Valley Forge man’s search engine offers Google alternative
The word Google has become synonymous with "search." A Valley Forge man is trying to change that with a startup search engine that offers strict privacy protections and, he claims, less spam.
In 2006, Gabriel Weinberg sold his first startup, NamesDatabase, for $10 million. On the hunt for his next venture, he started developing a half dozen projects to see which would stick, including a social networking site for golfers and an online talk show.
He built his current project, search engine DuckDuckGo, over a few weekends.
"It actually was just a side project,” Weinberg said. “I had been using Google like everyone else, and noticed there was a lot of spam creeping up in it."
Weinberg designed a search engine that aggressively blocks ad-packed results and taps into existing search networks to provide more no-click, instant answers for queries including definitions and math problems.
