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.
Esta historia es de la edición July 2022 de PCWorld.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición July 2022 de PCWorld.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
5 Compelling Reasons to Buy a Windows Laptop Instead of a MacBook
MacBooks are powerful and chic. That's also true of many Window Notebooks - And they have other advantages that MacBook can't counter.
5 tips to make Gmail more secure
Bank statements, contracts, tickets, love letters…most things in this world can be sent via email, and protecting your email is extremely important.
TunnelBear VPN: It's just right for beginners
Come for the bear puns, stay for the security.
Contour SliderMouse Pro: This mouse saves your hands
Unusual ergonomic mouse is here to save your hands
Woohoo! You can get a Raspberry Pi again
Availability hasn't completely recovered, but it's looking much better already.
Microsoft begins pulling the plug on Cortana
Cortana probably won't live for much longer.
Norton's free Al-powered Genie tool helps you spot online scams
Not sure if the message, email, link or social media post you've received is a scam? The Al-powered Norton Genie is designed to help.
Google now alerts you if your contact info appears online
Better decades late than never.
Microsoft 365 makeover: Office docs are getting new default look
Significant changes are coming to your Office documents with Microsoft 365's new default theme.
Smart Answers: GenAl tool makes it easier to find the info you need on PCWorld
Smart Answers puts you in the driving seat for content discovery.