DuckDuckGo’s CEO, Gabriel Weinberg, has criticized the difficulty of switching from Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG GOOGL Google to his privacy-centric search engine during his testimony in the ongoing antitrust trial against the tech giant.
What Happened: Weinberg said that a substantial portion of DuckDuckGo’s users, approximately 30% to 40%, prioritize privacy.
Most of these users, however, find the transition from Google to DuckDuckGo more clunky than necessary, according to Weinberg’s testimony, reported Bloomberg.
He stated, “Switching is way harder than it needs to be. There’s just too many steps.”
With DuckDuckGo currently holding a mere 2.5% share of the U.S. search market compared to Google’s nearly 90%, Weinberg’s comments highlighted a significant hurdle for competitors.
DuckDuckGo apparently distinguishes itself from Google by offering enhanced online tracking security and greater transparency regarding user data usage. Unlike Google, DuckDuckGo generates ads reportedly based solely on users’ search results, renouncing tracking algorithms, the report noted.
Why It’s Important: For the unversed, The U.S. Justice Department has accused Google of paying substantial annual sums, over $10 billion, to tech rivals, smartphone manufacturers, and wireless providers to ensure its preselection as the default search option on PCs and mobile devices.
This practice, the government claims, hinders competition, preventing search engines like DuckDuckGo from gaining the traction needed to challenge Google’s dominance.
Google’s attorney, John Schmidtlein, previously argued that these payments were compensations for partners ensuring timely security updates and other software maintenance.
“Users today have more search options and more ways to access information online than ever before,” he said, adding Google has emerged as a winner in competitions hosted by Apple and Mozilla to select the best search engines.
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