Having said that, Chrome is not without its flaws. No browser is perfect and there are quite a few options available in the market. Each browser is trying to woo users by offering something unique. Let’s see how DuckDuckGo is different than Google and what it has to offer which is unique to the browser.

Best DuckDuckGo Features

1. Social Media Profiles

When you search for a profile on Google, you will see regular links leading to the person’s Facebook or Twitter profile. If it is a really big and popular company, then you may see a complete profile with links to all social media sites and address. DuckDuckGo goes a step further and will show you the profile of regular individuals who are not so famous.

Also Read: DuckDuckGo vs Google: Which is More Private Browser and Why

2. Finding Alternatives

I am a blogger and I frequently talk about apps that bring something new to the table. As such, DuckDuckGo is a boon for me. For example, I am looking for apps that are similar in nature to say, Snapseed. For those who don’t know, Snapseed is a free but very powerful photo editor app that is often used and recommended by pro photographers. Anyway, this is what I get in DuckDuckGo when I search for “alternative to snapseed”.

First, you will be greeted with an entire carousel of photo editing apps that are in the same league as Snapseed, and not just any photo editor app. Secondly, you will notice that there is a new search option available at the top called Software apart from News and Videos. Wow! This makes searching for alternatives easy, quick, and super fun.

3. Expand Short URLs

People often use short URLs and for good reason. They consume a lot less space making it easy to fit long web page URLs in a single tweet on Twitter. They are easier to type, copy, and paste and simply make lives easier. The problem is that many people abuse this feature to hide nefarious sites that are full of ads that want to track your movements and steal your precious data. DuckDuckGo will expand these short URLs without you having to visit any site.

The search engine operator is simple and easy enough to remember. Just type “expand” followed by the short URL and DuckDuckGo will expand it right inside the search engine. As someone who regularly has to click on short URLs, I wish Google had this feature. I am glad I found DuckDuckGo. What is even more amazing is that you can shorten long URLs using a similar operator. Just type “shorten” before the URL and DuckDuckGo will do its thing. Try it, it’s fun.

4. Generate New Passwords

Do you know how many people still use stupid simple passwords like 123456 or admin or even letmein! I know coming up with complex passwords can be daunting but it is necessary. While top password managers like LastPass and Dashlane will generate complex passwords automatically, the rest of you have DuckDuckGo. Another feature that Google doesn’t offer.

Just type “generate password” and DuckDuckGo will generate an 8 character alpha-numeric passphrase with letters in small and large caps. While this still leaves out special characters, it is a lot better than using “starwars”. Yes, people use it, apparently in large numbers. I love how search operators in DuckDuckGo are so easy to remember when compared to Google. If you need a longer password, just type “password 13” to generate a 13 character password. Remember that the longer the password, the harder it is to crack. Also Read: 6 Best Private Search Engines That Don’t Track You Like Google

5. Stopwatch with Lap Time

Google offers a Timer and Stopwatch feature. You just have to type “stopwatch” in the search to activate it and then you can use it right in the search. Cool.

DuckDuckGo takes things up a notch by offering a stopwatch with a lap feature built-in. You know, for when you are in the mood of doing 4 rounds of the circuit for a bet! To be fair though, Google is not far behind on this one.

6. Title Case

A long time ago, I was using this website to convert my headlines into title case. This reduces the chances of making stupid mistakes and makes my work brain dead easy. Thanks to DuckDuckGo, I don’t need to visit that site ever again. Yes, DDG will convert any headline into proper title case using the search operator “title case”.

Off course, you will notice that only the first letter of DuckDuckGo is in title case but that is how it is supposed to be unless it is a proper noun. For the most part, it works beautifully saving me a few extra clicks and minutes. Again, Google doesn’t have this DuckDuckGo feature. You can also change characters to lowercase or uppercase using just the word “uppercase” before or after the query.

7. Is DuckDuckGo Down

This has happened with some of the biggest sites and apps in the world including Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter. Due to a technical glitch or some bug, the website was down leaving people clueless and scared. Often, people don’t know what is wrong or how to check. Others resort to sites like Down Detector which is very reliable. DuckDuckGo can check if a service is down or facing an outage in the search itself.

As you can see, you can use this feature with pretty much any site in the world whereas Down Detector and other services only track sites that are too big and impact millions if not billions of users at a time. This makes DuckDuckGo more useful than not just Google for checking sites which are down, but also services like Down Detector.

8. Calendar

Google can show you today’s date and time. You can also convert time between different time zones which is a neat feature for people who either travel frequently or work online in different time zones. But there is no calendar view in Google Search which is surprising seeing how Google Calendar is one of the best calendar apps out there.

DuckDuckGo will return with the current month’s calendar when you type the magic words in its search engine. This is useful for calculating days and some quick planning that just involves looking at days and dates. Also Read: Chrome vs. Samsung Internet Browser: Which Should Be Your Android Browser

9. Bangs

This is one of the coolest features of DuckDuckGo. Do you want to search Wikipedia? Just type “w! search query” and you will be taken directly to the relevant Wikipedia page. If the direct page is unavailable, you will be taken to the search results page of that site. Useful for searching sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, and so on.

DuckDuckGo has an extensive library of Bangs! where each query is followed by an exclamation mark and says that there are more than 12345 bangs in their library right now. That is a lot and they have neatly categorized each bang for you to discover.

DuckDuckGo will suggest bangs the moment you start typing characters after the exclamatory mark.

10. Solve Anagrams

Do you love wordplay or playing a game that involves working with anagrams? Maybe you are a serious anagrammatist? If so, DuckDuckGo is your new best friend. Just type “anagram” followed by the word. For example, listen.

Surprisingly, the anagram of listen is silent, somewhat contradictory. Anyways, where Google only works with synonyms, antonyms, and definitions, DuckDuckGo is finding new and innovative ways to evolve in to something that is more than just a search engine. One of the many DuckDuckGo features that is missing in Google.

11. Calculate Without Calculator

If you type the word “calculator” in Google, it will return with a built-in calculator that you can use right inside Google Search without having to visit any website.

This is pretty cool but you know what is even cooler? Smart queries. Sample this. You want to calculate interest on a loan of Rs 44,00,000 at 5.5% with 20% down for 12 years.

Smart queries are powerful and you can now do so much more by using natural language instead of using a calculator. In fact, if you are using voice to input queries, natural language makes even more sense making DuckDuckGo even more powerful than Google.

12. Features for Developer

If you are a coder or a developer, DuckDuckGo is a dream come true for you. Most probably, if you are a developer, you have already discovered the joys of using DuckDuckGo. Want to generate lorem ipsum text?

You can do so much more like convert binary to and back from decimal, know color based on hexadecimal values, encode URLs, find HTML value of special character sets, and so much more. DuckDuckGo was built by developers who definitely found ways to simplify their and countless other coders’ life. You really have to sit down and discover all the things you can do with this uber search engine.

13. People in Space

I am a space enthusiast. If you are like me, you will love this one. Want to know how many people are there in the space right now?

You will get results with a complete profile of brave astronauts who are in space right now, and for how long. There are other things you can try to. Also Read: How to Set Two Default Search Engines on Any Browser

14. Blood Type

Medical emergency? Want to know the ideal blood type for you? Just enter your blood type with the word donor and DuckDuckGo will return with accurate results on which blood type matches yours. This way, you can quickly determine all the donors that are suitable for you saving you much time.

As you can see, ideal donors for my blood type are limited. It’s a good thing that I found out. Now I know whose door I am supposed to tap on when in need.

DuckDuckGo Features Not in Google

There are so many other features available in DuckDuckGo that I have barely scratched the surface. All these features are missing in Google Chrome and Search. Not to mention the fact that DuckDuckGo is more focused on privacy and never sells your data. It makes money