“Duck Duck Go is a new search engine, like Google. We help you spend less time and effort searching by combining results you are used to with much better info from human powered sources like Wikipedia.” in their own words
There is no bigger skeptic when it comes to startup search companies. To this humble mind it just seems way to hard/crowded/overwhelming to take on monsters (in size not ideology) like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. The amount of energy and capital they have to put into R&D and marketing makes the idea of competing almost laughable. So why would anyone, especially someone smart enough to get into MIT, put their life on the line to do just that? Quite honestly, because it might just be the smartest way to make money.
With Google and Microsoft in a technology arms race reminiscent to the US and Soviet Union during the Cold War (guess which one is the USSR) they are acquiring tech companies left and right that could potentially give them any tactical advantage against the other, sort of like satellite states. Just recently MSN started integrating the technology from the recent purchase of search company Powerset that is not dis-similar from Duck Duck.
Created by MIT Alum Gabriel Weinberg, Duck Duck Go was made available to the public on September 25, 2008. Gabriel was kind enough to put a Phast Pitch together for Phillypreneurs and we’d love to introduce you to him and Duck Duck Go:
More specifically, here’s how Duck Duck is different then the big 3 (Google, Yahoo, MSN)
# Top results for most topics are from human powered sources, e.g. Costco. (Note the much simpler link titles and descriptions.)
# We have special pages to help you separate topics with similar names, e.g. apostle.
# Related topics, news and images are displayed on the top right (instead of ads!), e.g. Weezer.# We have special pages that group related topics, e.g. Communication disorders.
# Official sites are labeled as such and put right on top so you don’t have to think about it at all, e.g. Bill Gates.
# Ability to search other sites directly, e.g. !youtube another bubble (sites list).
# Keyboard shortcuts: → ← ↑ ↓, Enter (go), n (news), i (images), r (related topics), h j k l (arrow alts.), and / (search box).
# Automatic highlighting of the last link you visited when you click back.
# Detects phone, tracking, and car #s; zip, book and product codes; and street and IP addresses.
While I don’t think Google has to start building its Duck Duck defense strategy just yet, I do think that companies like Duck Duck and Powerset make complete sense as acquisition plays for Google and Microsoft (Yahoo is out of the picture now that it’s on the sales block itself). So watch Duck Duck and Gabriel’s twitter feed for meetings in Mountain View or Redmond in the next year or two.
PS
Attention Developers: Duck Duck does have an API and we would love to hear about projects you develop with it.
Dave Speers is an online marketing consultant and start-up junky that has worked with a wide variety of Philadelphia businesses. Dave spends most his time annoying really smart people at Indy Hall co-working collaborative.
