Google rules the roost in search, but a new study by rival engine DuckDuckGo claims that more people would use alternative options to enter queries and find content if they were given the choice.
DuckDuckGo believes that smartphone users are often unaware that they have the option to switch their search engine away from the default choice in Android, which is Google, in favour of an alternative such as Bing, Yahoo or DuckDuckGo.
The company proposed a system for Android that includes a search preference menu as standard so that users can pick and choose, and then conducted a study where four-choice and eight-choice menus were presented to them.
While many still opted for Google, the study found that alternative engines would get a significant boost, and these search engines would see a 300-800% uptick in market share collectively.
This upward trend was not specific to one country either as the study found that a considerable number of users in the UK, US, Germany and Australia would switch when presented with four-choice and eight-choice menus.
DuckDuckGo has been positioned as a privacy-focused alternative to Google, and around three in 10 respondents said that they would be motivated to switch to another search engine “if it didn’t collect any personal data”.
The single most important factor in motivating a switch for the 3,000 adults surveyed for the report is the “quality of results” ahead of privacy concerns and the prospect of seeing fewer ads.
Meanwhile, DuckDuckGo came second in the number of picks made from preference menus.
