Whenever you need to look something up or would like to search for the nearest restaurant in your location, what do you do? For millions of people, not only in America but all over the world, the first instinct would be to whip out their phones or turn their laptops on, open a web browser and search using Google. Every time one has to search for something, Google is the first thing that comes to mind.
To be more straightforward, it would be difficult and even painful to imagine life without Google. The Internet without Google can be quite lonely too, although VoIP phones have made communicating more fun. Google is undeniably the leading search engine today. Yahoo!’s reputation slipped over the years and Google’s perseverance bore fruit—millions of dollars’ worth of fruit. However, despite Google’s reign, there still exist smaller search engines that can be considered to be Google’s direct competition. DuckDuckGo and Blekko are just two of the relatively smaller search engines that aim to cast a shadow on Google’s supremacy. Although these two definitely have a long way to go in order to defeat the search engine giant that is Google, there are still some who see them as serious threats.
- Blekko
According to statistics, Blekko gets about five million searches daily which proves that Blekko gets more traffic than its contemporary, DuckDuckGo. Greg Lindahl, Blekko’s CTO related that if Internet users are into web exploration and find joy in discovering new avenues, then they will certainly get to appreciate Blekko more. For the past year, Blekko had its focus on providing their users with a broader approach when it comes to their searches. It is able to present results while still in the process of indexing the web on its own. Blekko is working on not just giving their users results but is also striving to meet the expectations of every user. Lindahl furthered that Blekko isn’t out to compete with anyone, especially Google; all they want is to provide millions of Internet users from different parts of the world with an alternative when it comes to searching the web.
- DuckDuckGo
It is a relatively new search engine since it was just created in 2007 by Gabriel Weinberg, and it gets its results from various sources. It may seem like cheating to others but DuckDuckGo has one of the best qualities an Internet user looks for in a search engine—the promise of privacy. DuckDuckGo is popularly known for its ardent pro-privacy stance. Weinberg firmly believes that if Internet users will be compelled to choose between accurate search results and accurate search results plus privacy, they will certainly go for the option that protects their privacy. This search engine has earned its reputation on its stern position on privacy policies. They claim that they do not practice collecting personal information of their users, and more importantly, they do not share them. Because really, what is there to share if they do not collect personal data from Internet users? DuckDuckGo also does not keep unique user numbers and they do not store IP addresses. You are probably wondering how they operate. This search engine thrives with the help of search ads and capital funding. Although the team behind DuckDuckGo has seen its potential to be a great money-making machine, Weinberg reiterated that they are not after making that much money. This search engine was not created for profit. Their main mission is to help transform other companies, help them rework their policies and their only long term goal is to make it to ComScore’s market share reports.