DuckDuckGo is working on a desktop version of its mobile app, which offers a private browsing experience that’s said to be faster than Google Chrome.
It’s not a “privacy browser,” as DuckDuckGo makes sure to clarify in an announcement.
Rather, it’s being referred to as: “an everyday browsing app that respects your privacy.”
That could be PR lingo for what actually ends up behaving as a privacy browser, but we’ll have to wait and see when the product officially launches.
What’s the difference between a privacy browser and a private browsing app?
DuckDuckGo says the difference is defined by how its app is built:
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“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.”
Not to be confused with DuckDuckGo’s extension for the Chrome desktop browser, its private browsing app will be a standalone product.
The desktop app will offer a number of advantages over using Chrome with the DuckDuckGo extension installed.
There are few details available at this point, but here’s what’s known about DuckDuckGo’s desktop app so far:
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- It will have a clean and simple interface.
- DuckDuckGo’s desktop app will retain the “Fire” button from its mobile app.
- It’s said to have less clutter and offer more privacy than Chrome.
- DuckDuckGo touts it as being “significantly faster” than Chrome.
DuckDuckGo’s desktop app is currently going through testing in a closed beta. The company’s announcement doesn’t indicate when it will be available to everyone.
If you haven’t been keeping up with DuckDuckGo as a company, here are some recent stats that indicate consumer interest in private browsing is growing:
- 27 million Americans (9%) use DuckDuckGo.
- DuckDuckGo’s search engine averages more than 100 million searches a day.
- DuckDuckGo is the most downloaded browsing app on Android.
- DuckDuckGo is the second-most downloaded browsing app on iOS (behind Chrome).
- Worldwide, DuckDuckGo has had over 150 million downloads of its all-in-one privacy apps and extensions.
Source: DuckDuckGo
Featured Image: Screenshot from spreadprivacy.com, December 2021.
