Privacy-loving search engine DuckDuckGo has started displaying price quotes on bitcoin-related search queries.
Launched in 2008, DuckDuckGo is a relatively fresh-faced search engine headed up by Gabriel Weinberg. The driving force behind the service is privacy – thus, integrating bitcoin price quotes seems like a logical move for the young outfit.
The search engine is designed for people who would rather not have their personal data tracked online. Since it doesn’t store any user data, the site does not offer personalised search results – or personalised ads for that matter.
In 2013 alone, DuckDuckGo had one billion search queries and is gaining traction fast.
DuckDuckGo goes bitcoin
The implementation of the price listing, as first spotted by NewsBTC, appears to be rather rudimentary. The new feature only shows up when you enter specific queries like “bitcoin price” or “BTC to USD”. The price quote then links to Blockchain.info, specifically to the market page.
However, if you try searching for “bitcoin quote” or even “bitcoin price quote” the quote box does not pop up. This is not the case with other price search engines that have started quoting bitcoin, so DuckDuckGo might want to polish its solution.
Google still lacks bitcoin integration
Search giant Google does not offer a bitcoin quote box and it is unclear whether it plans to do so. However, Microsoft’s Bing search engine and Yandex, the biggest search engine in Russia, have already integrated bitcoin functionality, including automatic price conversion.
For example, Bing will work out the value of bitcoin on the go, provided the user enters a search that can be figured out by the engine. This basically means that you can enter a search like “1 BTC to USD” and Bing will automatically convert it.
The same is true of Yandex, which displays the exchange rate using the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price index and it also allows a convenient price conversion tool. Wolfram Alpha also offers a simple bitcoin look-up tool.