DuckDuckGo now also allows ‘privacy friendly’ search for images and videos

DuckDuckGo, a search engine that advertises itself as privacy-friendly, has put a beta version online with an updated look and new search functionality. From now on, the user can also search for images, videos and products.

Thanks in part to the Snowden revelations, DuckDuckGo, which, among other things, promises not to track the surfing behavior of its users, has grown in popularity. In 2013, the company processed more than a billion searches. Despite this, the search functionality provided was more limited than that of many competitors. The renewed search engine, currently available in beta, should partially catch up.

One of the improvements is the ability to further search the search results page for images, video content and products. In certain searches, for example for restaurants, certain locations are also shown under the heading ‘places’. DuckDuckGo presents these as tabs above the normal search results. Short fragments of relevant Wikipedia entries are also shown under ‘about’ and the option ‘definition’ tries to explain terms. Other improvements include a new look, which makes the search engine look more modern. The input field also already shows possible search terms while entering text.

DuckDuckGo wants to replace the old front with the beta site in the long run, but it is still unclear when exactly that will happen. The search engine reports that the site is not yet fully optimized for the older Internet Explorer 8 browser and that certain functionality only partially works. Users can, of course anonymously, give feedback to the developers.