DuckDuckGo
reviews and complaints

I have been using Duckduckgo for years now NEVER had a problem of any kind and my searches never show up on Amazon, Google or anywhere else. My experience with most people are they want to blame others for their mistakes the frequent hacker sites, and lowlife sites pick up malware and viruses then say they got it from Duckduckgo and are now being tracked. Even basic computer knowledge can set it up so if you can't that is not someone else fault. Chrome and Explorer are are not good choices if you want privacy in my opinion. Chrome is Google and they track everything. Explorer is just a hackers dream come true. IMHO! So if you have a problem with privacy when using DuckDuckGo look to the habits you have. Or if you need to do some serious cleanup on you computer and browsing habits. AND always use a good AV! The internet is not a safe place to play and gets worse every day.

DuckDuckGo has been reviewed a couple times already, but I feel it is worth mentioning again.

I never though I would see the day that I would leave Google Search Engine. I really never had a reason to until I read a review of how great it was. So I tried it out. Two things struck me.

1. I only received 1 page of search results.
2. The results I wanted were on the first line of the results.

I ran a number of comparison queries and noticed that, although Google always returned more results, DuckDuckGo always provided more relevant results. The reason behind this, according to DuckDuckGo's website is that Google uses some sort of "bubble" querying technique or algorithm that builds results based on your querying and clicking history. DuckDuckGo also bans ads and spam sites. DuckDuckGo does not log or track your querying. With DuckDuckGo you have a lot of control over how your queries are displayed. And you can also elect to have them sent via SSL.

I use Google for looking up spelling & definitions. It is usually a couple click process. With DuckDuckGo, the results contain the definitions. I like to use Google because it has a suggestion feature ("Google Suggest"). One of the settings for DuckDuckGo is where it asks you if you want to use Google Suggest. So that reason is no longer valid.

DuckDuckGo has an extension or plugin for IE, FireFox, Opera, Safari and Chrome. So, I keep my homepage set to Google, but my search box is set to DuckDuckGo. When I search DuckDuckGo and the result list is short, it displays a link to both Bing and Google that can be clicked to rerun the query using those search engines.

One last thing about DuckDuckGo that interests me is that it incorporates a! Bang syntax. It recognizes hundreds of keywords or abbreviations that, when prefaced by the "!" (bang) symbol, provide query results specific to the website referenced. For example: "! Video" or "! Yt" will give you results from youtube.com. Hmm, how does this help? I am working on that. But some network tools are available, such as Domaintools.com utilities like whois, traceroute and dnslookup. This syntax saves many clicks and new browser tabs. And to check which hp laptops Walmart, Target and NewEgg have, just type in "! Target hp laptop" or "! Walmart hp laptop" or "! Newegg hp laptop."

CONCLUSION:

Will DuckDuckGo replace Google? No. It does have its place though. Over the past 2 weeks of using DuckDuckGo, I run about 85% of my queries through DuckDuckGo first. The main reason people flock to DuckDuckGo is for privacy. But I enjoy the control over my results interface, the relevance of the results and the fact that the results display the information I need without having to click on the link provided. This is called their Redbox feature. Enable it and DuckDuckGo provides the spelling and definition of your query term, along with a couple more links it thinks you are interested in contained in a expanded red box at the top of the result page.

If you try DuckDuckGo, just remember that "Google Suggest" only works when you have the Search Bar configured. You will not get Google Suggest by going to DuckDuckGo.com and using their search page.

I highly recommend trying this search engine.

As someone who values online privacy, I was initially drawn to DuckDuckGo for its commitment to not tracking user data. However, after using it for a while, I found that while it excels in privacy, it falls short in certain areas. The search results, although unbiased, sometimes lack the depth and relevance I expect. It's like a trade-off between privacy and search quality. On the positive side, the browser extension for blocking third-party data retrieval is a great feature. Yet, the lack of response to user feedback and the similarity to Google in search results raise concerns. DuckDuckGo has its merits, but it may not be the perfect fit for everyone. It's a matter of finding the right balance between privacy and search effectiveness.

There are companies which pay people to write reviews; that's a fact because I have an acquaintance who did it for some months. I can't think why genuine users would be having trouble uninstalling DDG. I've done it several times with no problem.

DDG has never taken over as default browser and works great with Firefox.

If you want a browser to take over your life and your computer and send you endless pop ups, adverts and unwanted emails and matter of all kinds, use Google. I don't get any of that with DDG.

You may not like the interface or shorter (relevant) responses to queries but if you are happy with a clear, direct, advert and spam free browser, I would recommend trying DDG

I have no reason to dislike this site. I recently switched my default search engine to duckduckgo.

When searching for something you get a little snippit of information about it at the top (whether it is a definition, or just an interesting fact). Below you are shown one page of results (quite honestly you don't want to have to look through 14 pages to find what you're looking for anyway). By clicking on "more links" at the bottom you see all the other things the engine found not displayed on the top of the list.

REASONS TO USE:
[1] Tired of google
[2] ad-free
[3] "DuckDuckGo does not collect or share personal information."

REASONS TO LOSE:
[1] Doesn't have "image search" capability yet

I have a new HP PC and it was so slow. I used computers for 15 years doing civil design work so I believe I can say I know a bit about them but not a lot. Brought this new pc and could not believe how slow it was, I recently revisited the Harvey Norman store where I purchased the PC from and just in conversation with the salesman who sold me this pc I bought up the fact that the PC was terribly slow, his replay about the slow speed was "you get what you pay for". Well I now know different after removing Microsoft Office and shutting down what ever I could of Microsoft software and using Duckduckgo' I am now happy with the speed of the PC. Hmmmmm Duckduckgo what are you doing to the corporate world you cant be honest!

Like most people, I've long used google. But google starts to get downright offensive when I look up say a 20" pink bicycle for my niece on my phone, then my phone starts popping up ads for all these 20" pink bicycles on every site I visit on my work computer. Or when google prompts me (when location tracking is OFF) to write a review for the burger & beer joint I stopped at last month, and the clothing store I entered, so forth and so on. No thank you!
Enter duckduckgo -- an alternate search engine. Simple. Gives me the results I want without all the ridiculous tracking I don't. They don't track search history, just give the search results. Isn't that what a search engine is supposed to do?! I've been using it for 6+ months without any issues at all. Highly recommend.

DuckDuckGo promises a safer search engine for those privacy-minded web users that dislike the idea of advertisers having access to their personal information. While there are no guarantees when it comes to online services, DuckDuckGo has certainly made strides to educate their users in how to keep their online presence private from prying eyes by providing resources that teach you how to opt-out of privacy-violating tracking.

The search results on DDG are constantly improving. Most of the time I am able to find the resources I am looking for. Very rarely I will resort to checking Google's results to see if I can find what I am looking for. Would definitely recommend to someone looking for an alternative since Google seems to be becoming more and more an advertising company rather than a search provider.

These are either badly written paid-for negative reviews or reviews written by people with really poor, and I mean really really poor basic computer skills.

I have never had an issue with DDG hijacking anything I use - it is installed on all my devices - and I have selectively allowed third party cookies with no issue. No spam email, no hacking, and as the first entry is an ad ( as they say) and it is marked as an ad, I have no real problem scrolling past it.

If your computer was hacked, that sucks, but did you install from Duckduckgo or a third party. Is your firewall up to date or did you turn it off to install something? Are you just really crap at keeping you computer secure and forget that it is your responsibility, not the software's, to be up to date?

The quality of the results is better than Google, who, as other reviewers have mentioned, are concentrating on ad revenue rather than quality, and far better than Bing ever was (if you are looking to be paid for writing negative reviews, try Bing, just sayin)

You want to know why the bad reviews you see here? It is very easy to understand last year in june 2015 DDG exceeded 10 million searches in a day. Google and some of the others are seeing that as taking a cut of their profits from selling you out for cash money... lol By all means feed the machine Google didn't get where they are from allowing others to cut into their profits. Even though they are small in comparison to Google they provide a vastly superior service for FREE they don't sell you out track you or abuse power. Out of the bad reviews I really can't put any stock in any of them. Hi jacking your browser... lol what a joke DDG don't install anything on your end. It is a link in your browser and that is all. I run a good AV and it SAYS that DDG is not tracking you and it is a Premium AV and rated among the BEST. Google that is a different story I get several tracking responses there. As well as yahoo, Bing, and most the others as well. Can't uninstall another joke of a remark a 3 year old could uninstall it is so easy! I personally feel they are paid spammers just like AVAST I think they are in bed with the completion. By their own admission on their forums they said they have found nothing wrong with DDG but yet they recommend changing your search engine because it might not be safe.

I have been trying to find a more private and secure engine to Google Search for some time now. What I find worrying is the fact that Google traces all your moves, logs your computer details, your IP address, you location and so much more! I then came across Google SSL, more secure against outside tracking, but still doesn't stop Google from tracking you.

I then found https://www.ixquick.com, which has a great engine. It comes with SSL and doesn't even log your IP address or your search terms. But then - the problem with Ixquick.com is that it doesn't turn up very relevant search results. Its now about a month later and I have found the best one yet. DuckDuckGo! It supports both HTTP and HTTPS which is good. It also doesn't log your search terms or even your IP address.

I compared Google's search results on my name to DuckDuckGo search results. Funnily enough, I found DuckDuckGo to come up more relevant than Google. I managed to find some old profiles and some press releases that I never thought were published on the net!

This isn't all though. The SSL version located here: https://duckduckgo.com/ has a Firefox addon called "HTTPS Everywhere". Thus, when entering sites like Facebook, Wikipedia, etc that support HTTPS connection, you can click to enter SSL mode. Finally - DuckDuckGo.com also works with the TOR Network. You can run this search engine through their proxy to get ultimate privacy.

I want to search for recipes and Duckduckgo forces me to only see suggested recipes from Yummly. Yummly forces me to create a user and forces me to accept thier T&C's and allow google to track me. I cannot stop the Yummly suggestions and they are the only suggestoions that Duckduckgo allows in the suggestion bar.

EXTREMELY frustrating and INTRUSIVE!

I've been using DuckDuck for awhile now and honestly, its no better at providing unbiased search results than google etc. When searching for political news, duckduck displays the same crapola as google and bing. That being, its about 98% biased with the results being far left so-called news sites, sad. Why not show results from Fox and many trusted sites. For example Fox has held the #1 spot for over 20 years now and it's ratings are massive when compared to the other news sites that always show up on duckduck... Yet, never does FoxNews show up... Therefore, duckduck is nothing more than cheap rants about how they claim to be unbiased...I might as well just go back to google, I'll still be able to easily navigate away from their far left/delusional front page biased results.

clean, fast, was liking it and considering fully migrating over from edge, three things are going to keep me from using the browser as default:

1) bookmarks scrolling is funky & scrolls 2 lines down, and goes past bookmarks making me have to scroll manually and not with mouse.

2) no spell check or dictionary. a HUGE HUGE deficiency.

3) The settings options are paltry compared to other browers.

I recently installed the DuckDuckGo (DDG) web browser and liked its ability to halt the collection of 'trackers' etc. Refreshing to see unwanted interferring & advertising being stopped plus an annoying 'news' flash service being foisted on you. However, a few days ago, an MS windows 11 update came through and I thought nothing of it. On a restart following that, the DDG browser had disappeared and I had 'Edge' as my browser, which I quickly changed to 'Firefox'. I couldn't get a fresh download of your browser to work at all. I had lost all my links to the regular sites I preferred as well. With MS's always trying to dominate my preferences, I have developed a 'loathing' of any such interference and particularly MS unwanted other items. If the windows operating system had a competitor for the now regular PCs available, I would be a very interested user to try it out! Keep up your good work! Please make your browser MS proof and soon! Thanks.!

Completely biased searches….. free advertising! I wonder if DuckDuckGo is being paid for the free advertising that they’re doing for companies over the consumer. People who actually have online services might be impacted by their biased algorithms. Ultimately the biggest joke is on DuckDuckGo for complying with these companies and doing all of the free advertising. This is not a search engine it’s Advertising!

It's nice to have an alternative to Google search, and the privacy settings, but I'm so annoyed with a recent change in the poop-up menu (yes that was a mis-spell but I'm leaving it because I hate the menu so much) when I select a phrase in order to copy it, and I now have to click 2 more times to get to the "copy" option, wasting my time. I believe MOST OFTEN people select something to copy it and paste it elsewhere, not to use "dictionary, translate or search duck duck go" which takes up the whole line, making me use the three dot menu to find copy. For usability sake, please put the copy option back as the first selection on a press and hold, and bury the translate/dictionary options to the 3-dot menu. Or shorten the"search Duck Duck Go" option to just "search" so you can fit "copy" at the top level. I know I'm using DDG, not Google. If your legal or mrktg team must have ego branding be a part of the phrase, at least use "Search DDG" and then fit "copy" in next to it. Please. I do A LOT of copy/paste... It's getting annoying.

I'm having trouble getting the "flame" logo to show up on my laptop to erase my viewing. I've tried the chat line and all they do it refer you to someone else for a charge and yearly subscription. I don't mind paying the $1.00 charge but I'm not going to sign up for a years subscription and then go through the hassle of canceling it. I finally found a phone number but they won't answer. So I sent a letter to the Paoli address and they haven't responded. How is a person supposed to get help? There doesn't seem to be a way to contact anyone.

I have been a user with Duckduck for several years. No complaints until several months ago when it seemed like I was getting new versions that needed to be loaded every other day. There were so many versions that I lost track of when I stated to have problems. Main problem now is that quite often when I select something with the browser whether it be weather, sports or anything else via the browser I get no response back at all. It’s just hanging. I have tried reloading various browser program's a second or third time. Still doesn’t work. I am considering removing Duckduck as a browser and going back to Safari.

Do you have any suggestions for actions I can take?
Thanks much
Bill Sprague
[protected]@everestkc.net

A good friend and neighbor of mine last week recommended this app. She and her husband both were really happy with it. So since I have nothing to lose and everything to gain I figured I'd give it a go. I bought a pair of boots about three months ago and every day when I go online to search something there is always and I mean always an ad for Boots. Go figure. When I go online to price something I'm buying it right then and there i'm not doing it three months from then. I want their best price advertised to be there Best! I do not play games. And I absolutely hate getting these ads for something that I no longer need. I bought tires a year ago and I am still getting advertisements. I hope I don't have to buy tires for another four years. Yet every time I go online there is the ad for Tires. Go figure sometimes it's insulting like I'm stupid enough to wait for a year to buy my doggone tires. Sometimes after a couple weeks they lower the price but I have already bought the item. Yes, you snooze you lose! I absolutely hate to play their games. Therefore when my neighbor discussed this with me and what they thought I figured I'd give it a try. I know they all have to advertise is that just part of their business you have to pay the monthly bills. I have been in several businesses and I understand what it takes to run a business. I was wholesale plumbing rep I gave them my best price. My customers most of them wouldn't give me a second chance and sometimes they would even show me their job quotations. I don't play those games and after a while everybody on the treasure coast of Florida knew that's the way I was. No games! The company I worked for had bills to pay for too they had overhead just like any other business and I always felt like I gave a fair price. I also owned a JetSki business and another business. I understand what your average overhead is and I appreciate it I'm not looking for something for nothing I just don't like their games! Therefore I hope this works out because I'm so sick and tired of all the other competitors and the way that they run their business. Therefore I can't rate it yet but I'm willing to give it a try. I just hope that they don't play the same games as their competitors. It would be nice to have a good search engine that doesn't play games. So we'll see. One thing I do is I always keep location services off. You can go into settings and look for privacy and shut it off so they don't know what store you're at. Until today I thought if you had it off and you had an emergency they wouldn't be able to find you and when I read the fine print on my iPhone Today I found out that's not true they're still able to find you. So $#*! it off! They have no business knowing where you're shopping.

I want the dead links that reference cases that were expunged removed. They only show on DuckDuckGo go search results. These have been expunged. No other search engine shows this, it needs to be removed immediately.

About 2 weeks ago, I had heard a Duck Duck Go commercial and went to the website to find out about it. Since that day, it does what it supposedly serves to avoid: it constantly stalks me online! Screens demanding payment from something called *** (on behalf of Duck Duck Go) are constant. I don't think they have a right to blackmail me to pay them or they will keep filling up my screen with their demands for more money to stop!

I need to remove the browser and they want me to pay $60 for help with it. Just installed the browser and it has ruined my ability to download from websites.

How do I get these people to help me?

I just loaded it today. Now I cannot get rid of it. No one there seems interested in helping me unless I pay $60 for it.

They advertise they R private but have No customer service number with a real person answering so U can ask them if they will put that company policy in writing and mail it to you. They want potential customers to blindly accept what they advertise with Nothing to back them up. Am sick🤮 and tired of seeing their (what I believe to be misleading) advertisement. And no way to contact them. Am thinking a complaint to the BBB may actually get me somewhere closer to a resolution. Ur response will determine my positive or negative next step. Have a WONDERFULL Day.

Hello

I have sent you several emails but nothing has been corrected in your web browser about my home at 780 Belair Ct Naples FL 34103. You state under Zillow that "Auction Foreclosed" on my home. This is not the truth. No bank owns my house. My husband Dr. Dana Castro and I, Joan Paige Thompson- Castro own it for over 13 years. Never even had a mortgage with any bank.

This statement showed up under Google and when I reached out to both Google and Zillow it was corrected. Please remove the "Auction Foreclosed" statement from your web browser, as it is a lie.

Sincerely

Joan Paige Thompson-Castro

Hi my entire search history disappeared from DDG. I have not way go getting it back restoring it. Please give me instructions on how to restore all my sites using DDG. Otherwise, I will be forced to return to Google.

My sense is that you don't even know what you are doing and on top of that you have created a website whereby it is almost impossible for users to get the help they need.

Please reply by 11/23/23. or a return to Google/Chrome will be necessary. I am too busy to mess around with pages and pages of DDG "help" linkes. DDG makes a big deal about ads that follow one around. This is a minor problem when if comes to losing one's entire search history.

Thanks Michael Bergman [protected]@msn.com

I've used duck duck go for several years mainly for facebook so I don't get the constant ads on my feed ..well it worked for awhile but now I'm right back to getting constant useless ads on my feed and it's worse then before! What am I doing wrong? I use Google search at times but use you guys most of the time. So disappointing.

Sincerely,

Donna DeWoody

Aka: Donna bird

Hello,

When I search for Fox News, Duck Duck Go always returns a result with "Recent News" right below that also ALWAYS has 3 photos connected to articles critical of Fox News.

However, when I search for CBS, NBC, ABC, or CNN, I don't see get any photo-connected Recent News articles critical fo these news outlets.

I have run this same search dozens of times over the last several months and the result is ALWAYS the same.

Duck Duck Go is so obviously biased against Fox News, and by extension any news outlet that is not left leaning - you cannot be taken seriously as a neutral search engine.

I suggest you take the personal bias and intolerance out of your search algorithms, and just return balanced and unbiased results

Limited capability in opening up all of one of my primary web site's attribute pages. Should I switch to another browsing engine, I have no issues and have full access. I wish to remain with DuckDuckGo but I need to have this issue rectified for complete searches.

I have included a screen shot of the message that I get when attempting to access a certain attribute from one of my primary web sites. The web site's developer states that this issue is not from their end.

Can someone reach out to me to work on this? Thanks - John.

I recently downloaded and installed the duck duck go browser on my iPhone 13, which seems to be working just fine. However, I also downloaded and installed it on my windows 10 computer l. The shortcut I created on my desktop to launch the browser keeps disappearing, and if the shortcut icon is still on the desktop, it is no longer linked to the .exe file.

Any suggestions? My email address is [protected]@Ashforth.US.

12:30-12:49 10/4/2023

OMISSION of MOSTLY BLACK NORTH TULSA PUBLIC SCHOOLS, INCLUDING A UNIVERSITY!

https://duckduckgo.com/?va=n&t=hr&q=elementary+schools+in+north+tulsa&ia=web&iaxm=places

I tried again… several times.

OBVIOUSLY, it would be quite helpful if I could share screenshots I put into a document. No attaching of documents here either, another oversight, I guess.

Each access to this map, offered through primary search omits ANY SCHOOL, even a university! I worked at one of these so, it’s personal as well as offensive to any child family or community involved which is all of them. Please correct this gross error.

Thank you.

Ever since you have upgraded DuckDuck, I have been having a lot of problems with it and it tells me that they cannot find the contact I am trying to reach and before the upgrade I never had the problem before, my address is [protected]@comcast.net or phone is [protected]. this is the problem I am having and have no more to add to this and I have been with DuckDuck for more them 2 years and have introduced many more customers to you.

It is NOT savings my settings. When I close the program and reopen it, it reverts to the default settings. This occurred on 9/112023. I went to my MSCONGIG and boot settings see if there was doing something preventing from saving my settings. All appeared to be in proper order on the boot side.

Please advise.

Thank you for giving this request the benefit of your time and attention.

Kind Regards.

I downloaded your app thinking I was in a fine things Google we're not show me because of Google's liberalness but when I got there to your app I saw it's the same exact thing that Google shows me so what's the purpose of even having you a few months ago I was in possession of a picture of the 2020 Osaka meeting with Biden standing 5 ft away from everybody on the left hand side of the picture with the black man next to him looking at him like he was a nutcase I couldn't find it anymore I lost my picture unfortunately I thought maybe because you're more conservative you was let me find it nope not even with you so I uninstalled your app