DuckDuckGo surpasses 10 billion searches, with 4 billion happening in 2016 alone

The privacy search engine says it had its biggest day already this year, with 14M searches on January 10.

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DuckDuckGo, the privacy search engine that allows users to search without fear of queries being tracked, reached a major milestone last year — surpassing an accumulative 10 billion searches since the site’s inception.

The search engine says four billion of those searches happened in 2016. Already this year, DuckDuckGo says it had its biggest day ever when it served up 14 million searches on January 10.

“People are actively seeking out ways to reduce their digital footprint online,” says DuckDuckGo’s release, noting that a Pew Research study reported 40 percent of people believe search engines shouldn’t retain information about a user’s online activity.

DuckDuckGo search numbers

As part of the announcement, DuckDuckGo named nine organizations it supported in 2016, with donations totaling $225,000, including Freedom of the Press Foundation, OpenBSD Foundation, Tor Project, Fight for the Future and Riseup Labs.


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Amy Gesenhues
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Amy Gesenhues was a senior editor for Third Door Media, covering the latest news and updates for Search Engine Land, MarTech and MarTech Today. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs, SoftwareCEO, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy's articles.

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