DuckDuckGrow: Popularity of 'anti-Google' search engine DuckDuckGo increases by 600 per cent after Snowden disclosures
Search engine that does not store user details booms in popularity after Edward Snowden's NSA surveillance disclosures
DuckDuckGo, the search engine that promises not to track its users, has boomed in popularity since US National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the extent of security services' online surveillance activities.
The search engine - aided by a deal with Apple - has seen a 600 per cent increase in queries, with DuckDuckGo now handling three billion search queries every year, according to its CEO Gabe Weinberg.
However, StatCounter still rates DuckDuckGo in the US well below Google, which enjoys a dominant 90 per cent market share and which uses a wide range of techniques to extensively profile users whether they are logged in or not.
Indeed, DuckDuckGo remains less popular than second-place Yahoo, which has a market share of less than seven per cent and uses Microsoft's Bing search technology, which holds third place with a mere three per cent.
But although it has less than one per cent of the US online search market, according to StatCounter, and globally does not even register, Weinberg believes that the company can continue to grow and take market share while respecting users' privacy.
"It's really a myth that you need to track people to make money in search. We make money with keyword advertising. Type in 'car' and you get a car ad, and it's really that straightforward... The most lucrative advertising is things like mortgages and cars and people bid for those keyword searches," Weinberg told CNBC.
"Google tracks you on all these other sites because they run huge advertising networks and other properties, like Gmail and photos, and so they need that search engine data to track you. That's why ads follow you around the internet," he said.
People want transparency and control, Weinberg added, but are getting neither, from either Google, Yahoo or Microsoft Bing.
Over the past two years, as DuckDuckGo's growth has gathered pace, the company has improved its search engine algorithms and added Google-like features, such as image searches.
Other search engines include Privatelee, Startpage, and IxQuick.
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