That decision proved a bit --primarily because of DuckDuckGo's ties to Microsoft's Bing--but there's no denying there were compelling reasons for the switch.
Not only is built on , but it also doesn't track users: no personal information is collected, shared, or used to customize individual users' search results. So, anyone searching on a particular term in DuckDuckGo will get the same results.
Don't try that at home if you're using Google.
Concerns about Mint's use of DuckDuckGo died down pretty quickly after the announcement was made, but recently DuckDuckGo has emerged into the limelight again. The reason this time? None other than its adoption by yet another distro.
'A Truly Private Search Experience'
Yes, --which currently occupies the No. 19 spot in popularity on DistroWatch's of page-hit rankings--on Tuesday announced that it has added DuckDuckGo to its own stable of applications as well, where it is now included in Firefox in a list of suggested search engines.
"DuckDuckGo is a general-purpose search engine that offers real privacy, less spam/clutter, and instant answers," the PC-BSD announcement . "Well-known and widely acclaimed for its privacy policy, DuckDuckGo does not store or track user information, ensuring a truly private search experience."
DuckDuckGo also offers benefits including the capability to use shortcuts to directly search many websites, and instant answers that provide topic summaries from a variety of Web sources, the PC-BSD team notes.
Open Source in the Lead
Even as Ubuntu Linux begins to into the operating system itself and Firefox-style "" features become ubiquitous in Web browsers, it's interesting to see the growing acceptance of this , privacy-focused search engine as well. When it comes to privacy, it's starting to look like is leading the way.