Interface: DuckDuckGo Is More Customizable
Both search sites have frill-free designs with little else aside from a search box. Google frequently updates its logo to honor holidays and other special occasions. Both let you opt for a dark or light mode, but DuckDuckGo offers a lot more in the way of customizing colors, fonts, and the layout of results. Neither lets you set a background image like Bing.
Left to right: Google and DuckDuckGo search pages (Credit: Google/DuckDuckGo/PCMag)
Google’s search box is a little busier, with microphone and camera buttons for voice entry and Google Lens image search, respectively. It also features an AI Mode button, which activates Gemini, and the venerable “I’m feeling lucky” button, which directs you directly to the first site it finds. DuckDuckGo doesn’t offer a voice search option, but it does put its AI tool above the search box (Duck.ai). Notably, you can turn off all of DuckDuckGo’s AI features if you don’t want to see them.
Both offer search suggestions as you type, though Google drops down popular queries as soon as you click into the box. That aspect can be more distracting than helpful, but you can fortunately turn it off. Both present an AI result on top of the result page if relevant, though DuckDuckGo’s takes up less of the page. Each shows ad links in the results, but Google’s sponsored shopping results seem to be more prominent. You can give feedback about a result to either search engine via a three-dot menu, though DuckDuckGo lets you easily report AI-generated content.
Winner: DuckDuckGo
Web Search: Don’t Expect Too Many Differences
Google is the global search leader for a reason: It can usually find exactly what you’re looking for. But the difference between it and other search services has become much less pronounced over time. For its part, DuckDuckGo combines a privatized version of Microsoft Bing’s results with other sources, including its internal DuckDuckBot. Google’s index is mobile-first, meaning it emphasizes mobile websites. Bing is platform agnostic, but it still takes mobile-friendliness into account.
Enabling Google’s search personalization option will tailor results to your interests. Even if you turn search personalization off, Google can still profile you based on the search history it saves. It also ties in all the data from your Chrome browser and YouTube account, as well as any other Google services you use (excluding Docs and Drive). Even when I signed out of my Google account in testing, the search personalization was still active. Meanwhile, DuckDuckGo shows the same web results to everyone.
Since there haven’t been any studies comparing the accuracy of the two search engines, I enlisted the support of Microsoft’s Copilot AI to devise an accuracy test. The test script included 100 search queries grouped into sets related to factual (e.g., “Who won the Nobel Prize in Physics 2024?”), navigational (getting to a website), and transactional (e.g., “What’s the best laptop for under $500?”) information. The rest spanned the health, local, news, and tech categories, among others. I compared the results against ground truths. DuckDuckGo and Google consistently returned accurate results. Of course, this is a synthetic test and can’t possibly replicate the billions of possible queries and answers that you ask search engines, but it’s proof that both deliver reliable results.
Winner: Tie
Image Search: Google’s Reverse Image Search Stands Out
Both search sites work just fine for image searches. As you can see in the image below, DuckDuckGo offers the advantage of displaying image dimensions in the results and allowing you to filter out AI-generated images. I like Google’s ability to show photos based on their licensing, however.
Left to right: Image search results in Google and DuckDuckGo (Credit: Google/DuckDuckGo/PCMag)
One major advantage that Google has here is its reverse image search capability. Simply click the camera icon and drag and drop, or upload an image. Then, Google tells you what’s in it. In testing, it correctly identified a shot of a Lesson’s Motmot bird and of yours truly, although you won’t receive results for some people in your photos, presumably due to privacy concerns.
Winner: Google
Video Search: Both Get You to the YouTube Video You Want
Google has a monopoly on online video with YouTube, so, as you might expect, its video search result pages largely include YouTube links. When I tried searching for “Wonder Man Marvel,” the first Google video search result page included 15 YouTube links, with the first 11 coming from YouTube.
Left to right: Video search results in Google and DuckDuckGo (Credit: Google/DuckDuckGo/PCMag)
DuckDuckGo mixes in some non-YouTube results among the top results, and I actually find its grid-like presentation more pleasing (Google returns a list with thumbnails). One nice privacy feature in DuckDuckGo is that you can watch videos directly on the results page, rather than going to the video player site, which keeps you more anonymous. Google simply takes you directly to the video, so it’s a matter of privacy versus convenience.
Winner: Tie
News Content: Google News Leads the Way
You can find news links on DuckDuckGo, but Google has a distinct advantage: Google News is a fantastic aggregator of important stories across many categories, and you can customize your sources and topics of interest. Google search taps into the same information as Google News, although the two sites are technically separate.
DuckDuckGo and Google show news results and image thumbnails for related queries, but the latter also organizes results by topic when appropriate, as shown in the image below comparing coverage of two different earthquakes:
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Left to right: News search results in Google and DuckDuckGo (Credit: Google/DuckDuckGo/PCMag)
Winner: Google
AI Features: Shockingly Even
Google is infusing all of its products with Gemini, and DuckDuckGo is following suit with two AI features of its own: Duck.ai lets you converse with a choice of AI models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Meta, and others, while Search Assist (similar to Google’s AI Overviews) appears for some queries. You can expand the AI Overview and Search Assist modules to get more information. It’s possible to limit and even turn off DuckDuckGo’s AI features, but Google does not offer such options.
Left to right: AI search results in Google and DuckDuckGo (Credit: Google/DuckDuckGo/PCMag)
For a full AI search experience, Google has an AI Mode. You can get to it from the glowing button in the search box, at the bottom of an AI Overview, or from the menu on result pages. Surprisingly, Google didn’t appear to have a significant advantage over DuckDuckGo in search results. In fact, when I queried both about cryptocurrency, AI Mode included a somewhat irrelevant graph comparing gold and silver prices, whereas Duck.ai provided more relevant information. Of course, your experience with the AI tools might differ. At the very least, I appreciate that DuckDuckGo allows you to select from various current AI models.
Winner: Tie
Maps, Travel, and Local Info: Google Maps Is Unbeatable
Google Maps is far and away the most authoritative source for directions, local business details, and geographical information. No matter the location on Earth, Google Maps can get you there, show you the best places to eat, and more. The Street View feature and user-uploaded photos can also give you a good idea of what a place looks like before you go. Directions work for travel by bike, foot, car, plane (if applicable), and public transit. Flights are a part of Google Travel, which offers a wealth of vacation ideas, including hotel and rental information.
Left to right: Maps search results in Google and DuckDuckGo (Credit: Google/DuckDuckGo/PCMag)
DuckDuckGo utilizes a beta version of Apple Maps, which has undergone significant improvements since its initial launch. Still, it didn’t include any public transit results at the time of testing or any information that rivals Google’s extensive data on local establishments. Note that DuckDuckGo doesn’t use the proprietary version of Apple Maps that you get on Apple devices.
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Winner: Google
By default, DuckDuckGo doesn’t show deals on products from retailers, but you can disable part of its built-in ad blocker to allow these through. Both it and Google offer Shopping modes that let you filter products by brand, price, seller, and more. When I tried searching for stereo speakers, Google showed even more filter options (size, style, and wattage), along with filters for On Sale, Get It Tomorrow, and condition (new or used). DuckDuckGo simply doesn’t go as deep here.
Left to right: Shopping results in Google and DuckDuckGo (Credit: Google/DuckDuckGo/PCMag)
Winner: Google
Privacy: DuckDuckGo’s Claim to Fame
DuckDuckGo excels in protecting your privacy. And it’s not even a question of whether Google doesn’t; a federal jury ordered Google to pay $425 million for violating the privacy rights of nearly 100 million users by continuing to collect data even after users had disabled tracking features. Additionally, the US Justice Department issued a statement stating, “The Court’s ruling is clear: Google is a monopolist and has abused its monopoly power.” It’s part of the company’s DNA to collect as much detailed information about you as possible to serve its ad-buying corporate customers.
By contrast, DuckDuckGo’s privacy policy is very forthright: “We don’t track you.” Its policy goes on to say, “We don’t save your IP address or any unique identifiers alongside your searches or visits to our websites. We also never log IP addresses or any unique identifiers to disk that could be tied back to you or to your search and browsing history.” The search engine does make money from ads on result pages, but those aren’t based on profiling you the way Google’s are. DuckDuckGo also offers a super-anonymous Tor version of its site.
If you choose to use Google but are concerned about privacy, you should dig into all the search site’s settings, where you can turn off some personalization options.
Winner: DuckDuckGo
Mobile Apps: Google’s App Goes Well Beyond Search
Google’s mobile search app is hard to beat. The interface is more information-packed than the desktop website, showing AI Mode options (including those related to the Nano Banana AI image model), news items, and notifications. The app not only lets you search by voice, but it can also identify music you play or even just hum. Recently, Google has been emphasizing the shopping features of the app, including an option to take a picture of an item to find out where you can purchase it. You can also use Google Lens to get info on something in a screenshot or from your phone’s live camera view.
Left to right: Google’s and DuckDuckGo’s mobile apps (Credit: Google/DuckDuckGo/PCMag)
Like its desktop search interface, the DuckDuckGo app is as bare-bones as it gets, featuring nothing more than a search box and logo. Continuing its focus on privacy, the app features a flame button that instantly erases all your history. It also includes a feature that sets up a local VPN (which bypasses any servers) to block other apps from tracking you. It’s notable that DuckDuckGo offers both a mobile app and a privacy-focused desktop web browser. Mobile search apps are essentially browsers, as they directly display the sites they find.
Winner: Google
