DuckDuckGo Promises Its Desktop Browser Will Be Cleaner And Way More Private Than Chrome
You might already use DuckDuckGo as your go-to search engine rather than Google or Bing (or whatever else—AskJeeves, perhaps?). If you're into DuckDuckGo, then you will be ecstatic to learn that it is expanding from a privacy oriented search engine into a full-blown browser on the desktop, just as it has done on mobile.
"Like we’ve done on mobile, DuckDuckGo for desktop will redefine user expectations of everyday online privacy. No complicated settings, no misleading warnings, no 'levels' of privacy protection—just robust privacy protection that works by default, across search, browsing, email, and more," DuckDuckGo states in a blog post.
DuckDuckGo says that what it is working on is not a privacy browser, but an "everyday browsing app that respects your privacy." The developer also says it will not be forking Chromium, the open-source platform that powers Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, or any other existing browser project. Instead, the desktop browser will be built around the rendering engine of whatever OS it is working on, which essentially means WebView2 (Edge Chromium) on Windows desktops and WebKit (Safari) on Macs.
This is the same approach DuckDuckGo took with its mobile browser. The advantage of going this route is that it allows the developer to "strip away a lot of the unnecessary cruft and clutter that's accumulated over the years in major browsers." It will also feature a clean interface and the iconic Fire button that's present on its mobile browser. And it will be better than Chrome in pretty every way, according to the developer.
"Compared to Chrome, the DuckDuckGo app for desktop is cleaner, way more private, and early tests have found it significantly faster too!," DuckDuckGo says.
Those are all appealing propositions. Whether it can make a dent in Chrome's dominant market share remains to be seen. According to the latest data from StatCounter, Chrome accounts 66.35 percent of browser usage on the desktop, followed by Safari at 9.82 percent, Edge at 9.53 percent, and Firefox at 8.34 percent.
There's no mention of when the DuckDuckGo desktop browser will launch, only that it is coming at some point.
