The Stock Podcast is super excited to have DuckDuckGo founder and CEO Gabriel Weinberg on the program. DuckDuckGo is a privacy-focused search engine. And if you’re like me, when you heard the name DuckDuckGo, you probably did a double take. It’s a strange name, but so is Google. Yeah, I’m comparing this company to Google because DuckDuckGo competes with Google’s search engine. You might be scratching your head at that statement because, well you probably didn’t think Google had any competitors.
That, in and of itself is a strange concept. I’ll wager that even the most die-hard free market capitalist uses Google for search, but doesn’t realize that they’re supporting a monopoly by using Google. Approximately 90% of internet search queries go through Google. Think about this for a moment – across the globe, 90% of us use Google for online discovery. All of us use the internet to search for answers to questions we might have. Assume for a moment that the results you get aren’t precisely what you’re looking for. Well, there’s actually no need to make that assumption, because that’s what’s happening! It may not be all that nefarious from a search perspective, but companies like Google and Facebook track your location build profiles on everyone who uses their service. Your location and profile are used to influence search results, but also to sell you stuff – which is at least a little nefarious.
Well, DDG doesn’t do any of that. You’re completely anonymous on DDG. You’ll hear a lot more about this from the DuckDuckGo founder, who is possibly one of the greatest intellects I’ve had the honor of interviewing. Just as a summary, the interview covers a lot of different topics like data privacy, the history of search, how Google became the behemoth that it is, Gabriel’s background and a bit about his company DuckDuckGo.
But before we get to those topics, we start out talking about Gabriel’s new book, Super Thinking – The Big Book Of Mental Models. The book is truly fantastic, and I encourage anyone who desires to be a better decision-maker to give it a read. Mental models are simple concepts that you can apply to your daily lives, which can greatly increase your productivity and judgment. Get your copy of Super Thinking by clicking on the link below!
Check out DuckDuckGo for yourself!
Follow Gabriel on Twitter
Check out the YouTube video I referenced of Senator Hawley and Google’s DeVries
If you’re interested in mental models, I highly recommend you check out Farnam Street.
And here’s a great op-ed from Gabriel in the NY Times.
And if you’re someone who is concerned about internet privacy, I strongly encourage you to check out the Brave Browser!