The document discusses DuckDuckGo, a privacy-focused search engine. It provides an agenda that covers the rise of privacy concerns in search engines like Google, an overview of what DuckDuckGo is and why it was founded, how to optimize websites and advertise on DuckDuckGo, and where privacy in search is headed. DuckDuckGo has grown rapidly in recent years and now handles over 100 million searches per day, making it the 6th largest search engine globally. It does not track users or store personal information like search histories.
15. How do I optimise for DDG?
A. How DDG works. - 400 sources including:
DuckDuckBot Crowdsourcing websites Search engines e.g.
Yahoo, Bing
• No proprietary indexes - uses APIs
• Re-ranks using intelligence layer
• Privacy is key
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16. How do I optimise for DDG?
B. Optimisation tips.
Quality backlinks Engaging content Submit site
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Submit your !Bang Structured data
17. How do I advertise on DDG?
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ADVERTISING
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AFFILIATE
REVENUE
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• Founded in the US (PA) in 2008 by Gabriel Weinberg to protect users search privacy and avoid bubble of personalised search results
• Backed by Union Square Ventures and angel investors
• Name comes from the children’s game “Duck, Duck, Goose”
• Search engine written in Perl, runs on nginx, FreeBSD and Linux
• Built primarily on search API’s from 400 sources (including Yahoo!, Search BOSS, Wolfram Alpha, Bing, its webcrawler, Wikipedia and others)
• Earns revenue from advertisements (managed by MSA) and affiliate programs (ebay/amazon)
Sept 26, 2013 – GNOME releases Web 3.1 with DDG as default search engine
• Sept 18, 2014 – Apple includes as search option on IOS 8 and OS X Yosemite in Safari browser
• 2014 – Mozilla ads DDG as option for Firefox 33.1
• 2016 – DDG partners with Yahoo!, Bing, Yandex and Wikipedia – without sharing user information
• 2016 – Tor Browser names DDG as default search
• 2019 – DDG announces all maps powered by Apple Maps
• July 2021 – privacy @duck.com email service launched
• Nov 2021 – 101 million daily searches on average
▪ Surpassed 100 billion searches on Jan 13, 2022
▪ Current average circa 100 million searches per day
▪ 6th biggest search engine by rank globally, approaching 1% of global search market
▪ USA largest market share, followed by Germany and the UK
▪ Reach 3 of top 6 search engines via Microsoft Advertising (Yandex: Russia, Baidu: China)
What does Google track?
▪ Location data
▪ Search history
▪ Purchases you make
▪ Browsing behaviour
▪ Gmail activity
▪ YouTube activity
▪ Ads you view
▪ How you use Google devices, apps, services
▪ Anything connected to Google
What does DDG track?
▪ No search history – completely anonymous
▪ Automatically connects to encrypted versions websites when possible making harder for others to track
▪ Does not use cookies
▪ Keeps IP addresses hidden
▪ Incognito only prevents browser history from being recorded on your local device
▪ Does not prevent website you visit from collecting information
▪ According to Search Engine Journal, DuckDuckGo compiles its search results via a total of 400 sources, including the DuckDuckBot, several crowdsourcing websites, and search engines such as Yahoo and Bing.
▪ This is different from Google or Bing which maintain their own isolated “indexes” and determine their own rankings
▪ Local search much less precise on DDG due to privacy search approach – IP addresses aren’t stored
▪ Map data is sourced from Apple maps – so make sure listing is up to date
▪ Follow Bing and Google indexing rules
Quality backlinks
Optimise/repurpose engaging content (know your sources) LinkedIn, Amazon, Quora etc…….
Submit site to other search engines (Bing, Yahoo, Yandex)
Submit your !Bang (shortcut)
Structured data - JSON-LD
DuckDuckGo generates revenue in two ways – affiliate revenue and advertising
▪ Affiliate revenue is via programs such as Amazon and Ebay affiliate programs
▪ Advertising is via sponsored links managed by the Microsoft Ad Network –
specifically the search and content networks on Bing