DuckDuckGo is the private search box most people already know. It does not build a search profile, and the browser and extension block a lot of third-party trackers on the pages you open. Bang shortcuts, such as !w for Wikipedia, send one query straight to another site.
The honest limit: the results are still mostly Microsoft’s Bing index, with some of DuckDuckGo’s own material mixed in. You are trusting DuckDuckGo not to profile you, and you are trusting Bing’s ranking. In 2022 a researcher found that DuckDuckGo’s own browser did not block some Microsoft trackers, because of its search deal with Microsoft. DuckDuckGo later said it would block them. It is a reminder to check how a “private” product actually behaves.
Use it as the easy default for family. Move on if you want an index Microsoft does not own. duckduckgo.com
Bangs are the power tool: !g still hits Google when you choose, which is honest, because you decided to leak that one query. The tracker blocking in the DuckDuckGo browser is a separate product from the search box. Installing the extension and then searching while logged into Microsoft does not cancel Bing’s view of the query DuckDuckGo forwarded.
