I SWITCHED FROM GOOGLE TO DUCKDUCKGO'S PRIVATE SEARCH: 5 BIG TAKEAWAYS

PROMISING UTMOST PRIVACY, DUCKDUCKGO IS THE ANTI-GOOGLE SEARCH ENGINE. BUT WHAT’S IT REALLY LIKE TO USE?

- SAM SINGLETON

Google is far and away the most popular search engine—but sometimes it can feel more like Big Brother and less like a friendly assistant. Indeed, for those concerned about privacy, Google can overstep some boundaries by collecting your personal data and serving you ads based on what it collects. Google does allow you to disable some personalization and tracking settings, but it’s ultimately up to the user to change them. Enter DuckDuckGo (fave. co/3ba86Er), a privacy-focused search engine with its own desktop extension and mobile browser app.

DuckDuckGo touts itself as the anti-google, promising not to track or collect your data from the start. It offers a clean interface and familiar layout, and provides many of the features you’ve come to expect from a search engine—but without those invasive data trackers. (If privacy is a concern of yours, also consider switching from Google Chrome to Firefox [fave.co/3xz10kt].)

On paper, DuckDuckGo seems like a worthy competitor. But how does it really stack up to Google? To find out, I switched to DuckDuckGo and used the service exclusively for a week. Here are my five key takeaways.

1. DUCKDUCKGO IS REFRESHING

DuckDuckGo’s privacy features surprised me with how liberating they feel. The service insists that it doesn’t collect user data or track you across different websites. It also doesn’t associate your browsing with your IP address, and it won’t save your search history.