4 ms·

Meanwhile DuckDuckGo (probably valued at under $50 million) is worth less than 1% of that fee. No wonder Google continues to retain a monopolistic market share.

ucaetano 8y ago
Well, Google isn't the one putting it up for sale. Apple could easily add a user choice prompt, where users can pick from the top 3 search engines in a country. But I guess they like that $10B very much.
- reaperducer 8y ago
  Apple could easily add a user choice prompt, where users can pick from the top 3 search engines in a country Settings > Safari > Search Engine
  - max76 8y ago
    Sure, this changes Safari's default search engine. Siri will still return Google results. Ask Siri "Do a web search for {search query}" and you'll see google'logo at the bottom of the list.
  - ucaetano 8y ago
    That's not what I meant. If Apple didn't want to push a search engine and take financial advantage of it, it could show a prompt the first time the user opens the browser, asking the user to select the search engine from a list. But I guess Apple just loves that nice shiny pile of cash too much to give it up!
    - reaperducer 8y ago
      But I guess Apple just loves that nice shiny pile of cash too much to give it up! Or perhaps a company that is focused on the user experience decided not to make 98% of its users change the setting.
      - ucaetano 8y ago
        Yeah, and charged $10B for it. Right...
wuliwong 8y ago
That seems like a really low estimate but I have no clue what DDG is currently valued at. They raised $10 million recently but after a little search I wasn't able to see at what valuation they raised the money at.
- eugeniub 8y ago
  Me neither. I just guessed that it was a 20-30% stake, hence under $50m.
bduerst 8y ago
DuckDuckGo is basically a reskin of Bing search (unless you search in Russian, then it's Yandex). Their value-add is minimal, even if you trust them to respect privacy, despite not being open-sourced or audited. DDG isn't a search engine in the same way Bing and Google are.

ucaetano 8y ago

Well, Google isn't the one putting it up for sale. Apple could easily add a user choice prompt, where users can pick from the top 3 search engines in a country. But I guess they like that $10B very much.

reaperducer 8y ago
Apple could easily add a user choice prompt, where users can pick from the top 3 search engines in a country Settings > Safari > Search Engine
- max76 8y ago
  Sure, this changes Safari's default search engine. Siri will still return Google results. Ask Siri "Do a web search for {search query}" and you'll see google'logo at the bottom of the list.
- ucaetano 8y ago
  That's not what I meant. If Apple didn't want to push a search engine and take financial advantage of it, it could show a prompt the first time the user opens the browser, asking the user to select the search engine from a list. But I guess Apple just loves that nice shiny pile of cash too much to give it up!
  - reaperducer 8y ago
    But I guess Apple just loves that nice shiny pile of cash too much to give it up! Or perhaps a company that is focused on the user experience decided not to make 98% of its users change the setting.
    - ucaetano 8y ago
      Yeah, and charged $10B for it. Right...

wuliwong 8y ago

That seems like a really low estimate but I have no clue what DDG is currently valued at. They raised $10 million recently but after a little search I wasn't able to see at what valuation they raised the money at.

eugeniub 8y ago
Me neither. I just guessed that it was a 20-30% stake, hence under $50m.

bduerst 8y ago

DuckDuckGo is basically a reskin of Bing search (unless you search in Russian, then it's Yandex). Their value-add is minimal, even if you trust them to respect privacy, despite not being open-sourced or audited. DDG isn't a search engine in the same way Bing and Google are.