10 Life Hacks Every DuckDuckGo User Should Know
DuckDuckGo has been my default search engine for years. Its main advantage is that it tracks you far less than Google, but DuckDuckGo is more than just a privacy statement. You can use DuckDuckGo to anonymously test AI chatbots (including ChatGPT and Claude), filter AI-generated images from search results, and shorten URLs without leaving the site. If you use DuckDuckGo, try these 10 tips to get the most out of the search engine.
Turn off artificial intelligence features to make your search easier.
DuckDuckGo recently added a slew of AI features, but fortunately, most of them can be disabled. To disable AI-related features in DuckDuckGo, go to the search engine settings page . Then, select “AI Features” and disable “Search Assistance” and Duck.ai. This will prevent AI-powered search results and chatbot suggestions from appearing on the search engine’s main page.
Use AI-powered chatbots anonymously to maintain your privacy.
On the other hand, let’s say you’re interested in AI-powered chatbots but are concerned about your privacy. You can use DuckDuckGo to anonymously use ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI services. To get started, head to Duck.ai. You can select which LLM you want to use from the drop-down menu below the search field, and once selected, you can use your preferred AI service without creating an account. This service is free, but there’s a daily limit on the number of AI-powered searches. This service also allows you to create images and perform basic photo editing, such as removing the background from an image.
Use “input signals” to search other websites and search engines.
DuckDuckGo is a fairly competent search engine, but it doesn’t always show the same results as Google. If you use DuckDuckGo as your default search engine, you can still have it send your search query to Google. To do this, add !g to your search query, and you’ll see your search results appear in Google. This is called a “bang,” and you can use bangs in DuckDuckGo to search through other search engines and websites. For example, !gi searches Google Images, !w searches Wikipedia, and !r searches Reddit. You can see the full list of DuckDuckGo bangs on this page .
Hide AI-generated images from search results to focus on real photos.
DuckDuckGo has a filter that removes low-quality AI-generated images from image search results. The filter does a decent job, but keep in mind that it can’t remove every AI-generated image from your results. You can enable it by going to DuckDuckGo Settings > AI Features > Hide AI-Generated Images .
Use this option to block specific websites from search results.
If you’ve encountered sites with low-quality content and want to block them from your search results, you can do so with DuckDuckGo. The next time you search for something on that site, click the three dots to the right of any result, then click “Block this site from all results.” This domain will no longer appear in your search results. You can go to DuckDuckGo Settings > General to see a list of blocked domains. You can also unblock domains at any time.
Remove DuckDuckGo ads to improve your user experience.
You can also disable DuckDuckGo contextual advertising and all mentions of other DuckDuckGo products on the homepage. Go to DuckDuckGo Settings > General and disable Ads . This will disable contextual advertising, but note that the company states it does not track your activity to display these ads. To disable suggestions for other DuckDuckGo products, scroll down the settings page and disable the following options:
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Install DuckDuckGo
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Privacy newsletters
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Privacy tips on the home page
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Help improve DuckDuckGo
You can also go to the “Appearance” section in DuckDuckGo’s settings and disable the last option: “Protection Reminder.” This will hide the notification that your searches are protected.
Change this setting to display more detailed information in search results.
If you prefer to see more information about a specific search result, this search engine allows you to increase the length of the descriptions displayed under each link. I increased mine from three to five lines, which gives me enough information to decide whether to click the link. You can adjust this by going to DuckDuckGo Settings > Appearance > Maximum Snippet Length . Use the drop-down menu to change this value to five lines.
Use this keyboard shortcut to shorten URLs.
DuckDuckGo also has a built-in URL shortening service. Copy a URL and use the shortening command in a search engine to shorten it. For example, search for “shorten https://lifehacker.com/tech/15-of-the-best-iphone-privacy-hacks-everyone-should-know ” and hit the search button. The first result will be the shortened URL, which uses the is.gd URL shortening service. Similarly, you can also expand shortened URLs through DuckDuckGo. Simply type “expand” followed by the shortened link, and the search engine will show you the full URL in the search results.
Hide your email address when registering new accounts.
A common security tip is to use a password manager and a unique password for each account. The idea is simple: if one account is hacked, the hacker won’t have access to all the others. The same logic applies to your username, which is the same as your email address on most websites. If you use the same email address to register on different sites, this can also be a potential attack vector for hackers.
This is where the DuckDuckGo email security service comes in handy. You can use it to register a DuckGo email address , which generates a unique address for each account you create. If your account is hacked, you don’t have to worry about your email address being sold on the dark web. Likewise, if a shady website sells your data to advertisers, they will only receive an anonymized email address, not your real one. You can use this to identify who sold your data and quickly block that alias.
Search for “cheat sheet” for keyboard shortcuts for popular applications.
DuckDuckGo also has “cheat sheets” for many apps and services that show frequently used keyboard shortcuts for a given app. For example, go to DuckDuckGo and type “Excel cheat sheet,” and the search engine will display a list of Microsoft Excel keyboard shortcuts at the top of the results. The first result displays five to ten shortcuts, but you can click the “Show more” button to see hundreds more. This feature doesn’t work for every app, but you can try it with popular apps like Photoshop, Lightroom, and Chrome. Be sure to check the information on this page regularly, as keyboard shortcuts sometimes change when an app is updated.