Talk:DuckDuckGo

Requested edits from DuckDuckGo employee (COI): round 2

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Hello. I am an employee of DuckDuckGo with a conflict of interest, disclosed on my user page. Per WP:PAID I am not editing the article directly. Below are eight suggested corrections, each with a supporting source. Items 7 and 8 relate to content merged from DuckDuckGo Private Browser. Thank you for considering them.

1. Bing API access (follow-up to round 1, point #2)

• Current: "By August 2025, Bing had planned to cut off access to its search APIs in a push to sell more AI-related APIs, though DuckDuckGo believed that larger companies like it with long-term deals would not be affected."
• Proposed: "In August 2025, Microsoft retired its public Bing Search APIs in a push to sell more AI-related APIs, though DuckDuckGo believed that larger companies like it with long-term deals would not be affected."
• Why: The retirement has happened, so the planned framing is now wrong. Microsoft shut down the public Bing Search APIs on August 11, 2025. Only the opening clause changes, and the DuckDuckGo clause stays accurate.
• Sources: Microsoft retirement notice; The Register, May 15, 2025; 9to5Google, May 15, 2025 (DuckDuckGo retained access).

2. Lead paragraph product list

• Current: "Its later products include browser extensions and a custom DuckDuckGo web browser."
• Proposed: "Its later products include browser extensions, a custom web browser, Email Protection, a paid privacy subscription, and the Duck.ai AI chat service."
• Why: The body now covers Email Protection, the subscription, and Duck.ai after round 1, but the lead omits them. Per WP:LEAD, the lead should summarize the body.
• Source: No new source needed. The body cites each after round 1 changes were made.

3. US search market share

• Current: "As of 2022, DuckDuckGo had about 3% of the search market in the United States."
• Proposed: "As of 2026, DuckDuckGo has between 1.7% and 3% of the search market in the United States."
• Why: The figure is 4 years old and reads as current. It should be updated even though the number is lower than in 2022.
• Source: StatCounter, retrieved June 29, 2026.

4. Daily search traffic

• Current: The latest figure on the page is "On January 11, 2021, it had 102.2 million daily searches."
• Proposed: Add after that sentence: "While DuckDuckGo stopped publicly reporting traffic statistics in 2022, it continues to receive over 100 million daily searches, and is one of the 50 most visited websites online."
• Why: The latest figure is 5 years old and reads as current.
• Sources: Semrush Traffic Overview, May 2026; Similarweb list of top websites.

5. Charitable donations

• Current: "The company supports charitable organizations that work to improve privacy; including in 2021 $200,000 to the Center for Information Technology Policy, $150,000 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, $75,000 to European Digital Rights (EDRi) and $75,000 to The Markup."
• Proposed: "Since 2011, DuckDuckGo has made annual donations to organizations that support online privacy, totaling more than $8 million through 2025. Recipients have included the Center for Information Technology Policy, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, European Digital Rights, and The Markup."
• Why: The passage lost its cumulative total in an earlier edit, and the 2021 framing reads as current. The rewrite gives the cumulative total through 2025 and keeps the named recipients as examples.
• Sources: Existing citations on the sentence remain valid. Optional addition: GabrielWeinberg.com, December 2025.

6. Search results source list

• Current: "DuckDuckGo's results have used a compilation of "over 400" sources according to itself, including Bing, Yahoo! Search BOSS, Wolfram Alpha, Yandex, and its own web crawler (the DuckDuckBot)."
• Proposed: "DuckDuckGo's results have used a compilation of "over 400" sources according to itself, including Bing, Wolfram Alpha, Yandex, and its own web crawler (the DuckDuckBot)."
• Why: Yahoo discontinued the Search BOSS service in 2016, so the list names a source that has not existed for a decade. The rest of the sentence stays.
• Source: Search Engine Land, February 6, 2016.

7. Browser features missing from the merged text

• Current: The merged browser content covers tracker blocking, Duck Player, cookie consent, Global Privacy Control, and App Tracking Protection, and does not mention the Fire Button, Scam Blocker, the built-in password manager, or Sync & Backup.
• Proposed: Add to the browser passage: "The browser includes a 'Fire Button' that erases open tabs, browsing history, and site data in one action, and a Scam Blocker that warns users away from phishing and malware sites, checking against a list of malicious URLs from the security firm Netcraft. It also includes a built-in password manager and an optional Sync & Backup feature that syncs bookmarks and passwords across devices with end-to-end encryption and no account required."
• Why: These are core, independently covered features absent from the merged text. Kept to two sentences to match the section's level of detail.
• Sources: BleepingComputer, June 22, 2023; Computerworld, June 22, 2023; gHacks, June 20, 2025; Help Net Security, June 20, 2025; TechCrunch, February 14, 2024.

8. Duplicate accounts of the May 2022 Microsoft trackers events

• Current: The article tells the same May-to-August 2022 story twice in full, once in the passage beginning "In May 2022, an independent researcher discovered that Microsoft products, like Bing and LinkedIn, contained tracking scripts..." and once in the passage beginning "In May 2022, a report from Bleeping Computer by security researcher Zach Edwards found...", plus a one-line mention in the history section ("Before August 2022, DuckDuckGo Private Browser did not block Microsoft tracking scripts.").
• Proposed: Consolidate to one full telling. The passage naming the researcher carries the fuller quotes, so it may be the better one to keep; happy to defer on which.
• Why: Merge artifact. The two passages duplicate the same events and sources.
• Sources: No new sources needed; the existing citations cover the consolidated text.

Jbourscheid (talk) 17:14, 7 July 2026 (UTC)

Not done: your request appears to have been generated by a large language model. Day Creature (talk) 19:16, 7 July 2026 (UTC)

Requested edits from DuckDuckGo employee (COI): round 2.1

Hello. I am an employee of DuckDuckGo with a conflict of interest, disclosed on my user page. Per WP:PAID I am not editing the article directly. Below are eight suggested corrections, each with a supporting source. Items 7 and 8 relate to content merged from the DuckDuckGo Private Browser Wikipedia page. Thank you for considering them.

Extended content

The last round of this triggered an LLM-written warning, although it was not written by an LLM. This is a second handwritten revision with the same requests. I also lost some links when pasting, so re-adding those for proper referencing.

1. Bing API access (follow-up to round 1, point #2)

• Current: "By August 2025, Bing had planned to cut off access to its search APIs in a push to sell more AI-related APIs, though DuckDuckGo believed that larger companies like it with long-term deals would not be affected."
• Proposed: "In August 2025, Microsoft retired its public Bing Search APIs in a push to sell more AI-related APIs, though DuckDuckGo believed that larger companies like it with long-term deals would not be affected."
• Why: The retirement has happened, so the planned framing is now wrong. Microsoft shut down the public Bing Search APIs on August 11, 2025. Only the opening clause changes, and the DuckDuckGo clause stays accurate.
• Sources: Microsoft retirement notice; The Register, May 15, 2025; 9to5Google, May 15, 2025

2. Lead paragraph product list

• Current: "Its later products include browser extensions and a custom DuckDuckGo web browser."
• Proposed: "Its later products include browser extensions, a custom web browser, Email Protection, a paid privacy subscription, and the Duck.ai AI chat service."
• Why: After the first round of revision requests, the article now covers Email Protection, the subscription, and Duck.ai. However, the lead paragraph omits them. Per WP:LEAD, the lead should summarize the body.
• Source: No new source needed. The body of the article cites each already.

3. US search market share

• Current: "As of 2022, DuckDuckGo had about 3% of the search market in the United States."
• Proposed: "As of 2026, DuckDuckGo has between 1.7% and 3% of the search market in the United States."
• Why: The figure is 4 years old and reads as current. It should be updated to reflect the range of percentages over the most recent year.
• Source: StatCounter, retrieved June 29, 2026.

4. Daily search traffic

• Current: The latest figure on the page is "On January 11, 2021, it had 102.2 million daily searches."
• Proposed: Add after that sentence: "While DuckDuckGo stopped publicly reporting traffic statistics in 2022, it continues to receive over 100 million daily searches, and is one of the 50 most visited websites online."
• Why: The latest figure is 5 years old and reads as current.
• Sources: Semrush Traffic Overview, May 2026; Similarweb list of top websites.

5. Charitable donations

• Current: "The company supports charitable organizations that work to improve privacy; including in 2021 $200,000 to the Center for Information Technology Policy, $150,000 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, $75,000 to European Digital Rights (EDRi) and $75,000 to The Markup."
• Proposed: "Since 2011, DuckDuckGo has made annual donations to organizations that support online privacy, totaling more than $8 million through 2025. Recipients have included the Center for Information Technology Policy, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, European Digital Rights, and The Markup."
• Why: Currently reads like DuckDuckGo ceased donations after 2021, but in reality has consistently donated over $1 million per year. The rewrite gives the cumulative total through 2025 and keeps named recipients as examples.
• Sources: Existing citations on the sentence remain valid. Optional addition: GabrielWeinberg.com, December 2025, however that may throw a COI as he is the founder.

6. Search results source list

• Current: "DuckDuckGo's results have used a compilation of "over 400" sources according to itself, including Bing, Yahoo! Search BOSS, Wolfram Alpha, Yandex, and its own web crawler (the DuckDuckBot)."
• Proposed: "DuckDuckGo's results have used a compilation of "over 400" sources according to itself, including Bing, Wolfram Alpha, Yandex, and its own web crawler (the DuckDuckBot)."
• Why: Yahoo discontinued the Search BOSS service in 2016, so the list names a source that has not existed for a decade. The rest of the sentence is accurate.
• Source: Search Engine Land, February 6, 2016.

7. Browser features missing from the merged text

• Current: The merged browser content covers tracker blocking, Duck Player, cookie consent, Global Privacy Control, and App Tracking Protection. It does not mention the Fire Button, Scam Blocker, the built-in password manager, or Sync & Backup.
• Proposed: Add to the browser passage: "The browser includes a 'Fire Button' that erases open tabs, browsing history, and site data in one action, and a Scam Blocker that warns users away from phishing and malware sites, checking against a list of malicious URLs from the security firm Netcraft. It also includes a built-in password manager and an optional Sync & Backup feature that syncs bookmarks and passwords across devices with end-to-end encryption and no account required."
• Why: These are core, independently covered features absent from merged text, and were in a list of change recommendations planned to be submitted to that Talk page before the article was merged into the main DuckDuckGo article. If this reads as too promotional, it can be omitted.
• Sources: BleepingComputer, June 22, 2023; Computerworld, June 22, 2023; gHacks, June 20, 2025; Help Net Security, June 20, 2025; TechCrunch, February 14, 2024.

8. Duplicate accounts of the May 2022 Microsoft trackers events

• Current: The DuckDuckGo article currently tells the same Microsoft tracker point twice in full, once in the passage beginning "In May 2022, an independent researcher discovered that Microsoft products, like Bing and LinkedIn, contained tracking scripts..." and once in the passage beginning "In May 2022, a report from Bleeping Computer by security researcher Zach Edwards found...", plus a one-line mention in the history section ("Before August 2022, DuckDuckGo Private Browser did not block Microsoft tracking scripts.").
• Proposed: Consolidate to one full telling. The passage naming the researcher carries the fuller quotes, so it may be the better one to keep, but happy to defer to whatever Wikipedia recommends there.
• Why: Merge artifact. The two passages duplicate the same events and sources.
• Sources: No new sources needed; the existing citations cover the consolidated text.

Jbourscheid (talk) 10:30, 9 July 2026 (UTC)

The {{request edit}} template is for requesting changes to semi-protected pages. For conflict of interest requests, please use {{Edit COI}} instead. I've updated the template for you. meamemg (talk) 13:48, 9 July 2026 (UTC)

Ah, apologies. Thanks for updating! Jbourscheid (talk) 14:12, 9 July 2026 (UTC)

Reply 10-JUL-2026

  Unable to review  

• Your edit request could not be reviewed because it is unclear which references are connected to which claim statements in the text of your proposal. When proposing edit requests it is important to highlight in the text, through the use of ref tags, which specific sources are doing the referencing for each claim. The point of these inline ref tags is to allow the reviewer and readers to check that the material is sourced; that point will be lost if the ref tags are not clearly placed. Note the examples below:

Examples

N  INCORRECT

The Sun's diameter is 864,337 miles, while the Moon's diameter is 2,159 miles. The Sun's temperature is 5,778 Kelvin.

References

---

      1. Sjöblad, Tristan. The Sun. Academic Press, 2019, p. 1.
      2. Harinath, Paramjit. (2019) "Size of the Moon", Science, 51(78):46.
      3. Uemura, Shū. The Sun's Heat. Academic Press, 2019, p. 2.

In the first example above there are three references provided, but the claim statements do not contain ref tags indicating which reference applies where. The references instead have been placed outside of the text, bundled together towards the bottom. Your edit request similarly bundles references together outside of the area of the requested text. These links between material and their source references must be more clearly made, as shown in the next example below:

Y  CORRECT

The Sun's diameter is 864,337.3 miles,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sjöblad|first1=Tristan|title=The Sun|url=http://www.booksource.com|publisher=Academic Press|date=2020|page=1}}</ref> while the Moon's diameter is 2,159 miles.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Harinath|first1=Prisha|title=Size of the Moon|journal=Science|issue=78|volume=51|url=http://www.journalsource.com|date=2020|page=46}}</ref> The Sun's temperature is 5,778 Kelvin.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Uemura|first1=Shu|title=The Sun's Heat|url=http://www.websource.com|publisher=Academic Press|date=2020|page=2}}</ref>

Which displays as:

The Sun's diameter is 864,337.3 miles, while the Moon's diameter is 2,159 miles. The Sun's temperature is 5,778 Kelvin.

References

---

• In the second example above, the links between the provided references and their claim statement ref tags are perfectly clear. Kindly reformulate your edit request so that it aligns more with the second example above, and feel free to re-submit that edit request at your earliest convenience.

Regards,  Spintendo  00:24, 11 July 2026 (UTC)

Requested edits from DuckDuckGo employee (COI): round 2.2

Hello. I am an employee of DuckDuckGo with a conflict of interest, disclosed on my user page. Per WP:PAID I am not editing the article directly. Below are seven suggested corrections, each with a supporting source. Thank you for considering them.

1. Bing API access

• Current: "By August 2025, Bing had planned to cut off access to its search APIs in a push to sell more AI-related APIs, though DuckDuckGo believed that larger companies like it with long-term deals would not be affected."
• Proposed: "In August 2025, Microsoft retired its public Bing Search APIs in a push to sell more AI-related APIs, though DuckDuckGo believed that larger companies like it with long-term deals would not be affected."
• Why: The retirement has happened, so the planned framing is now wrong. Microsoft shut down the public Bing Search APIs on August 11, 2025. Only the opening clause changes, and the DuckDuckGo clause stays accurate. The Wired citation shown is the one already on the sentence. Additional coverage if needed can be found at The Register, May 15, 2025 and 9to5Google, May 15, 2025.

2. Lead paragraph product list

• Current: "Its later products include browser extensions and a custom DuckDuckGo web browser."
• Proposed: "Its later products include browser extensions, a custom web browser, Email Protection, a paid privacy subscription, and the Duck.ai AI chat service."
• Why: After the first round of revision requests, the article now covers Email Protection, the subscription, and Duck.ai. However, the lead paragraph omits them. Per WP:LEAD, the lead should summarize the body. Per WP:LEADCITE, the lead does not need inline citations for body content that is already cited. Please let me know if further referencing is needed.

3. US search market share

• Current: "As of 2022, DuckDuckGo had about 3% of the search market in the United States."
• Proposed: "As of 2026, DuckDuckGo has between 1.7% and 3% of the search market in the United States."
• Why: The figure is 4 years old but reads as current. It should be updated to reflect the range of percentages over the most recent year. The existing citation supports the 2022 figure and would be superseded.

4. Daily search traffic

• Current: The latest figure on the page states "On January 11, 2021, it had 102.2 million daily searches."
• Proposed: Add after that sentence: "While DuckDuckGo stopped publicly reporting traffic statistics in 2022, it continues to receive over 100 million daily searches, and is one of the 50 most visited websites online."
• Why: The latest figure is 5 years old yet still reads as current.

5. Charitable donations

• Current: "The company supports charitable organizations that work to improve privacy; including in 2021 $200,000 to the Center for Information Technology Policy, $150,000 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, $75,000 to European Digital Rights (EDRi) and $75,000 to The Markup."
• Proposed: "Since 2011, DuckDuckGo has made annual donations to organizations that support online privacy, totaling more than $8 million through 2025. Recipients have included the Center for Information Technology Policy, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, European Digital Rights, and The Markup."
• Why: Currently reads like DuckDuckGo ceased donations after 2021, but in reality has consistently donated over $1 million per year. The rewrite gives the cumulative total through 2025 and keeps named recipients as examples. The Guardian and Spread Privacy citations are the two already on the sentence. The cumulative figure is cited to the company's donations page per WP:ABOUTSELF, matching the existing recipients citation, which is also the company's own blog.

6. Search results source list

• Current: "DuckDuckGo's results have used a compilation of "over 400" sources according to itself, including Bing, Yahoo! Search BOSS, Wolfram Alpha, Yandex, and its own web crawler (the DuckDuckBot)."
• Proposed: "DuckDuckGo's results have used a compilation of "over 400" sources according to itself, including Bing, Wolfram Alpha, Yandex, and its own web crawler (the DuckDuckBot)."
• Citations: No Citations are needed, as this only removes "Yahoo! Search BOSS" from the list.
• Why: Yahoo discontinued Search BOSS service in 2016, so the list names a source that has not existed for a decade. The rest of the sentence is accurate. Source for the discontinuation if needed, though: Search Engine Land, Schwartz, February 2016.

7. Browser section grammar

• Current: "DuckDuckGo Private Browser are web browsers created by DuckDuckGo. They are privacy-oriented browsers available for Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows."
• Proposed: "DuckDuckGo Private Browser is a privacy-oriented web browser created by DuckDuckGo, available for Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows."
• Citations: Citations remain unchanged, as the two citations on the current sentences stay in place.
• Why: The current text has a singular subject with a plural verb and object. The fix treats it as one product across platforms, which matches how DuckDuckGo refers to it. No new sources are needed here, unless for some reason they are, in which case let me know and I’m happy to dig them up.

Jbourscheid (talk) 18:00, 15 July 2026 (UTC)

@Jbourscheid Can you fix your citations to include URLs for the Wired, Guardian, and Spread Privacy sources? 🌊PacificDepths (talk | contrib) 19:43, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

Response

Marking this declined for lack of response. 🌊PacificDepths (talk) 22:39, 22 September 2026 (UTC)

Revert

User:UltimateUltimatum why did you revert my change ? What was wrong with it? 🌊PacificDepths (talk | contrib) 19:20, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

You removed information about the 2026 "Collaborations". I'm sorry if the revert affected you. — Ultimate Ultimatum (talk) 19:21, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

I'm sorry if the revert offended you. — Ultimate Ultimatum (talk) 19:23, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

Can we support the 2026 collaborations information with reliable sources? The "WP:Neutral point of view" policy urges content to have due weight proportional to coverage in reliable sources. I don't think primary sources are sufficient. 🌊PacificDepths (talk | contrib) 19:39, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

Offended* — Ultimate Ultimatum (talk) 19:23, 17 July 2026 (UTC)