DuckDuckGo’s browser is finally available for Windows users. About nine months after launching its browser for Mac, the privacy-focused search engine company is bringing a very similar product to Windows users. It’s available now and the pitch is the same as always: DuckDuckGo is a browser and search engine that doesn’t collect your data or track you around the web.
The DuckDuckGo browser looks and works like Chrome or Edge, with a row of tabs across the top and a large text box for searching and typing URLs. (DuckDuckGo’s search engine is the default when you install the browser, but you can change it if for some reason you value browser privacy but not search privacy.) DuckDuckGo offers some features of its own, such as a YouTube view the company calls Duck Player which removes all ad targeting, tracking, and recommendations from a YouTube page.
The DuckDuckGo team has been working on the Windows app for a few years, says the company’s director of product Peter Dolanjski. It took longer than other platforms, partly because Windows development was new to the team, but also because the Windows ecosystem is uniquely complicated. “There are a lot of hardware and software variations, touchscreens and screen resolutions,” he says. “All of that just takes a long time to work through to make sure it’s working right.” The app itself is built on Windows’ WebView2 technology and uses the same Blink rendering engine used by Chrome and most other browsers.
By adding Windows to the mix, DuckDuckGo now has a solid cross-platform browser that can really keep up with the Chromes and Edges of the world. The browser works on Android, iOS, Windows and Mac, giving DuckDuckGo the chance to protect your data wherever you browse. The Windows app is still in beta and is missing some features, most notably extension support, but Dolanjski says it will be upgraded soon.
DuckDuckGo is still best known as a search engine, but CEO Gabriel Weinberg says the company’s vision is bigger than that. He likes to call DuckDuckGo “the easy button for privacy.” “Search alone won’t solve the privacy damage that people worry about,” he says. “Like ads following you, disturbing targeting or people getting hold of your personal information. Search is part of that, but there are a lot of trackers hiding behind websites.”
The most complete way to help people surf the web more privately is to create a web browser – and the company has found that it’s actually easier to get users to switch from Chrome entirely than to have them install a Chrome extension .
DuckDuckGo sees the gap between browser and search engine disappear
Furthermore, Weinberg says he sees the gap between browser and search engine disappearing. Want the best of Bing? Use Edge. Googling? Chrome. Brave? Brave. The browser makers are increasingly tying their services to their apps and making it more and more difficult to switch. DuckDuckGo’s hope is that it can get people to do that one download to get into the browser, after which the company can offer all sorts of services.
Weinberg and Dolanjski both say DuckDuckGo can do a lot more to build a browser that’s not only simpler and more private, but also has more features. Weinberg cites DuckDuckGo’s email security as an example; Dolanjski says there are many other Duck Player-style tools the company can build. “Ideally,” says Weinberg, “these are features that protect you, that we can also make more visible.”
But the first step was to build a good browser and make it available everywhere. Dolanjski says it’s close: The Windows version may be slightly behind while it’s in beta, but “the goal is to get to parity as soon as possible.” Once everything is up to speed, DuckDuckGo can start dreaming bigger.
Janice has been with businesskinda for 5 years, writing copy for client websites, blog posts, EDMs and other mediums to engage readers and encourage action. By collaborating with clients, our SEO manager and the wider businesskinda team, Janice seeks to understand an audience before creating memorable, persuasive copy.