DuckDuckGo making a splash

DuckDuckGo, the search engine dedicated to protecting users’ privacy has seen its popularity rocket over recent days.

The site saw 2.2 million direct searches on Monday, 400,000 more than on Sunday and no doubt caused by an appearance on Bloomberg TV when the site was singled out for the steps it takes to provide its users with anonymity.

The site doesn’t hold user data and doesn’t try to push advertising within its search results. The site also doesn’t track users. A search is a unique browser event. A search for a product on Yahoo! or Google will result in adverts for said products appearing on webpages an internet user subsequently visits.

The growing popularity of DuckDuckGo can be directly linked to the fallout from the PRISM program which suggests the world’s largest tech companies, including its leading search engines, are sharing data with the US government.

And while a 30 percent growth in popularity just 24 hours is indeed impressive, the fledgling site still has some way to go if it is going to challenge Google which processes over 1 billion search queries a day.