DuckDuckGo and Ecosia Are they taking over market share

There are more search engines than ever, but the one that still rules is of course the Google search engine. However, a number of interesting search engines have emerged in recent years. How do they perform these days? Let's cover it in this blog post.

Previously covered in our blog posts, the search engines both have a unique selling point that sets them apart from search engines like Bing or Google. Search engines are a big part of our online lifestyle. And do the average person use more often in a day than they eat. It has become second nature to look up a new product through a search engine, confirm a news story, or simply look up how best to sharpen a kitchen knife. Search engines are a daily part of many people's lives. And therefore has a lot of influence on a lot of different things.

Google, of course, is the household name in the search engine world. On phones, laptops and desktops it is already installed as the preferred search engine. However, you have a lot of different options for this. Recently in the news for Android phones, consumers should now be able to select an option during the first startup. A step in the right direction to give consumers an option in a market that is of great importance.

DuckDuckGo what do they stand for?

DuckDuckGo puts one main thing first, privacy. With their promise and demonstrated data, they do not keep a profile of you when you search for a new vacuum cleaner, for example. Also, the search results are not flooded with ads and suggested content. This makes it a very pleasant experience for anyone who takes their privacy seriously.

Combine the DuckDuckGo browser with a browser like Brave to get the most out of its benefits. With Brave, you block tracking software that allows tracking between different websites to follow you through Facebook pixels, Ads and Linkedin marketing. With every search you make through DuckDuckGo, you then have no profile of your searches built up. Which gives you the advantage of using the internet anonymously(more).

Based on Microsoft Bing, DuckDuckGo uses its algorithm. With their privacy measures over this. Giving you reliable search results in a different guise.

The green alternative, Ecosia

Ecosia is also a relatively new search engine that we have covered in our blog posts in previous years. But has already managed to capture a surprising number of users. Their green initiative involves planting trees around the world to make an impact in their way in the fight against climate change.

A politically charged topic that everyone can have a different point of view on, a search through Ecosia makes a portion of their revenue available for tree planting. Something everyone can agree is a good plan.

Ecosia also uses a number of ways to ensure privacy in a different way, where after a week it converts personal data into anonymous data. Ecosia also has Microsoft's Bing search engine as its backbone.

Example of search results between the two

Although they both use the Bing search algorithm, you can see some differences in the search results. Since I am drinking coffee from a Cafetiere or French press I thought this would be a good example of a search. In both search engines I search for the following term:

"making coffee with cafetieres".

You'll see the following result in Ecosia:

And the following result via DuckDuckGo:

There are a couple of things that immediately struck me, and you might too. Within Ecosia, you immediately see three ads in the first 3 search results, combined with 3 ads on the side of the page. In the search results, I don't immediately see that these are actually ads. There is a distinction here with a miniscule dot in front of the URL itself.

Within DuckDuckGo, this is many times more clear by clearly showing [AD] on the side of the ads. Below this are the search results. In the natural search results, you'll also see a slight difference, which is that the very first result is flipped. Both of these first results are articles from blogs or affiliate websites that have done a study on how to make the best coffee in this. And of course hoping that you click on an ad within the site. Many similar websites are also hosted with great success in the hosting of MijnHostingPartner.nl.

The numbers that matter

Of course hard numbers are important in this kind of research, however I would like to emphasize that changes in this market are often slow and a process. Even users who primarily use Ecosia or DuckDuckGo often still use this in addition to Google as their main search engine. Habits and habituation are difficult to switch.

The market share of Search Engines in the Netherlands are shown in the table below,(Source: Statcounter)

As you can see, Google is still by miles the most used search engine. Bing will start to catch up now that many users are using the renewed Microsoft Edge browser. And use Bing as their main search engine. Where Ecosia and DuckDuckGo still put under 1 percent of the market share. Will this expand in the future as more information comes out about this I expect. Will there suddenly be a big shift to other search engines in 2021? Time will tell, but as it stands this will not be the case.