Key Difference – DuckDuckGo vs Google
 

The key difference between Google and DuckDuckGo is that Google tracks your privacy and records your search whereas DuckDuckGo does not track privacy or save your search history. We all have wondered what our default search engine should be. Some use Bing, while others use Yahoo and most use Google. But have you considered options like DuckDuckGo? How does DuckDuckGo compare with Google? Let us take a closer look at Google and DuckDuckGo and see how they compare and what they have to offer.

CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is DuckDuckGo
3. What is Google
4. What is the difference between DuckDuckGo and Google
5. Side by Side Comparison – DuckDuckGo vs Google
6. Summary

What is DuckDuckGo?

DuckDuckGo is very different when compared to Google. DuckDuckGo displays information over traditional results. This is known as Zero-click info as you get the information from zero clicks. This information comes with topic summaries, related topics, and images to your search queries. Other information provided by the search engine include category pages, similar concepts, and related group topics. These pages help you to discover useful information related to the information you are looking for that cannot be attained from normal search.

DuckDuckGo uses a proprietary technology known as semantic topic detection which helps in searching for results for your queries. If you are to type an ambiguous term, DuckDuckGo will ask you for the meaning and provide you with more targeted content on the topic. If you have typed in topics within it, it will detect these topics and adjust search results accordingly to target them.

DuckDuckGo also tries to eliminate the garbage from your search result page to help you find the information you are looking for faster and with less mental effort. It will produce results that does not have much clutter, spam, and ads. People will usually click back and forth when using Google search in trying to find the information they are looking for. This is because a lot of information that is displayed does not make any sense at all. DuckDuckGo tries to reduce the clutter to produce the accurate information you are looking for.

To achieve less clutter, DuckDuckGo draws on human sources that have titles and descriptions written by actual people rather than computers. This will result in simpler links. The official sites will be detected and placed on the top on the search result pages. The official site is also labeled. So, if you are looking directly for an official site, you can go there without any deliberation.

In order to deal with spam, DuckDuckGo takes a top-down approach as well as a bottom-up approach. In partnership with Parked Domain Project, DuckDuckGo crawls the web to identify and eliminated spam from their website results. Most of these domains will be visible in the Google index. From a top-down point of view, DuckDuckGo draws on spam from human powered resources and rejects them from their search results. By taking these approaches, DuckDuckGo displays search results that contain less spam from the outset.

DuckDuckGo provides a simpler interface. The users will be able to get a more pleasant user experience. It can also support bigger text, bigger clickable areas which increase usability and making it easier for the eyes and brain.

Figure 01: Screenshot of Duckduckgo main page

What is Google?

Google search is a search engine owned by Google Inc. It is the most used search engine on the web. It handles around 3 billion searches a day. Google is an American Multinational company. It is based in California. Google was founded by Larry page and Sergey Brin in September 1998.

Google mainly functions as a search engine hunting down text in publicly accessible documents offered by web servers. The search results will be displayed according to priority rank called Page Rank. Google search also offers customized search. With the original word search option, the user can use 22 special features including synonyms, time zones, language translations, etc., In 2011 Google introduced voice search and search by image, allowing users to search using their voice or by giving images.

Google search comes powered with a series of localized websites. Queries are expanded and submitted to retrieve search results. Google’s home page comes with a button labeled “I’m feeling lucky.” Its intention is to find the perfect match for your query the first time, without needing any search for results. If the site is known to install malicious software, the search result will come with a flag.

Google has had concerns with web search privacy. Google is available in many languages. It has been localized or partially available according to countries.

Figure 02: Google main page on a laptop

What is the difference between Google and DuckDuckGo?

Search

Both Google and DuckDuckGo have almost the same search functionality. You will usually find the same content when searching from both the search engines. Google’s search is more personalized whereas DuckDuckGo provides private browsing. DuckDuckGo comes with a feature called Bangs that helps you search for content very quickly from a specific website.

History

Google tracks your history while DuckDuckGo does not track your history. DuckDuckGo does not use your history to monetize it using every search. DuckDuckGo does not use cookies or store IP addresses or use any google related products.

Zero-click Info

DuckDuckGo helps you find useful information without the need to clicking on links.

Disambiguation

DuckDuckGo helps narrow down your search.

Summary – Duckduckgo vs Google

It is clear that both search engines perform and operate relatively the same way. One key difference between Duckduckgo and Google is the privacy; Google tracks your privacy whereas DuckDuckGo does not track your privacy. However, both the search engines will offer you almost the same information you are looking for.

Image Courtesy:
1. “DuckDuckGo screenshot” By DuckDuckGo, Inc.  (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “1330162” (Public Domain) via Pixabay

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pbXFn5yrnZ6YsqOx07CcnqZemLyue8OinZ%2Bdopq7pLGMm5ytr5Wau26w1Jyina2ToLSwecCnm2auo2K0sLvGpZxo