What you need to know
- DuckDuckGo is building a privacy-focused browser for macOS and Windows.
- The company says it is building the browser on "OS-provided rendering engines" rather than Chromium.
DuckDuckGo is about to come to the Mac with a new desktop app.
In a blog post from DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg, the company has announced that it is now taking what it learned from its iOS and Android app and building a full-fledged desktop app for the Mac and Windows.
According to Weinberg, instead of building the app on the Chromium platform (like Microsoft did with Edge), it is using the "OS-provided rendering engines (like on mobile), allowing us to strip away a lot of the unnecessary cruft and clutter that's accumulated over the years in major browsers."
Like we've done on mobile, DuckDuckGo for desktop will redefine user expectations of everyday online privacy. No complicated settings, no misleading warnings, no "levels" of privacy protection – just robust privacy protection that works by default, across search, browsing, email, and more. It's not a "privacy browser"; it's an everyday browsing app that respects your privacy because there's never a bad time to stop companies from spying on your search and browsing history.Instead of forking Chromium or anything else, we're building our desktop app around the OS-provided rendering engines (like on mobile), allowing us to strip away a lot of the unnecessary cruft and clutter that's accumulated over the years in major browsers. With our clean and simple interface combined with the beloved Fire Button from our mobile app, DuckDuckGo for desktop will be ready to become your new everyday browsing app. Compared to Chrome, the DuckDuckGo app for desktop is cleaner, way more private, and early tests have found it significantly faster too!
DuckDuckGo has become known as the privacy-first search engine and, according to the company, seen major growth as consumers are starting to look for companies that respect their privacy and don't track them across the internet. According to the company, 27 million Americans, or 9% of the country, now use DuckDuckGo instead of Google, Yahoo, Bing, or other search engines.
It's been a running rumor (or hope) that Apple would acquire DuckDuckGo at some point and pair its privacy-focused search engine with its privacy-focused software and hardware. However, nothing has ever come of the rumors.
