DuckDuckGo Added To Firefox As Part Of Enhanced Privacy Options

Firefox is celebrating its 10th anniversary. A new version of the browser includes two new privacy features. The first is the availability of DuckDuckGo as a new pre-installed search engine choice. The second is a “forget” feature that allows users to delete recent history.

Forget enables users to easily erase the “last 5 minutes, or 2 hours, or 24 hours” of browsing history. This complements FireFox’s existing private window feature.

DuckDuckGo has been around since 2008 but has seen query growth and new popularity in the wake of the NSA scandal and related increase in privacy coverage. (Although see Danny Sullivan’s contrarian view.) Apple also recently added DuckDuckGo to Safari as a search option.

Earlier this year the search engine relaunched with a more polished look and new capabilities.

DuckDuckGo can also be added as a search option in Chrome although there are several steps to do so. Chrome is the top browser globally and in the US. Firefox, depending on whether mobile browsers are included, is number three or four.

Realistically DuckDuckGo is not a threat to Google or Bing. However the site could continue to see steady growth over time and is an increasingly viable search option for those concerned about query related tracking, profiling and ad targeting.