DuckDuckGo is the most popular alt search engine among Android users in the EU
After the EU ruled that Google should offer Android users a choice of search engine and browser, the company held an auction for alternative search engines that wanted to participate. The choice screen rolled out to users in the middle of last year, which brings us to today β Google announced the most popular alternative search engines per country.
The clear winner is the privacy-focused DuckDuckGo. It was the top choice in all EU countries but one β the UK. There, Bing was on top. Unfortunately for Microsoft, its engine didn't even make the Top 3 everywhere else.
The clear runner-up is Info.com, a meta search engine with a social networking twist. PrivacyWall, Qwant and Yandex were other popular choices, you can see the full list below.
You will be asked to pick a default search engine when setting up an Android phone
The choice screen currently appears the first time you launch the Play Store. However, starting in March this year, the screen will become part of the initial setup of the device.
Note that the options for search engines vary by country, each engine is free to bid in the auction for the countries itβs interested in. The three highest bidders plus Google will be shown in a random order. This might explain why Bing appears so rarely in the list β maybe Microsoft only bid for for placement in the UK.
Here's the breakdown per country. To be clear, these are the most popular non-Google search engines.
Country | Winners |
Austria | DuckDuckGo, GMX, Info.com |
Belgium | DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Qwant |
Bulgaria | DuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWall |
Croatia | DuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWall |
Czech Republic | DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Seznam |
Denmark | DuckDuckGo, Givero, Info.com |
Estonia | DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Yandex |
Finland | DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Yandex |
France | DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Qwant |
Germany | DuckDuckGo, GMX, Info.com |
Greece | DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Qwant |
Hungary | DuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWall |
Iceland | DuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWall |
Ireland | DuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWall |
Italy | DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Qwant |
Latvia | DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Yandex |
Liechtenstein | DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Qwant |
Lithuania | DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Yandex |
Luxembourg | DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Qwant |
Malta | DuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWall |
Netherlands | DuckDuckGo, GMX, Info.com |
Norway | DuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWall |
Poland | DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Yandex |
Portugal | DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Qwant |
Republic of Cyprus | DuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWall |
Romania | DuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWall |
Slovakia | DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Seznam |
Slovenia | DuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWall |
Spain | DuckDuckGo, Info.com, Qwant |
Sweden | DuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWall |
United Kingdom | Bing, DuckDuckGo, Info.com |
Related
Reader comments
- J
- 05 Jan 2021
- DkZ
You are writing ridiculous things man. At first Google or Alphabet is not a user friendly or solemnly search engine company. It is an advertisement company. In simple words, they earn money by selling your data(including your IP in most cases). Secon...
- Carol
- 15 Jan 2020
- mgK
Sadly... will be nice to come here and lern, but instead... one comes here and stumples uppon an unknowing mass of whatever they pepole making you angry for no reason:)).
- Armorkingu
- 15 Jan 2020
- wrX
I was going to say what you said, but well spoken. There are too many keyboard warriors in this site.