DuckDuckGo criticizes Android search engine auction as fundamentally flawed

DuckDuckGo, one of the most frequently offered alternative search engines to Google, and Bing has been irked by the fact that Google monopolizes its position and stature to control the way people use the internet. This comes after the recent default engine search engine auction conducted by Google for its operating system Android. As per the auction results, Microsoft has beaten out competitor DuckDuckGo and will now be offered as an option for Android users during setup in select European countries.

“This EU antitrust remedy is only serving to further strengthen Google’s dominance in mobile search by boxing out alternative search engines that consumers want to use and, for those search engines that remain, taking most of their profits from the preference menu. The auction model is fundamentally flawed and must be replaced,” DuckDuckGo published in its blog.

Google hosts the auctions in response to a landmark 2018 European Union antitrust ruling, which fined it for a record-breaking €4.3 billion ($5 billion), for favoring its own products for Android. In response to the acquisition, Google now allows four search engines as an option for the users.

DuckDuckGo accused Google and said, it was priced out of this auction because they chose to not maximize their profits by exploiting the users. As per this revelation, it means that it makes less money per search and is, therefore, unable to bid as much as fellow rivals in the search engine business.