DuckDuckGo working on a standalone web browser for Mac & Windows

Jump to First Reply
AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in General Discussion edited December 2021
DuckDuckGo is working on a standalone desktop browser with "robust privacy protection" that will be available for the Mac and PC platforms.

DuckDuckGo browsers
DuckDuckGo browsers


The company, which makes a privacy-respective search engine and mobile browser, announced the desktop addition in a blog post Tuesday. DuckDuckGo said the browser will be faster, cleaner, and more private than Google Chrome.

According to DuckDuckGo, the browser will "redefine user expectations of everyday online privacy." It will ditch individual privacy settings in favor of an approach that enables privacy protections by default across search, email, and general browsing.

"It's not a 'privacy browser'; it's an everyday browsing app that respects your privacy because there's never a bad time to stop companies from spying on your search and browsing history," the company wrote.

Instead of being based on Chromium or another third-party codebase, the privacy company says it is building the desktop version of its browser on an OS-provided rendering engine. That's how its iOS browser was made, for example.

The DuckDuckGo blog post also details some of the privacy changes the company made in 2021, including the beta release of an email protection app, improvements to its DuckDuckGo search engine, and the addition of a "burn" button for its mobile browser.

It's not clear when the desktop DuckDuckGo browser will launch.

Read on AppleInsider

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 15
    mike1mike1 Posts: 3,488member
    AppleInsider said:

    The company, which makes a privacy-respective search engine and mobile browser, announced the desktop addition in a blog post Tuesday. DuckDuckGo said the browser will be faster, cleaner, and more private than Google Chrome.

    Looking forward to trying this, but is that really the benchmark?
    entropyswatto_cobra
     2Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 2 of 15
    22july201322july2013 Posts: 3,816member
    Will the new browser have a similar feature as the Private Relay feature in iCloud+ with Safari? Apple's Private Relay requires a subscription. Will D.D.Go's be free?
    watto_cobra
     1Like 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 3 of 15
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,355member
    mike1 said:
    AppleInsider said:

    The company, which makes a privacy-respective search engine and mobile browser, announced the desktop addition in a blog post Tuesday. DuckDuckGo said the browser will be faster, cleaner, and more private than Google Chrome.

    Looking forward to trying this, but is that really the benchmark?
    22july2013 said:
    Will the new browser have a similar feature as the Private Relay feature in iCloud+ with Safari? Apple's Private Relay requires a subscription. Will D.D.Go's be free?
    You can try it out on any iOS device already. You can already get DDG Privacy Essentials for macOS Safari although it doesn't work the same as the standalone DDG iOS browser. Safari's private browsing mode is similar but iOS DDG has a burn button that gives you a little bit of trust that everything is being deleted. As for Chrome being private, that's not a very high bar especially since every Google site you go to logs you anyway.
    watto_cobra
     1Like 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 4 of 15
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    Why oh why do they continue with the terrible branding?  
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 5 of 15
    zeus423zeus423 Posts: 283member
    It seems like any browser could be better at privacy than Chrome.
    mike54mike1watto_cobra
     3Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 6 of 15
    JinTechjintech Posts: 1,094member
    crowley said:
    Why oh why do they continue with the terrible branding?  
    Because they can. It's kinda like anti-branding, ugly, in your face (well more like Google's!)
    watto_cobra
     1Like 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 7 of 15
    fred1fred1 Posts: 1,158member
    I use it all the time. It’s too bad I often have to resort to using Google because DDG doesn’t give decent results. 
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 8 of 15
    flydogflydog Posts: 1,147member
    mike1 said:
    AppleInsider said:

    The company, which makes a privacy-respective search engine and mobile browser, announced the desktop addition in a blog post Tuesday. DuckDuckGo said the browser will be faster, cleaner, and more private than Google Chrome.

    Looking forward to trying this, but is that really the benchmark?
    Chrome is light years ahead of the shit show that Safari has turned into it.  If it wasn't for its tight integration with iCloud I doubt anyone would use Safari. 
    williamlondon
     0Likes 0Dislikes 1Informative
  • Reply 9 of 15
    flydogflydog Posts: 1,147member
    mike54 said:
    As long as they don't go with Google Chrome/Chromium to base it off, then I'm all in. Currently on Firefox with DDG as default search.
    The article literally states, "Instead of being based on Chromium...."
    williamlondon
     0Likes 0Dislikes 1Informative
  • Reply 10 of 15
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member

    Instead of being based on Chromium or another third-party codebase, the privacy company says it is building the desktop version of its browser on an OS-provided rendering engine. That's how its iOS browser was made, for example.
    So it'll use WebKit on Mac and iOS, Blink on Windows, ChromeOS and Android, and god knows what on [insert distro here] Linux?

    I wonder if that compromises the privacy promises in any way, that they don't control the whole product, like Firefox.
    edited December 2021
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 11 of 15
    sdw2001sdw2001 Posts: 18,059member
    I bailed on Google about a year ago for browsing.  I'm satisfied with Duck Duck Go overall.  Looking forward to this....
    williamlondonStrangeDayscat52watto_cobra
     4Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 12 of 15
    chadbagchadbag Posts: 2,030member
    flydog said:
    Chrome is light years ahead of the shit show that Safari has turned into it.  If it wasn't for its tight integration with iCloud I doubt anyone would use Safari. 
    I use safari for almost everything and it works just fine and I am not using it due to iCloud integrations.  It works far batter than Chrome from a performance and resource perspective 
    williamlondoncat52watto_cobra
     3Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 13 of 15
    StrangeDaysstrangedays Posts: 13,173member
    crowley said:
    Why oh why do they continue with the terrible branding?  
    How do you mean? The name? Is it really worse than Flickr, Tumblr, even Zoom?
    williamlondonwatto_cobra
     2Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 14 of 15
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    StrangeDays said:
    crowley said:
    Why oh why do they continue with the terrible branding?  
    How do you mean? The name? Is it really worse than Flickr, Tumblr, even Zoom?
    Yes.  I'd wager the most common reaction from someone who hears the name DuckDuckGo for the first time is "Really?"

    It's a silly name. 
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
Sign In or Register to comment.