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DuckDuckGo Relaunches & Starts To Look Like A Real Search Engine

Matt McGee on May 20, 2014 at 2:00 pm

DuckDuckGo, the spunky little search engine that hangs its hat on user privacy, has relaunched today with a new look and feel, not to mention a number of new features like maps and local search, image search and more.

Put it all together, and DuckDuckGo is starting to look less and less “spunky,” and more and more like a real search engine. It’s gone from something that looks like it would appeal mainly to its active developer crowd to something that consumers would use.

In other words, it’s growing up.

Here’s a look at some of DuckDuckGo’s new features — things we’re all familiar with on Google, Bing, etc., but were missing from DuckDuckGo.

Auto-Suggested Searches

Maps & Local Search

DuckDuckGo is using OpenStreetMap for its mapping.

Weather Search

Image Search

Image results are shown carousel-style by default, but one click brings up this full-screen grid.

Recipe Search

Recipe search results function like images and videos.

Some of the existing features on DuckDuckGo — like the instant answers — have also been improved.

Overall, it’s an impressive upgrade.

DuckDuckGo’s direct search traffic is now regularly above five million queries per day. That’s up about 40 percent just since January 1st, but is still light years behind the query counts that Google and Bing get each day.

That said, if DuckDuckGo continues to grow, its new users will be using a search engine that offers a lot better experience today than it did yesterday.

About The Author

Matt McGee

Matt McGee joined Third Door Media as a writer/reporter/editor in September 2008. He served as Editor-In-Chief from January 2013 until his departure in July 2017. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee.