DuckDuckGo added to default list of search engine options on Google Chrome

A new update to the tech that underpins Google Chrome includes some good news for a local company: Google Chrome users in 60 countries can now easily select Paoli-based DuckDuckGo as their preferred search engine.

TechCrunch reports that the inclusion of DuckDuckGo to the default list of alternative search engines was added on Tuesday, in version 73 of the Chromium engine. Previously, users could manually add DuckDuckGo as their preferred search option, but this puts the privacy-minded search engine in the same drop-down category as Bing, Yahoo! and AOL.

“We’re glad that Google has recognized the importance of offering consumers a private search option,” DuckDuckGo founder Gabe Weinberg told the national tech news site.

On Tuesday, Weinberg testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the subject of privacy laws. In a prepared statement, he stumped for his company’s business model — which presents ads to users without tracking their personal data. He also asked the legislative body to address the “digital-ad-market duopoly.”

“Fixing this digital-ad-market duopoly can take any number of forms,” said the CEO in a prepared statement. “Here are three suggestions. First, consumers could be given a robust mechanism to opt-out of online tracking. Second, monopoly platforms could be prohibited from combining data across their different business lines. Third, acquisitions that strengthen existing data monopolies could be blocked.”

Read more over at TechCrunch.