Stop Internet Tracking with DuckDuckGo

With all the internet privacy discussion it’s interesting to see someone doing online work that isn’t totally geared toward tracking information and building profiles to sell to third-parties. Gabriel Weinberg is doing just that. I came across DuckDuckGo a short while ago, and if you’re concerned about search engines harvesting and tracking your searches this could be the answer you’ve been looking for. DuckDuckGo is a search engine, but what makes it different is their policy not to track you and your searches. On their site they provide a link to an easy to follow illustration of how Google tracks your search queries and parces them out to third parties to give you those “relevant” ads. In addition, DuckDuckGo has some really cool built-in tools such as Zero-Click info which provides instant answers in a red box above its search links. They have short cut syntax options for site specific and utility queries. They boast less spam and search clutter, and of course real privacy is the main selling point calling card. I have been using DuckDuckGo exclusively for a few days and I have to say that it is a refreshing change of pace from my usual search experience. The results are relevant and the Zero-click functionality of the search engine works really well, often providing all the information I need in a red box above all the other links. No drilling down or additional clicking is required to get the information I want. The growth of Gabriel's basement project is impressive. In 2010 it saw its traffic grow 500% to 2.5 million searches a month - mostly by word of mouth.  I recommend DuckDuckGo as a viable option for searching the internet, but even if you decide not to use it, you should spend some time reading the privacy page on the site. It’s a great learning experience as to how tracking is conducted by the current search giants, third party sites, and ad companies.