Google Has Transferred ‘Duck.Com’ To Competitor DuckDuckGo

Wait, what? Did we just hear Google and DuckDuckGo? It was not long ago that we told you about the research study of DuckDuckGo.com and its allegations against Google for 'Filter Bubble'. Here’s the latest update: Google has given up the ownership of the domain Duck.com and DuckDuckGo.com has acquired it. It will now point to DuckDuckGo and not Google.

Are you confused? Well, Google owns a lot of different domains for different reasons, but one that has been a bone of contention and a very confusing is Duck.com. But now, Google has given the domain to its rival, the privacy-focused and non-tracking search engine, DuckDuckGo. 

Google got the ownership of Duck.com on its acquisition of On2 technologies in 2010, a company which was formerly known as The Duck Corporation. That tells us that there was no intention to mislead users. Google just happened to owned the site and redirected it to its home page. However, that was quite frustrating for DDG as it would continuously confuse DuckDuckGo.com's users by redirecting them Google’s homepage.
 

DDG founder Gabriel Weinberg said, “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,”. Since there is no mention of DDG buying the domain, so it is possible that Google simply decided to release the domain. 

This has come at an interesting time though since just recently DuckDuckGo made claims that Google keeps its users in a “filter bubble' by personalizing their search results. However, Google was quick to contradict the allegations, saying DDG’s study was ‘flawed’. The transfer of the domain to DuckDuckGo has made it easier for users to find DDG as it now redirects users to its homepage. Let’s see if that is going to help DDG with the search engine.

A kind gesture by Google, right?! But don’t be quick to think that the rivalry between the two companies is over.