DuckDuckGo Soars Past 100 Million Daily Search Queries

The privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo has surpassed 100 million daily search queries for the first time ever, marking a major milestone in the site’s 12-year-old history. The site’s surging daily activity comes as a wave of consumers embrace alternatives to the Masters of the Universe, including messaging services like Signal and Telegram, and social media platforms such as Gab.

ZDNet reports that for the first time in the 12 years that the privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo has been operating, the site has surpassed 100 million daily search queries. The milestone comes following a period of sustained growth over the past two years, and since August 2020 when DuckDuckGo began seeing more than 2 billion search queries a month.

In comparison to Google’s 5 billion daily search queries, DuckDuckGo’s latest milestone seems small, but it is a sign that more users are gravitating towards alternatives to the Big Tech Masters of the Universe. DuckDuckGo has seen a rise in popularity after the search engine expanded beyond its own website and now offers mobile apps for Android and iOS and an extension for the Google Chrome web browser.

The DuckDuckGo apps and extension have been installed by more than 4 million users, according to a tweet by the company in September 2020.

Signal is blowing all records, and DuckDuckGo just passed 100,000,000 searches in a day. Privacy is cool 😎 👏 https://t.co/o3Oa9Pxe3m

— DHH (@dhh) January 16, 2021

The DuckDuckGo about page states: “You deserve privacy. Companies are making money off of your private information online without your consent. At DuckDuckGo, we don’t think the Internet should feel so creepy and getting the privacy you deserve online should be as simple as closing the blinds. Too many people believe that you simply can’t expect privacy on the Internet. We disagree and have made it our mission to set a new standard of trust online.”

As big tech firms take independent social media networks such as Parler offline and others call for the banning of private messaging services, many users have begun flocking to independent apps and services such as Telegram and Signal.

Breitbart News reported earlier this month:

Signal, a messaging app, has seen “unprecedented” and “vertical” growth in recent days, according to Brian Acton, the billionaire executive chairman of the Signal Foundation.

Acton, who cofounded WhatsApp before selling it to Facebook, said recent changes to WhatsApp’s privacy policy are driving people to Signal. He told TechCrunch that Signal’s user base “exploded” in recent weeks.

“It’s a great opportunity for Signal to shine and to give people a choice and alternative,” Acton stated. “It was a slow burn for three years and then a huge explosion. Now the rocket is going.”

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