I agree. I've given up recommending DuckDuckGo to non-technical friends/family because they always get distracted by the irritating name. I wish they would change it to "Duck.com".
"duck it" sounds a lot like another phrase.
Because “Google” was a sensible name?
No, but Google is two syllables, and DDG is three. Also, Google doesn't have a duck in the name.
Googly eyes
Or AltaVista
Lycos
True but DuckDuckGo doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily. If they named it “Poodle” it’d probably get more traction as silly as it seems.
Or even just Duck[.com] - they own the domain..
Many just call them duck or ddg now. They bought duck.com
It might have been for free, it's unclear they bought it
The verb form "to duck" would be sublime. For instance "I ducked this guy I met".
Did they buy it recently? I recall Google owning it for a bit through an acquisition? Yeah it certainly would be nice if ddg rebranded and pushed duck as it's name.
Google gave it to them. The sceptic in me saw it as future evidence against being a search monopoly "we even helped our rival you guys"
That's cynic, not skeptic. If Google kept duck.com you would say they were protecting their monopoly. When your model of blameworthiness says that every possible choice is wrong, your model is wrong.
Also, duck.com is easier to type than duckduckgo.com in the address bar of a browser.
There is also ddg.gg which I find even easier to type.
bad engine though (last time i checked was ~3 years ago)