SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo grew by 46% in 2021:
The privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo continues to grow rapidly, with the company now averaging over 100 million daily search queries and growing by almost 47% in 2021.
Unlike other search engines, DuckDuckGo says they do not track your searches or your behavior on other sites. Instead of building user profiles used to display interest-based ads, DuckDuckGo search pages display contextual advertisements based on the searched keywords.
[...] Furthermore, to build their search index, the search engine uses the DuckDuckBot spider to crawl sites and receive data from partners, such as Wikipedia and Bing. However, they do not build their index using data from Google.
While Google remains the dominant search platform, DuckDuckGo has seen impressive year-over-year growth. In 2020, DuckDuckGo received 23,653,663,401 total search queries and achieved a daily average of 79 million search queries by the end of December. In 2021, DuckDuckGo received 34.6 million search queries and currently has an average of 100 million search queries per day, showing a 46.4% growth for the year.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday December 28 2021, @08:28PM (9 children)
Hammer as they may, if DDG insists on continuing as a privacy advocate, the hammering does no good.
Besides, there isn't an awful lot of evidence that targeted advertising makes more sales than context-related advertising. For instance, Google may know that I searched for some item on their search engine. I researched the item for hours, or days, then I made a purchase through PayPal, or Amazon, or Ebay, or Craig's list. Google continues to advertise that item for days, weeks, even months - and all that advertising money is wasted on a guy who doesn't need the product any longer.
I would dearly love for more people to wake up, and understand just how creepy targeted advertising is. Object to it, then shut it down - one of the first steps is to use a different search engine that doesn't target you. I can't repeat often enough: no corporation, no government agency, no not-for-profit, no church agency, no one is "entitled" to your data. If they want your data, they should negotiate a price with you. How much would it be worth to you, to share all of the data on your computer with me, for instance?
Lumping together Apple, Google, Amazon, and all the rest, that would mean I can search through the files on your computer (pinky swear that I'll do nothing with that data unless it breaks a law, or one of my partners wants the data, or I find a way to profit from the data, or some nubile young blonde just asks me nicely) search through your photos, videos, search your browsing history, everything. Put a price on it, so we can negotiate.
Hail to the Nibbler in Chief.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 28 2021, @08:58PM (1 child)
Supposedly advertising is where Google makes its trillions. I may be in a minority, but my use of adblockers has resulted in a completely advertising free internet experience. I hate ads, especially if it is obvious they are stalking you on a previous purchase. But I'll try to cut them out wherever I can.
During our national insanity, I've been recording classic TV shows, and the ads are unavoidable and take effort to cut out. Yet internet "advertising" companies are sporting trillion dollar valuations? Or is it inflowing CIA money?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 28 2021, @09:34PM
We're not supposed to talk about the advertising bubble. If it pops everyone dies!
Apparently, mobile users still see and tolerate a lot of ads. Around 15% use adblockers compared to 50% on desktop.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by fliptop on Tuesday December 28 2021, @09:23PM (1 child)
In the case of Google, it's worth one free email account and the pleasure of using their search engine.
To be oneself, and unafraid whether right or wrong, is more admirable than the easy cowardice of surrender to conformity
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday December 28 2021, @09:27PM
I love honesty. You're selling cheap, though.
Hail to the Nibbler in Chief.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by unauthorized on Tuesday December 28 2021, @11:35PM
Apple and Google don't need to convince you, they just need to convince the majority. A few neckbeards who are diehard privacy hobos isn't going to change anything for them. You're not relevant, they can "control the world" with or without you, alienating 0.1% of their consumer base through anti-consumer practices which multiply the profit margin from the remaining consumer base is an easy decision to make. In a world of atomized consumerism, bad behavior is good business sense.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bloodnok on Wednesday December 29 2021, @12:40AM (2 children)
The targeted part is certainly creepy, but it's the advertising that is the fundamental problem. Advertising serves no public good: the notion that it informs consumers is laughable, and if the consumer sees no benefit then it is just a drain on attention and resources.
When an ad distracts you, it is doing harm: if you are trying to relax, it winds you up; if you are trying to do something productive, it makes you less productive. And although each instance may be small the cumulative effect is huge. Advertising hurts us all: it makes us less relaxed and less productive, and that's before you've even started to engage in today's social media shitstorm.
The worst part is that the public have been conditioned to accept these intrusions as if it's ok and there is no alternative. That's what creeps me out.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Wednesday December 29 2021, @03:48AM
I've been avoiding ads ever since I found the mute button as a kid. Using the Brave browser.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by srobert on Wednesday December 29 2021, @02:25PM
Advertising does not "hurt us all". Advertising does enormous good. It gets people to buy products they otherwise wouldn't, products made by companies in which I happen to be invested.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Saturday January 01 2022, @12:54AM
I suspect it is a sort of scam where the more views they can claim, the more they can charge companies to run their ads, even though the "view" might be nothing more than their script loading on a site. I'll occasionally allow ads to run on a useful site, but as soon as the ads start becoming intrusive (NEVER block content!) they are shut down again.
Google used to offer ads relevant to searches. Now, one is lucky if the search results are relevant, let alone the ads. Google can no longer claim to be the best search engine, and I suspect as more people discover this their efforts will be geared more and more towards forcing ads upon viewers (I suppose making the search engine once again the best is out of the question) and poisoning browsers.
I've been fairly satisfied with DuckDuckGo, but I have noticed search results becoming pushed more towards mainstream outlets rather than the eclectic offerings of the past. I suppose as more people use them the more that will be the case.