It surprised me to see how DDG actually succeeded in getting noticed by mainstream media and millions of users despite operating on a very small footprint in an

It surprised me to see how DDG actually succeeded in getting noticed by mainstream media and millions of users despite operating on a very small footprint in an extremely difficult market dominated by Google, arguably by making a few right business / ethic choices. That may be encouraging for people who'd like to keep developing for the web, but found too many interesting areas already well-covered by industry behemoths (with weaknesses?).