DuckDuckGo Builds Desktop Browser

DuckDuckGo, a Google Search rival that has been developing privacy-enhancing features for years. The latest is the DuckDuckGo standalone desktop browser.

Products are private by design if they’re not really that private. Facebook is usually at the forefront of privacy controversies, but Google has had its own share of mishaps too. Most recently, some criticized Google’s proposed cookie replacement system to make tracking users online more private. DuckDuckGo is one of the various groups that expressed their concerns.

Users might be familiar with the company’s search engine available in various browsers can perform online searches with DuckDuckGo in any internet browser, and the company won’t track you. That includes both mobile and desktop browsers where DuckDuckGo search is available.

DuckDuckGo developed a tool that can stop Google from tracking you in the Chrome browser with the cookie replacement it plans to introduce. And who can forget DuckDuckGo’s direct attack on Google for spying on iPhone users with its iOS apps?

DuckDuckGo wouldn’t be the first company to propose customers a more private browser. Brave is one alternative to Chrome built on the same engine. Then there’s Apple’s Safari that blacks user tracking. The DuckDuckGo browser for the desktop will probably come out at some point next year. However, there’s no firm release date for it.

DuckDuckGo will build the desktop app around the rendering engines the OS provides, not Google’s Chromium. The app will feature a “clean and simple interface,” the company said. DuckDuckGo also claims that its desktop browser will be significantly faster than Chrome, not just cleaner and more private.