Search for "macadamia nut pancake mix" results:
| DuckDuckGo | Bing | |
|---|---|---|
| amazon.com | konacoastpancakemix.com | konacoastpancakemix.com |
| worldmarket.com | nextag.com | nextag.com |
| mezzetta.com | amazon.com | amazon.com |
| konacoastpancakemix.com | siphawaii.com | siphawaii.com |
| abcstores.com | worldmarket.com | worldmarket.com |
| siphawaii.com | simplefoodie.com | simplefoodie.com |
| shopwell.com | thefind.com | thefind.com |
| simplefoodie.com | honestcooking.com | honestcooking.com |
| walmart.com | abcstores.com | abcstores.com |
| minimalistbaker.com | hawnnut.com | hawnnut.com |
| sugardishme.com | rover.ebay.com | rover.ebay.com |
That's an impossible coincidence for a relatively obscure search, don't you think? And I've replicated this many times, now. It seems to me that DuckDuckGo is using Bing. If you look carefully at a sidebar ad, it says that DuckDuckGo was built "in partnership with Yandex" -- a European (Russian) search engine. Only problem is that a similar search on Yandex does not replicate the same results as on DuckDuckGo's results.
So I'm wondering if DuckDuckGo licensed Bing, and if they did so, are they passing IP addresses as well as search terms back to Bing?
Secondly, I think someone needs to clarify why DuckDuckGo utilizes a handful of single pixels in their search results, some of which change its URLs with each unique search. Usually these single pixels are done so, as a work-around means of tracking people without using cookies. I find this very troubling.
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