete against Google or anyone else, so they use Google and other search engines to get their results.
I’ll like good products to succeed, I’ll like Google to have competition etc.
BUT the problem with Search is that there is no money in it UNLESS you invade privacy like Google . It makes so much money TARGETING ads to consumers, TV etc targeting is crude by comparison.
. Goog doesn’t just have the best algorithms but it is also the best in spying and unhanded business practices like ranking search results (another money earner). Bing loses huge chunks of money.
Maybe valuing privacy and the desire to be “fair” is stopping Apple from seriously entering Search.
No.
1) DuckDuckGo is an Open Source project. Let’s leave it that way.
2) DuckDuckGo is still significantly unfinished. It JUST started addressing image searches directly and has a ways to go.
3) DuckDuckGo provides its users with a lot of non-commercial perks that might well be killed off by Apple:
– a) NO HTTP, aka HTTPS/SSL always.
– b) NO JavaScript (ECMAScript), aka no drive-by anything.
– c) NO cookies, aka no surveillance of any kind.
– d) NO advertising.
I’d rather Apple simply supported the DuckDuckGo project with staff and money while making it the default search engine everywhere in its software. That would be mighty sweet!
I’m all for it! DDG is a great service/ tech, and Apple is certainly in a position to utilize its full potential.
I haven’t used google anything in years, except YouTube to watch videos. I use DDG and startpage.com for search, mostly startpage. I know it uses google’s algorithms, but somehow privately I think.
Not with that name…
Then This Happened:
With Apple’s blessing, a private search option arrives in Safari
DuckDuckGo doesn’t track users, says traffic rose 300 percent post-Snowden.
Among the flurry of announcements from Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco on Monday was the revelation that a privacy-conscious search engine will now come as a built-in option in the OS X Yosemite and iOS 8 versions of Safari. The installed versions will default to Google, but DuckDuckGo is now available as a secondary choice. Previously, DuckDuckGo could only be used as an add-on.
Much prefer Blekko. But DDG is my second choice.
DDG sells to apple I’m out of here.