DuckDuckGo Launches Redesigned Privacy Browser Extension and Mobile App With Anti-Tracking Features

[MacRumors]

Privacy oriented search engine DuckDuckGo today launched revamped versions of its browser extension and standalone mobile app, promising users seamless built-in tracker network blocking and smarter encryption.

The headline feature in both the DuckDuckGo browser extension and mobile app is a Privacy Grade rating (A-F) information card whenever a user visits a site. The rating aims to let them see at a glance how protected they are, while providing additional options to dig deeper into the details of blocked tracking attempts.

The generated Privacy Grade score for a website is based on the prevalence of hidden tracker networks, encryption availability, and any existing privacy practices, according to the internet privacy company.

The vast majority of websites across the Internet contain hidden tracker networks, with Google trackers now lurking behind 76% of pages, Facebook's trackers on 24% of pages, and countless others soaking up your personal information to follow you with ads around the Web, or worse. Our Privacy Protection will block all the hidden trackers we can find, exposing the major advertising networks tracking you over time, so that you can track who's trying to track you.

Together, the privacy rating and tracking breakdowns aim to provide a more effective solution than installing multiple add-ons and apps on each device, while offering a more upfront level of privacy than common private browsing modes. Elsewhere, a new encryption protection feature automatically sends users to an encrypted version of a website when available, rather than defaulting to a non-encrypted version.

As expected, the new software releases also include DuckDuckGo's private search engine by default. The updated macOSbrowser extension is available now for Safari, Firefox, and Chrome, with the mobile iOS app a free download from the App Store. For further details on privacy measures implemented in the new releases, check out the DuckDuckGo website.

Article Link: DuckDuckGo Launches Redesigned Privacy Browser Extension and Mobile App With Anti-Tracking Features

 

[LovingTeddy]

I like the UI... Dark theme looks very good indeed.

For all the Android users out there, it is available on Android as well.

I still won't use it, all my passwords and bookmarks are synced through Google Chrome.

I only use Chrome on all my devices, including iPads, Android, Windows

 

[Mac-lover3]

Is there anyone who uses DuckDuckGo as their daily search engine and used Google before?
How was the transition? Did they improve?

Thanks!

 

[Inkling]

A good move. Tiring of Google tracking my every move, I switched The Duck and soon found myself happy with the search results. This ranking feature will make it even better.
[doublepost=1516718349][/doublepost]

Is there anyone who uses DuckDuckGo as their daily search engine and used Google before?
How was the transition? Did they improve?
!

I switched about a year ago and after the usual transition to something new, found myself happy with the search results. It feels good not to be feeding Google's massive people-tracking machine.

 

[Mac-lover3]

A good move. Tiring of Google tracking my every move, I switched The Duck and soon found myself happy with the search results. This ranking feature will make it even better.
[doublepost=1516718349][/doublepost]

I switched about a year ago and after the usual transition to something new, found myself happy with the search results. It feels good not to be feeding Google's massive people-tracking machine.

Thanks, I tried it when I first heard of them in 2014. But search was subpar. Going to give it a new try.

 

[ateslik]

Is there anyone who uses DuckDuckGo as their daily search engine and used Google before?
How was the transition? Did they improve?

Thanks!

I switched sometime around 3 years ago. For most searches the results are great. After a while you start to notice that the results are a little older than what you get back from google, but this usually doesn't matter for me. It's also not surprising since google is so agressive with their bots and data acquisition. If I need results from the last 24 hours to about 3 days I'll open a fresh tab (no referrer) and google it. This feels like it happens mabye once every 200 searches, but I don't keep track. For me that's a non issue. I setup my browsers with DDG as the default and so typing stuff in the URL/search bar goes straight to them. It auto-completes like normal and I haven't missed Google one bit.

 

[Bob Zimmerman]

I like the UI... Dark theme looks very good indeed.

For all the Android users out there, it is available on Android as well.

I still won't use it, all my passwords and bookmarks are synced through Google Chrome.

I only use Chrome on all my devices, including iPads, Android, Windows

Password sync on Chrome is a little creepy by default. Unless you change the setting, it encrypts your passwords with your Google password. The problem is you give Google your password in plaintext every time you log in.

If you set your own encryption password for Chrome password sync, it's fine.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Is there anyone who uses DuckDuckGo as their daily search engine and used Google before?
How was the transition? Did they improve?

Thanks!

Yes, and I've noticed something, it's been a continual topic of conversation for middle aged people. We're not old enough to be technically disinterested and not young enough to trust any organizations with access and control over our personal information.

The kids don't seem to care, and think everything will be fine and dandy, as if thousands of books and movies over the last century exploring the fickle nature of human organizations, and all the many ways you can wind up under foot, have made no impact whatsoever.

Perhaps it's been too long, and a new generation needs to learn by experience again.

 

[Mac-lover3]

I switched sometime around 3 years ago. For most searches the results are great. After a while you start to notice that the results are a little older than what you get back from google, but this usually doesn't matter for me. It's also not surprising since google is so agressive with their bots and data acquisition. If I need results from the last 24 hours to about 3 days I'll open a fresh tab (no referrer) and google it. This feels like it happens mabye once every 200 searches, but I don't keep track. For me that's a non issue. I setup my browsers with DDG as the default and so typing stuff in the URL/search bar goes straight to them. It auto-completes like normal and I haven't missed Google one bit.

Also thank you! Good to hear that it's mainly positive. Just set it up as my search engine again. Let's see how this goes the next couple of weeks. Any cool little things that are exclusive to DDG?

 

[mophor]

I switched sometime around 3 years ago. For most searches the results are great. After a while you start to notice that the results are a little older than what you get back from google, but this usually doesn't matter for me. It's also not surprising since google is so agressive with their bots and data acquisition. If I need results from the last 24 hours to about 3 days I'll open a fresh tab (no referrer) and google it. This feels like it happens mabye once every 200 searches, but I don't keep track. For me that's a non issue. I setup my browsers with DDG as the default and so typing stuff in the URL/search bar goes straight to them. It auto-completes like normal and I haven't missed Google one bit.

I've had the exact same experience. You can even do a quick G* search by using the DuckDuckGo "Bang" !g before your search (which I rarely need to do as well.) Bangs by the way for me are the thing I absolutely would miss most when switching to any other search engine.
[doublepost=1516723583][/doublepost]

Also thank you! Good to hear that it's mainly positive. Just set it up as my search engine again. Let's see how this goes the next couple of weeks. Any cool little things that are exclusive to DDG?

Bangs!

 

[eltoslightfoot]

Also thank you! Good to hear that it's mainly positive. Just set it up as my search engine again. Let's see how this goes the next couple of weeks. Any cool little things that are exclusive to DDG?

I love it and use it for 90% of my search requests. I then use bing, and only after that google. DDG isn't as showy, flashy, or complete, but it works most of the time and doesn't track you. Big plus!

 

[Fuchal]

I've had the exact same experience. You can even do a quick G* search by using the DuckDuckGo "Bang" !g before your search (which I rarely need to do as well.) Bangs by the way for me are the thing I absolutely would miss most when switching to any other search engine.
[doublepost=1516723583][/doublepost]
Bangs!

Even better, use !sp for StartPage which gives you Google's results without Google being able to track you.

 

[0008652]

I like the fact that it is private but the search is worse, and I’ve been using DuckDuckGo 100% for the past year. The results are sometimes absolutely irrelevant, and most of the time from 2012-2015. And one cannot see the date of a link (result) until one opens it. Search for “movies in 2017” or “upcoming games” and you will see the difference. And looking for tech stuff that gets announced or was recently announced is quite impossible. !g is used quite often by me to get the result I want.

 

[Kabeyun]

Is there anyone who uses DuckDuckGo as their daily search engine and used Google before?
How was the transition? Did they improve?

Thanks!

I trust Google to do what’s best for Google, like all companies. In Google’s case, their goal is to monetize as much information about me as possible. Given that, I set my default iOS search engine to DuckDuckGo. For routine searches it’s fine, but the truth is that Google’s better for more obscure hits, business searches (where hours and contact info are better presented), and image searches (where the interface is less awkward on iOS). The latter two may be better on DDG’s dedicated browser, which I’ll now try, but the price would be less seamless integration into the iOS experience since we can’t change the default iOS browser.

Right now I’m using the excellent 1Blocker, which includes as part of its comprehensive privacy suite pretty robust tracker blocking integrated into iOS Safari. Users of good blocker utils may not need the DDG browser or extension. I’d be interested in a comparison.

 

[LovingTeddy]

Password sync on Chrome is a little creepy by default. Unless you change the setting, it encrypts your passwords with your Google password. The problem is you give Google your password in plaintext every time you log in.

If you set your own encryption password for Chrome password sync, it's fine.

I actually don't really care that much. I won't able to remember all these passwords for all these website. I sync a password though Google and it is more of convince. I also trust Google's security. I doubt Google would use my password for doing anything unethical.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

Is there anyone who uses DuckDuckGo as their daily search engine and used Google before?
How was the transition? Did they improve?

Thanks!

I try to use them as much as possible but the quality of their search results is just so far behind Google that often I still have to go to Google to be efficient. I wish they were better.

 

[burgman]

I actually don't really care that much. I won't able to remember all these passwords for all these website. I sync a password though Google and it is more of convince. I also trust Google's security. I doubt Google would use my password for doing anything unethical.

I only store non critical passwords like forums and such, never banking or other core ones on Google, though it's probably as safe as Keychain. Since almost everybody doesn't possess the technical knowledge to really understand how privacy works on the internet, we are really talking about perceptions and falling for smart advertising. VPN's are a great example.

 

[spacemnspiff]

As others here, I too for the most of past 3-4 years have completely switched to DDG. Don't miss Google search at all. For the most part the even the image search is also good enough for my needs. I try to minimize my Google footprint as much as I can, only thing that I use is YouTube and desktop Google Maps, and use private tabs.

Here is an old article about DDG that I found interesting.
https://www.fastcompany.com/3026698/inside-duckduckgo-googles-tiniest-fiercest-competitor#2

 

[C DM]

I try to use them as much as possible but the quality of their search results is just so far behind Google that often I still have to go to Google to be efficient. I wish they were better.

I'm more or less in the same boat so to say. I don't know if I would say I have to go to Google often, but I certainly feel like I want to often enough, and sometimes end up doing that for some searches.

 

[Bustycat]

Now everything from Google is Grade D.

 

[IHelpId10t5]

Is there anyone who uses DuckDuckGo as their daily search engine and used Google before?
How was the transition? Did they improve?

Thanks!

I have been using DuckDuckGo for several years as my primary search engine and I can say that it's great for the majority of my searches. One nice feature (https://duck.co/help/features) is that you can include "!g" in a search and it will submit the search to Google instead. I do this a few times a day when any search on DuckDuckGo just seems to be coming up short on details. In many cases, DuckDuckGo exceeds my expectations and returns exactly the relevant results that I want with far less junk that Google or Bing.

I do however, have really mixed feelings about this new DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials. What I have a problem with is that they should have known better than to force a complete extension replacement onto users through an update -- unannounced. REALLY DuckDuckGo! What an idiotic decision for a privacy company who's reputation is everything. For this reason alone, I'll be waiting a while for them to explain themselves before recommending this new extension to anyone. Such a decision really makes me wonder about their management's ability to make trustworthy decisions. In the meantime, configuring DuckDuckGo as the default search provider in Firefox without using an extension to do so is the way to go.

I may eventually recommend it to all of my less technically savvy colleagues and clients as it will likely be an easier to use extension than a combination of EFF HTTPS Everywhere, EFF Privacy Badger, and uBlock Origin. The combination of these multiple extensions is simply too much for that majority of users to use without "breaking" their interweb and social media experience. Hopefully DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials can fill the same niche in a single, easy to use extension.

For those that understand how the web works though, I'm not going to change my extension recipe for browsing bliss. In my opinion it's hard to beat the combination of EFF's HTTPS Everywhere, uMatrix (with JS blocked in global scope), and just configuring DuckDuckGo as the Default/only search provider. Although it certainly takes some initial configuration for each site, I find that this is the best winning combination for security, privacy, and ad-blocking that I can come up with.

So, how many of you will give "DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials" a try as a replacement for the extensions you currently use? If not, what is your current combination of extensions that you find to be the best-of-class for security, privacy, and ad-blocking?

 

[mikzn]

I have been using DuckDuckGo for several years as my primary search engine and I can say that it's great for the majority of my searches. One nice feature (https://duck.co/help/features) is that you can include "!g" in a search and it will submit the search to Google instead. I do this a few times a day when any search on DuckDuckGo just seems to be coming up short on details. In many cases, DuckDuckGo exceeds my expectations and returns exactly the relevant results that I want with far less junk that Google or Bing.

Great tip - thanks!

I was switching to Google and then would forget to put it back.

 

[0008652]

On a side note: it would be helpful for Siri if Apple could purchase DuckDuckGo and include it in their services. The only thing missing would be a YouTube alternative.

 

[Kawawolf]

The only issue I have with being a DDG user is that it really does swing and miss on some searches. If you keep to pretty common knowledge stuff (e.g. Super Bowl for example) it will do a-ok and find relevant information. Try something more obscure, and then you get old webpages, or things that simply have nothing to do what you typed in. So, while DDG is my primary, I have not entirely escaped the "Googleverse".

 

[0947347]

Is there anyone who uses DuckDuckGo as their daily search engine and used Google before?
How was the transition? Did they improve?

Thanks!

I used to use google daily,
now I am full time DuckDuckGo on all my devices (search engine in safari)
And I absolutely love it