Watch Out Google, Duck Duck Go Handles 3 Billion Searches Per Year

DuckDuckGo Founder and CEO Gabriel Weinberg.

The founder of Duck Duck Go — the Paoli, Pa.-based search engine that doesn’t track user information — spoke on CNBC’s Squawk Alley last week. (Hat tip to Technically Philly for finding it first.)

Gabriel Weinberg said Duck Duck Go is handling approximately 3 billion searches per year and said the company is “already pretty mainstream.” In fact, it’s one of just a handful of default search engines available on iOS 8 for Apple’s iPhones.

Weinberg said it’s a “myth that you have to track people to make money in search” and said the company’s making the bulk of its profits from keyword advertising.

“Google tracks you on all these other sites because they run huge advertising networks and other properties, like Gmail and photos. That’s why ads follow you around the Internet,” he said.

Weinberg also said Duck Duck Go differs greatly from Incognito mode on Google Chrome.

“This is another big myth that people have. Incognito mode is only for your computer and not around the Internet,” he said. “When you’re in Incognito mode, Google is still tracking you, your ISP still knows where you’re going, all the sites you visit can still track you — including advertisers.”

While brand awareness is still lacking, the company has grown significantly since news surfaced about the National Security Agency tracking metadata on Americans’ Internet and phone usage.

“We’ve grown 600 percent since the surveillance revelations started two years ago,” said Weinberg.

Read more about the company’s rise in this story we wrote back in 2013.