Google adds DuckDuckGo link to duck.com website

Google has modified the duck.com website to include a link to DuckDuckGo. The company has been in possession of the URL since a company takeover and until now had it redirected to the Google homepage.

Rob Shilkin, vice president of Google, modified the website after Shira Ovide, a writer at Bloomberg, asked on Twitter why the duck.com website redirected to google. Shilkin explains in a comment that Google had redirected the URL to google.com since the acquisition of On2.

On2 was a company focused on the development of video codecs, including VP8 and older variants. Google acquired the company in 2010 to sponsor the development of the WebM format. On2 was also known as The Duck Company and owned the url duck.com, which referred to on2.com.

Duck.com now still redirects to on2.com, but instead of redirecting to google.com, it now displays a simple landing page that briefly explains that Google has acquired On2. Furthermore, some links for lost visitors are shown: a link to ducks.com, which by the way points to Brass Pro, a camping shop, a link to the DuckDuckGo homepage and a link to the English Wikipedia article about ducks.

DuckDuckGo Founder Gabriel Weinberg Has Shilkin in a tweet thanks and indicates that he thinks the change will help to create confusion among users. He also asks if Google is interested in selling the URL to DuckDuckGo. However, no response has yet been received.