Google owns Duck.com, but it'll give rival DuckDuckGo a shoutout anyhow
Update: Google has relented.
Florentijn Hofman's Rubber Duck, photo by Eva Rinaldi.
Google owns Duck.com, which has been driving rival search engine DuckDuckGo up the wall for over six years. Because when you type "duck.com" into a web browser, you get Google.com. Doesn't make a lot of sense, yes?
But after a new round of complaints this Friday, Google has relented. Google comms VP Rob Shilkin just quacked tweeted that a new landing page will give people an opportunity to click from Duck.com straight through to DuckDuckGo. Or to the Wikipedia page for ducks, because that's only fair.
i looked into this. we acquired https://t.co/tNEmrTMysy as part of On2 (ex Duck Corporation) in 2010, hence redirected. to help any lost anatine navigators, we've now changed the redirect and added links. tks for the flags. Quack on.🦆 pic.twitter.com/JPkRazlthq
— Rob Shilkin (@robshilkin) July 20, 2018
Or to ducks.com, which redirects to Bass Pro Shops -- a fact that Google is likely pointing out to inform web denizens that "fairness" isn't always the nature of the internet.
Either way, DuckDuckGo seems happy by the change. The company's CEO and founder tweeted his thanks, plus an additional request:
Thank you! That will clear up the consumer confusion.
— Gabriel Weinberg (@yegg) July 21, 2018
Would you please consider selling the domain to us?
If you're not seeing the new landing page yet, try clearing your browser cache. Google tells us it's only a matter of time before it finishes rolling out across the web. Here's what we're seeing as of Saturday, July 21:
The new Duck.com / On2.com.
Originally published July 20.
Update, July 21: With screenshot of the new Duck.com