DuckDuckGo is the privacy-obsessed search engine launched in 2008 by Gabriel Weinberg, who basically looked at Google's data-hoarding empire and said "nah, we're doing the opposite." Fully bootstrapped (no VC overlords), it pulls results from hundreds of sources without tracking you, building profiles, or feeding you bubble-wrapped propaganda. Bangs (shortcuts that quickly take you to search results on other sites), instant answers, AI chat that's actually private, plus a full arsenal of free tools: browser, email protection, tracker blocker, the works. It's the search engine that treats your data like it's radioactive, because to them, it is.
No Pride Month rainbow, no DEI word salad, no forced "inclusion" training, no climate hysteria, just pure, unapologetic focus on blocking creeps instead of blocking wrongthink. They even flex real equality with flat pay scales "regardless of race, gender, age, or location" (take that, equity grifters), and their million-dollar donations go to legit privacy warriors like Electronic Frontier Foundation and Tor, not the usual corporate guilt-laundering suspects. Yeah, the CEO had one liberal meltdown in 2022 playing censorship cop on "Russian disinfo," but he's kept his politics in his pants ever since. In the land of woke search overlords, DuckDuckGo is the quiet rebel still delivering clean results.
