What Is DuckDuckGo?

Everyone knows Google.

Most people know Yahoo.

A few less know Bing.

But have you ever heard of DuckDuckGo?

DuckDuckGo is the newest search engine on the block and is getting some pretty decent attention around the globe.

Originally launched in 2008, DuckDuckGo but only reached the landmark of 1,000,000 searches a day in 2012. They grew to 2,000,000 a day by June 10, 2013 and only 8 days later grew that number to 3,000,000 searches a day.

My prediction is that DuckDuckGo will be the fastest growing search engine in 2016. (And the stats appear to make this look like a pretty safe prediction)

What’s so great about DuckDuckGo and what makes it different than the others?

First, their search algorithm appears to be doing a decent job.

***At the risk of sounding overly promotional, a quick search for “Vancouver Island Marketing Agency” brings Siren Consulting Firm up at the top of the pack right below the paid ads.

They’ve also given their previously criticized (and pretty ugly) design a facelift, and it’s a bit of a breath of fresh air from users who are bored of seeing the same Google, Yahoo, and Bing homepages.

Probably the most appreciated feature however is the fact that unlike the other engines, they don’t track your movements around the web.

Not tracking it’s users is good, but it also has a few downsides.

First the good.

Obviously nobody likes being “spied on”, and marketers have been using this information for years to track their target markets movement across the world wide web (cough cough)

Now, the downside however is that by not tracking user behaviour they’re unable to come up with more detailed and targeted responses. They can’t customize answers, or learn your search behaviour to offer you a more unique and personalized set of responses. Maybe this is good? Maybe it’s not.

Takeaway Search Engine Advice (Which one provides the best results?)

My take away advice is to give it a shot if you’re looking for a change, but I’d be very slow to abandon the Google, the ubiquitous and behemoth search engine. Google’s algorithm is simply way more advanced than its competitions and has years and years, and billions of dollars invested to ensure it will continue to provide the best answers to all your questions. Google is still the best.

From a marketing and SEO (search engine optimization) perspective it will be interesting to see how their search algorithm is based, and whether it seems to swing more in the direction of Google (which gives more weight to off-page signals) or Yahoo and Bing (where on-page optimization seems to take precedence)

Either way, a solid search engine optimization strategy rooted in valuable, relevant, helpful, and properly optimized content is always the best plan both for now, and in the future, regardless of which search engine your customers are using to find your business.