Analysis of DuckDuckGo and Dogpile Internet Search Engines - Case Study Example

Search Engines (College) Table of Contents Contents 1Introduction 3 2Findings and Analysis 3 3Type and Focus 3 4Technical Features 4 5Similarities and Differences 5 5.1Similarities 5 5.2Differences 6 6Audience and Effectiveness 6 7Advantages and Disadvantages 7 8Conclusions 8 9References 9 1 Introduction This report is an analysis of DuckDuckGo and Dogpile internet search engines. It describes the type of each search engine with consideration to how it works. It also outlines their various technical features including security mechanisms, indexing techniques, appearance, availability of keyboard shortcuts, geographical filters, adult content filters and support for plug-ins and themes. Their similarities and differences are also analyzed, focusing on user interface and the listed technical features. Each of the search engines is particularly suited to certain user groups. These audiences are identified and the reasons as to why a certain search engine is suitable for them. The effectiveness of all the search engines for their different purposes is also discussed. Finally, each of the search engines has some advantages and disadvantages over the others due to their different aesthetic, technical and privacy features. These advantages and disadvantages are discussed for each of the search engines. 2 Findings and Analysis 3 Type and Focus Search engines can be classified into several types. General search engines are portals which allow for searching of content using an algorithm specifically designed for this task. Google is a general search engine, alongside Yahoo! and Bing among others. Metasearch engines work by submitting query keywords to other search engines, which in turn perform a search using the provided keywords. The results are then aggregated and returned to the user. A point to note is that metasearch engines do not have a database of webpage contents, they only sort the search results from other search engines in a desirable manner (Lib.berkeley.edu, 2015). Examples of metasearch engines includes Dogpile, Excite, DeeperWeb, Kayak, Answers.com, Clusty and LeapFish. DuckDuckGo takes a hybrid approach, being both a general search engine that uses its own crawler while still utilizing a metasearch functionality. Multimedia search engines are used to search the web for videos, images, music, movies and images and multimedia-related services. Search engines can also be classified as crawler-based and human-powered. Crawler-based search engines use software bots to search through websites and create an index by analyzing and categorizing them based on their content, the websites that link to them, the websites they link to and the level of traffic that they experience. Human-powered search engines employ human editors to create and edit their indexes (Yuanlei.com, 2015). DuckDuckGo and Dogpile search engines fall in the crawler-powered category. Human-powered search engines include Mahalo and Yahoo! Directory. 4 Technical Features DuckDuckGo is minimalistic in appearance, with a centered search box below the website logo. It has a non-paginated results page and displays website favicons next to search results. It also features instant suggestions to queries which appear below the search box as soon as a user starts to type (Boswell, 2015). Users can utilize keyboard and search shortcuts to quickly search for content and utilize some features. Results can also be filtered for a particular geographical region or interest. They can also be split into categories such as audio, images, video, meanings, lyrics, products and definitions. A feature that sets it apart from other search engine is its non-tracking policy, which means that it does not track the activities of its users, unlike most of the other search engines. It can also be customized by addition of themes to enhance its looks and appearance. DuckDuckGo draws its results from a blending of its own crawler results and those from other search engine facilities. DuckDuckGo users can create accounts which enable them to login to the website and to access a more tailored experience. With this login credentials, they can also engage in discussions on the DuckDuckGo community blog. DuckDuckGo has add-ons which enable a user to extend the features of the search engine. These add-ons are available for Safari and Firefox internet browsers. Dogpile has a minimalistic interface similar to DuckDuckGo. It contains a Yellow Pages feature that allows a user to search for content using Yellow Pages. Similarly, a White Pages feature is present that enables a user to search for content using White Pages. Search results can be sorted by search engine, rank, relevance and other criteria. Like DuckDuckGo, it displays suggestions to queries as they are typed by the user. It also features an adult content filter that filters content for explicit content such as results containing sexually explicit images and videos. 5 Similarities and Differences 5.1 Similarities One similarity that can be noted in both search engines is their homepage appearance. They both have a minimalistic search page, with a centered search bar and a button that triggers a search when clicked. Tapping the Enter key has the same effect as clicking the search button on all the search engines. In addition to this, they both display instant suggestions as a user types queries on the search bar. Both of the search engines discussed here use crawlers to index content from websites based on various criteria and filters. Both Dogpile and DuckDuckGo have plugins and extensions for Safari and Firefox internet browsers. The two search engines have the ability to filter search results into various categories such as news, images, web, video and shopping. They also have adult content filters which can be used to block sexually explicit images and videos. 5.2 Differences Some differences do exist in the two search engines. Dogpile displays results in a paginated form, that is, results are organized into a series of pages and the user can navigate from one page to the other. DuckDuckGo on the other hand uses a non-paginated form, organizing results into a single page which expands to show more content as the user scrolls though it. Unlike DuckDuckGo, Dogpile does not have a geographic location filter. DuckDuckGo has various keyboard and search shortcuts, a feature absent in the other search engine. It also is the only one that features a non-tracking privacy policy. DuckDuckGo displays website thumbnails on its results page while Dogpile does not. DuckDuckGo has a login feature for its users whereas Dogpile does not have this feature. DuckDuckGo also has a community blog, a feature which is lacking in the other search engine. The DuckDuckGo website uses a secure HTTPS connection while the Dogpile website uses an unsecure HTTP connection. 6 Audience and Effectiveness DuckDuckGo primarily targets a user base for which privacy is a major concern. This includes activists, reporters, politicians, government officials, corporate officials and law enforcement officers, among others. It prevents leakage of user information by stripping sensitive content such as query search terms to a website visited from links on the search engine. It also enforces connection to encrypted (HTTPS) versions of websites for which the feature is available. DuckDuckGo supports usage over the anonymizing proxy client, Tor and also operates a Tor exit enclave (DuckDuckGo2015). Dogpile is geared for those people who prefer search results aggregated from several search engines. Search results obtained from Dogpile are similar to those from the major search engines: Google, Bing and Yahoo! This is because Dogpile obtains its search results from the three search engines. DuckDuckGo is the more popular of the two search engines, with an estimated seven million direct search queries per day in 2014. DuckDuckGo Search Stats (Siegal, 2015) The other search engine claims a much smaller and undocumented market share. 7 Advantages and Disadvantages DuckDuckGo has several advantages over Dogpile. First, it has a much larger user base, which translates to implementation of more features compared to Dogpile. It also has a non-tracking privacy policy which is especially useful to privacy-conscious individuals. It has full support for Tor proxy software. It uses HTTPS, making it more secure than the other search engines, which use unencrypted HTTP. It has support for themes which can transform the appearance of the search engine. An advantage of Dogpile is that it uses a search index that is extracted from the results of several search engines. In a way, this makes its reach broader and the results can be considered to be more accurate than those from a single search engine. 8 Conclusions DuckDuckGo and Dogpile are search engines with different focuses on usability, features, operation and audiences. DuckDuckGo is suitable for users who value their online privacy, for example government spies, activists and reporters. Support for Tor proxy, implementation of HTTPS and a no-tracking privacy policy makes it appealing for this kind of users. Dogpile is useful for users who want to search through all the major search engines in a single query, since it aggregates search results from the three major search engines, Yahoo!, Bing and Google. DuckDuckGo is the more advanced of the two search engines, having a slicker user interface, keyboard and search shortcuts, use of HTTPS and support for themes. It also features a login feature and a community blog, features which could improve user experience on Dogpile if implemented. Of the two search engines, DuckDuckGo has the highest number of users, and it also has the most features. Each of these search engines presents a unique way of accessing content and each is more suitable for a particular purpose than the other. 9 References Lib.berkeley.edu, (2015). Meta-Search Engines-The Library-University of California, Berkeley. [Online] Available at: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/MetaSearch.html [Accessed 11 Apr. 2015]. Yuanlei.com, (2015). Different Types of Search Engines. [Online] Available at: http://www.yuanlei.com/studies/articles/is567-searchengine/page2.htm [Accessed 9 Apr. 2015]. Boswell, W. (2015). DuckDuckGo. [Online] About.com Tech. Available at: http://websearch.about.com/od/enginesanddirectories/p/Duckduckgo.htm [Accessed 9 Apr. 2015]. DuckDuckGo, (2015). DuckDuckGo Privacy. [Online] Available at: https://duckduckgo.com/privacy [Accessed 11 Apr. 2015]. Siegal, J. (2015). DuckDuckGo search stats. [Image] Available at: http://bgr.com/2014/01/10/duckduckgo-anonymous-search-engine-statistics/ [Accessed 11 Apr. 2015]. Read More