DuckDuckGo, put a duck in your search engine

The search engine DuckDuckGo has been around for a few years already, but it has reached not long ago the million queries per day.

Let's see what makes this Duck an interesting alternative to Google or Bing.

Your private data remain private

• The query used for the search is not sent to the visited site.
  This way, neither the webmasters, nor the SEO apostles, nor any webmarketing evangelist can tell how you found the site (which has its pros and cons depending of the color of your hat).
• Your search history is not saved
  There is not surveillance of yours acts and deeds, whether for marketing, security (hacked or leaked data) or legal reason (if they don't keep it, no authority can request it).
• Even in an “anonymous” way
  Cookie, IP address, user agent… Nothing of this is used on their side to track you.
• Which, when combined, makes you get search results that only depend on your actual query, or how to escape your bubble (or the Matrix).

!bang, or the restricted search

By prefixing your query with an exclamation point, you can limit it to a web site or a specific subject. For instance, !python for the programming language, !slashdot for the techno/geek blog, or !amazon for the online shop (see the list of !bang).

Advanced search

Like Google's search features and Wolfram Alpha's computational knowledge, DuckDuckGo also proposes advanced search features (calculator, conversions, weather reports…) and geek features (search with regular expression, physical properties…).

The users at the heart of the project

Do you know any other search engine with a forum they actually follow and even apply some of the ideas discussed in it?
Do you know any other service enabling you to create a user account in seconds, to delete it as easily, and without ever spam your email box?
Do you know any other site whose founder signs with his name its privacy rules?
If you replied yes to one of these questions, thanks share it in the comments section ;)

Advanced usage

DuckDuckGo offers many other services for an advanced usage, like an API (used by the way by Blekko) and a Tor exit enclave (see the Tor project to know more about it).

To sum it up, DDG is a search engine with a true phylosophy, which is way too rare on the web.

DuckDuckGo, mettez un canard dans votre moteur de recherche (in French)
DuckDuckGo, ponga un pato en su motor de búsqueda (in Spanish)
DuckDuckGo, coloque um pato no seu motor de busca (in Portuguese)