DuckDuckGo has been my default search engine for years. Its big selling point is that it doesn’t track you nearly as much as Google does, but there’s more to DuckDuckGo than that privacy claim. You can use DuckDuckGo to anonymously try AI chatbots (including ChatGPT and Claude), filter out AI-generated images from results, and shorten URLs without leaving the site. If you’re using DuckDuckGo, try these 10 hacks to make the most of the search engine.
Turn off AI features to simplify your search experience
DuckDuckGo recently added a bunch of AI features, but, luckily, you can turn off most. To disable AI-related features in DuckDuckGo, go to the search engine’s settings page. Next, select AI Features, then turn off Search Assist and Duck.ai. This will eliminate AI results and prompts to try using chatbots from the search engine’s home page.
Use AI chatbots anonymously to preserve your privacy
On the flip side, let’s say you’re interested in AI chatbots, but are worried about your privacy. You can use DuckDuckGo to use ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI services anonymously. To get started, head to Duck.ai. A drop-down menu below the search box allows you to choose which LLM you wish to use, and once you’ve selected that, you can use your preferred AI service without creating an account. This service is free, but there’s a daily limit to how many AI searches you can perform. The same service also lets you generate images and perform basic photo edits, such as removing a background from your image.
Use “bangs” to search other websites and search engines
DuckDuckGo is a pretty competent search engine, but it doesn’t always show you the same results as Google. If you’re using DuckDuckGo as your default search engine, you can still ask it to send the search query to Google. To do this, add !g to your search query, and you’ll see that the search results appear on Google. This is called a bang, and you can use bangs in DuckDuckGo to search via other search engines and websites, too. For example, !gi searches Google Images, !w looks for something on Wikipedia, and !r does a Reddit search. You can see the full list of DuckDuckGo bangs on this page.
Hide AI-generated images from results to focus on real pictures
DuckDuckGo ships with a filter that removes AI slop from image search results. The filter is decent at the job, but be aware that it can’t remove every single AI image from the results. You can enable it by going to DuckDuckGo settings > AI Features > Hide AI-Generated Images.
Use this option to block certain sites from your search results
If you’ve come across sites with low-quality content on the web, and you wish to block them from your search results, you can do that with DuckDuckGo. The next time you search for something on the site, click the three dots to the right of any result, then click Block this site from all results. That domain will no longer appear in search results. You can go to DuckDuckGo settings > General to see a list of blocked domains. You can unblock domains too at any time.
Get rid of DuckDuckGo’s ads to clean up the experience
You can also disable DuckDuckGo’s search ads, and all the mentions of the company’s other products on the home page. Head over to DuckDuckGo settings > General, and turn off Advertisements. This will turn off search ads, but note that the company says it doesn’t track you to serve these ads. To remove prompts to use other DuckDuckGo products, scroll to the bottom of the same settings page, and turn off the following:
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Install DuckDuckGo
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Privacy Newsletters
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Homepage Privacy Tips
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Help Improve DuckDuckGo
You can also go to the Appearance section in DuckDuckGo settings, and turn off the last option: ‘Protected’ Reminder. This will hide the notice that says your searches are protected.
If you prefer to see more information about a particular search result, this search engine allows you to expand the length of the descriptions that appear below each link. I’ve expanded mine from three lines to five, which gives me enough information to decide if a link is worth clicking. You can set this up by going to DuckDuckGo settings > Appearance > Max Snippet Length. Use the drop-down menu to change this to 5 lines.
Use this shortcut to shorten URLs
DuckDuckGo has a built-in URL shortener, too. Copy a URL and use the shorten command in the search engine to use it. For instance, type “shorten https://lifehacker.com/tech/15-of-the-best-iphone-privacy-hacks-everyone-should-know” in the search engine, and click the search button. The first result will be a shortened URL, which uses the is.gd URL shortener. Similarly, you can also expand shortened URLs via DuckDuckGo. Just 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 signing up for new accounts
It’s common security advice to use a password manager and a unique password for each of your accounts. The idea is simple: If one account is breached, the hacker doesn’t gain access to all your other accounts. You can apply the same logic to your username, which is your email address on most websites. If you’re using the same email ID to sign up for each site, it could also be a potential attack vector for hackers.
This is where services like DuckDuckGo’s Email Protection step in. You can use it to sign up for a Duck email address, which generates a unique email address for each account you create. If an account gets breached, you don’t have to worry about your email address being sold on the dark web. Similarly, if a shady website sells its data to advertisers, they’ll only get an anonymized email address, and not your real one. You can use that to identify who sold your data, and block that alias quickly.
Search “cheatsheet” to see keyboard shortcuts for popular apps
DuckDuckGo also has “cheatsheets” for multiple apps and services, which show you commonly used keyboard shortcuts for a given app. For example, go to DuckDuckGo, then type “cheatsheet Excel,” and the search engine displays a list of Microsoft Excel keyboard shortcuts at the top of the results. The initial result shows five to 10 keyboard shortcuts, but you can click the “Show More” button to reveal hundreds of shortcuts. This feature doesn’t work for every app, but you can try it for popular apps such as Photoshop, Lightroom, and Chrome. Be sure to verify the information on this page, since keyboard shortcuts sometimes change when an app is updated.
