Not a fan of the Google Search app for Android? Duckduckgo Search is here to save you. Duckduckgo is an extremely powerful search engine, and this app is even more powerful. Duckduckgo Search is the best tool you’ll ever come across when you’re trying to find something online and the Google Search app just isn’t cutting it.

What is it and what does it do

Main Functionality

Duckduckgo Search is a search engine that has tons of searching options, !bang search syntax, and is centered around your privacy. It is the official app for the Duckduckgo search engine found at http://duckduckgo.com.

Pros

• Duckduckgo does not track your searches (read http://donttrack.us/ for more info)
• Duckduckgo does not bubble you (read http://dontbubble.us/ for more info)
• Integrated magazine-style news reader via water cooler feature (BBC, CNN, Digg, Drudge Report, NPR, Reddit Politics, Rueters, The Guardian, Reddit TrueReddit, Reddit Worldnews, Yahoo!, The New Yorker,Time, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, ESPN, Grantland, Reddit Gaming, Hacker News, Lifehacker, Reddit Funny, Reddit Movies, Reddit Music, People, Reddit Pics, Reddit Programming, Reddit Science, Slashdot, Reddit Technology, Reddit AMA ‘Ask me Anything’, Quora, Reddit TIL ‘Today I Learned’, )
• Superior searching via !bang syntax. (E.g. type !yt to directly search YouTube  !gi to search Google images, !g to search Google, !b to search Bing, !w to search Wikipedia, !a to search Amazon, etc.)
• Auto suggestion while executing search queries
• Access to search history

Cons

• Widget is ugly
• Sometimes takes a while to load search results into an external browser (if you choose to disable the option to load in the internal Duckduckgo browser).

Discussion

Duckduckgo is my search engine of choice. I’ve used Duckduckgo for 3 years and I’ve never looked back. There’s so much to love about this search engine. The app is even better. I can’t get enough of this app, and I can’t stand any other searching app for the Android platform.

Duckduckgo is the best search engine you’ve never heard of. The !bang search syntax is vastly superior to any other way of searching that I’ve ever come across. I challenge anyone to prove me otherwise. With this app, the searching just gets even better. It even has this really neat ‘water cooler’ feature. Water cooler allows you to stay up to date on the latest tech, business, political news, as well as the latest posts on Reddit. It’s a great app.

My favorite part of Duckduckgo Search is the integrated browser. Google’s own searching app merely pulls open your default browser, a function that is redundant. Mostly because most Android browsers (when you type a search query into the address bar) just parse Google anyways. Duckduckgo has better search results to offer up, respects your privacy and does not bubble you. There’s a lot to love about this app.

Apart from the integrated browser, I really enjoy the water cooler feature. It’s nice that the app is so inviting, and so much more than a basic searching tool. Frequently I find myself opening up Duckduckgo Search just to see what’s new in the news. The app has a very welcoming atmosphere. I was very impressed at how great the !bang syntax worked within the integrated browser as well. I use the !bang syntax frequently, so it is important that it functions smoothly.

I didn’t have too many problems with the app itself. The ‘open in external browser’ could sometimes take a while, but that also depends on the web browser itself and if it decides to function. I also wasn’t too much a fan of the way the widgets look. They really weren’t that good looking for my taste.

All in all, Duckduckgo Search is a vastly superior searching app, and one that I will never uninstall. I can’t use anything else. Everything else is terrible in comparison. Of course that’s just my view on the matter, and of course Google and Bing have their uses, but after using this app for a long time, I have a hard time figuring out what those uses are.

Conclusion and download link

If you’re a fan of the Duckduckgo search engine, this is a must have app. Duckduckgo is the best search engine I’ve ever had the pleasure of using and this app makes that experience even better. Duckduckgo Search has everything you could ever want in a searching app. The fact that Duckduckgo is focused on not violating your privacy is huge plus. Everyone who is open to not using Google Search needs to check out this app.

Price: Free

Version reviewed: 2.0.17

Requires: 2.2 and up

Download size: 1.1 MB

Duckduckgo Search on Play Store