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I don't see it. Google needs an independent DuckDuckGo to show it does not have a monopoly on search.

True.

So a helping hand doesn't taint the DDG brand, buys good will, and provides competition to the defacto monopoly. Good move.

How much is a 4 letter domain worth these days? 10s - 100s of thousands?

Duck.com would have been worth $500K+ on the open market.

In Europe, Google's search business' market share is above the threshold at which a concentration would automatically require antitrust approval - which it has, of course, no chance of obtaining.

DuckDuckGo's main selling point [0] is the fact that it doesn't track and collect ad-targetable data on users unlike Google. The hypothetical acquisition is therefore nonsensical.

[0] https://donttrack.us

I don't think Google would ever be able to acquire DDG. Their brand identities couldn't be further apart.

duckduckgo would be worthless as a Google company.

The only reason I use it is because it isn't a Google company... well and the !bangs are good too.