You might not pick your search engine, but if you’re changing from the default of Google, you may be part of a new wave of change.
Remember when Google threatened to leave Australia and yet didn’t? That might have led to a player in the search engine new market to get a leg up on its rivals, and push on ahead against the regular second, Bing.
Normally, search is pretty much a Google/Bing affair. You might laugh and say “Bing, hah,” grunting at the use that is Microsoft’s search engine, but it still has its fans, even if they mightn’t be as large in number as the obvious number one of Google.
And yet they also mightn’t be as large in number as a new number two here in Australia, as the rival of each, DuckDuckGo, announces it has pulled ahead of Bing. Slightly. Ever so slightly.
According to a recent announcement, DuckDuckGo has pulled ahead, marginally in Australia, though that might be because Bing appears to have fallen. As of May 2021 on tracking system StatCounter, DuckDuckGo is responsible for 0.74% of searches in Australia, marginally outpacing Yahoo at 0.58% and Bing at 0.42%. And yes, Google has most of the rest of that, sitting at just over 98% locally, showing just how dominant the engine is.
However DuckDuckGo says its improvements aren’t just seen locally, but in the US, Canada, Netherlands, and other locations, with the company also noting it will release a web browser for the desktop later in the year, as well. DuckDuckGo presently runs as a search engine on any platform, mind you, but has an app for phones and tablets, with the desktop browser to come.
This probably won’t affect which search engine you’re using, mind you, and if you’re someone who loves Google, you’ll probably keep on using that. But it does mean that more people are exploring the choices out there, and that means more choice in how they search overall.
