Whether or not you actually care about the recent activities of the NSA, you’ve probably heard at least something about it. For those of you who want the effectiveness of a Google search with the privacy that is provided basic human beings, look no further than Duck Duck Go.
No, I didn’t get trapped inside the Bermuda Triangle while typing one of my favorite childhood games. Duck Duck Go is a search engine that is gaining traction at a meteoric rate. The search engine, which gets its moniker from the aforementioned children’s game, is one of the hottest things in the world of the Internet.

Based out of Pennsylvania, Duck Duck Go utilizes sources like Wikipedia and partnerships with larger search engines like Yahoo and Yandex to obtain its results. That’s not why Duck Duck Go has catapulted itself into a popularity contest with its competitors (ie. Google) though. Unlike many other search engines, Duck Duck Go’s attraction is its cemented stance on privacy. When searching, the search engine does not gather any personal information from the user nor does it record any of your searches. Anytime two people search for the same term, they will receive the same results.
Now, some people might see this as a negative as Google might have you pegged down to a T, providing you what it believes is exactly what you’re looking for based on your past searches. Remember though, that is your personal life and privacy that it is using to make those results. Do you really want Google recording every single thing you do? And do you want the NSA to have access to that? Try Duck Duck Go and maybe it will be just enough to change your mind.