No Search History, No Problem!

A lot of people want their privacy, but when using Google, Yahoo, or Bing, users are targeted with ads based on their search history. Since DuckDuckGo does not store any information, everytime one goes to use DuckDuckGo’s browser they will get new, fresh results. Every search is independent and never has anything to do with previous searches. DuckDuckGo still makes money by providing the user with ads, however, they target keywords that are searched instead of using previous information. DuckDuckGo uses “search-vertical options” in every search to show the user results for only what they are looking for. If a user searches for their favorite food, DuckDuckGo will trigger the “recipe” vertical and show only recipes for their favorite food. Since DuckDuckGo does not track your location, instead of searching “restaurants near me,” you would have to input your location into the search.

Third-Party Trackers Who?

Traditional search engines use trackers to serve relevant ads after your initial search and to track the consumer sales journey. However, DuckDuckGo blocks this tracking. Every time a search is conducted on DuckDuckGo, the search query is performed without any context from previous searches. A fun feature of DuckDuckGo’s mobile app is that it will block all trackers from other search engines. They also offer a browser extension which will actively block tracking pixels for you. Since there is no information to base the ads off, the user will receive less personalized digital ads.

Pros and Cons of DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo is making its way up there in popularity. 80 million people have been using DuckDuckGo as their preferred search engine as of November 2020. Some pros of using DuckDuckGo include privacy when searching, a clean interface, only contextual ads, unbiased search results, shortcuts to websites and no social engineering based on user searches. Of course pros come with cons and since DuckDuckGo is not as big of a name as Google, there are a few bugs that need to be fixed. Additionally since they are so new, DuckDuckGo’s search algorithm is not nearly as sophisticated as Google. There are limited results, poor mapping and image results, no protections from viruses, and overall low ranking factors. 

As marketers, we need to be aware of the ongoing conversations about consumer privacy. We need to be mindful of protecting our customers' personal data while also creating relevant and meaningful campaigns. Since users may steer more towards the privacy of DuckDuckGo, that means less data to work with and a reimagining of personalized campaigns. However, DuckDuckGo is a partner of Microsoft and uses their ad platform to deliver their contextual ads based on keyword searches.