Duck Duck Go and Hakia May Provide Competition for Google

New search engines Duck Duck Go and Hakia may give Google a run for its money. Both Duck Duck Go and Hakia seek to offer quality searches with less clutter, less garbage, and fewer clicks.

Duck Duck Go and Hakia vs. Google: Company History

Duck Duck Go was founded by MIT graduate Gabriel Weinberg and is based in Valley Forge, PA. As Weinberg, who self-funds the search engine, explained to Fast Company Magazine, "Some people don't believe me when they say that Google's results are bad. But I find that there are incredible amounts of spam."

Founded in 2004, Hakia is a New York City based company founded by nuclear scientist Riza Berkan and economist Pentti Kouri. Ontological semantics and linguistics professor Victor Raskin serves as Hakia's scientific advisor. Members of the board include former Senator Bill Bradley.

Google began in 1995 as a research project between Stanford PhD students Larry Page and Sergei Brin. Google ranks search results according to the number of times a term appears on the page.

Duck Duck Go and Hakia vs. Google: My Experience

Duck Duck Go's home page has a simple box and search button. After typing in "Miley Cyrus," I was sent to a clean spam-free page with a "zero-click-info" red box at the top. There was a simple explanation saying "Miley Ray Cyrus is a Golden Globe- and Critic's Choice Award- nominated American singer, actress, and author," followed by a link to her wikipedia page. There are also categories such as Bubble Gum Pop and People from Franklin, Tennessee.

Under the red box are a few links to Miley Cyrus' official page, and other highly-ranked and relevant pages. There was also a feature that allows users to search popular sites such as myspace, facebook, and imdb.

While Duck Duck Go is a refreshing alternative to the dead links and spam on Google, there are a few features that are much more Google-friendly. For example, if I was looking for "news" or "images" of Miley Cyrus, I would still rather go through Google. Google is also much easier to book tickets or to receive travel directions.

Hakia is valuable time-saving research tool. According to the About Page, Hakia describes itself as a "semantic" search engine. Unlike Google which ranks by popularity, Hakia focuses on sites that have been recommended by librarians, recent information, and relevance to the query.

Hakia's home page has an "Ask" box, a picture, and links to sites such as Librarian's Corner, and Pubmed. The search results were more comprehensive than those of Duck Duck Go. When I typed "Who is Miley Cyrus" I was pointed to a Hakia Resume for Miley Cyrus. An "On This Page" box provided links to profile, image search, headline news, and other research features. The information was also visually organized into several category boxes.

Duck Duck Go and Hakia vs. Google: My Conclusions

As Duck Duck Go and Hakia are relatively new, nothing is set in stone. In fact, both sites welcome suggestions for improvements. Yet based on my experiences, these search engines have their different strengths.

Duck Duck Go is particularly useful for minimalists, kids, and those who are new to the web. The site has a cute and simple layout. It is one of the most user-friendly search engines. Information is presented in the clearest terms.

Hakia is more useful for students and researchers who need information from verified sources. Breaking down the search results into category boxes makes the searching comprehensive but still user-friendly. While there is a box for "sponsored links," even that is nowhere near the level of spam and dead links found in Google searches.

While it is too soon to determine how well Duck Duck Go and Hakia will succeed, their features and layouts may give Google a run for its money.

Sources:

Skip Google, and Try These Search Engines, Chris Dannen, Fast Company

About Duck Duck Go

About Hakia