DUCKDUCKGO

DuckDuckGo developing dedicated privacy-focused web browser for macOS

Published

3 years ago

December 22, 2021

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DuckDuckGo is best known for being a privacy-friendly alternative to Google in the search industry. The company is now, however, looking to expand beyond the search industry with a new privacy-focused desktop browser. Head below for the full details.

The new privacy-focused DuckDuckGo web browser was touted as part of the company’s efforts to create a “privacy super app” in a blog post by CEO Gabriel Weinberg. The desktop browser will be similar to the DuckDuckGo app for iPhone and iPad, allowing users to easily control their privacy settings and their information.

Weinberg says that the app will forgo “complicated settings” and “misleading warnings” in favor of “robust privacy protection that works by default, across search, browsing, email, and more.”

Notably, the company also says that it isn’t forking Chromium for this new browser, but rather a browser that’s based around OS-provided rendering engines. This is something that will allow the app to be faster and cleaner:

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!

“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,” the DuckDuck CEO concludes.

According to The Verge, the DuckDuckGo desktop browser is currently in private testing for macOS, but the company is also working on a version for Windows. A specific release date to the public is unclear, but we’d expect it sometime in 2022 at the earliest.