DuckDuckGo reaches milestone of over 100 million daily searches for first time

In a week that saw messengers Signal and Telegram see a huge influx of new users, privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo reached a milestone in its 12-year history: it was the first day with more than 100 million searches.

In 2020, the average number of queries had increased by 62%. Since August 2020, the search engine has regularly recorded more than two billion searches per month. Compared to Google, which processes five billion searches a day, that’s not much. But it is a sign that Internet users are increasingly looking for alternatives.

DuckDuckGo attributes the growth to users who want more privacy when using the Internet. Reports of privacy breaches and behavioral tracking on the Internet have led to people becoming more sensitive to privacy issues and switching to privacy-friendly solutions. The latest example is the recent news by WhatsApp, which announced a change in its privacy policy and plans to share data with Facebook in the future.

Further information:

https://duckduckgo.com/traffic
https://www.zdnet.com/article/duckduckgo-surpasses-100-million-daily-search-queries-for-the-first-time/
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/privacy-focused-search-engine-duckduckgo-grew-by-62-percent-in-2020/
https://spreadprivacy.com/how-anonymous-is-duckduckgo/