Google has given up ownership of the domain Duck.com and transferred it to rival search engine DuckDuckGo.
Ownership of the Duck.com domain has been a point of contention in the past, with DuckDuckGo claiming that it was confusing for users.
Google also owns https://t.co/ud1YyoqbZ5 and points it directly at Google search, which consistently confuses DuckDuckGo users.
— DuckDuckGo (@DuckDuckGo) July 18, 2018
Google became the owner of Duck.com back in 2010 when it acquired On2 Technologies, a company formerly known as The Duck Corporation.
So it would appear there was no intent to mislead DuckDuckGo users, Google just happened to own the domain and redirected it to the Google homepage.
Now, Duck.com points to the DuckDuckGo homepage, and CEO Gabriel Weinberg confirmed that his company owns the domain.
“We’re pleased Google has chosen to transfer ownership of Duck.com to DuckDuckGo. Having Duck.com will make it easier for people to use DuckDuckGo.”
There was no mention of DuckDuckGo purchasing the domain, so it’s possible Google just handed it over.
This comes at an interesting time, considering DuckDuckGo recently made allegations that Google’s personalized search results keep its users inside a “filter bubble.”
Google then refuted those claims, saying DuckDuckGo’s study was “flawed” and the idea of vastly different search results for each user was a “myth.”
Despite Google transferring Duck.com over to its rival, don’t think for a second that the two companies are now friendly with each other.
DuckDuckGo is still regularly criticizing Google on Twitter and raising awareness of the search giant’s data collection practices.
Now that the Duck.com issue has been resolved we’ll see if it makes any noticeable impact on DuckDuckGo’s search volume.
