Apple Seriously Thought About Using DuckDuckGo Instead of Google for Safari

Apple reportedly talked to DuckDuckGo about making it the default search engine for Apple’s browser, Safari’s private mode, but ultimately ditched the idea in favor of Google, Bloomberg reported. The details came to light during the ongoing Justice Department court action over allegations that Google has engaged in anti-competitive practices to maintain its dominance over search.

US District Judge Amit Mehta said he would unseal court testimonies, including those of DuckDuckGo Chief Executive Officer Gabriel Weinberg and Apple executive John Giannandrea, later this week. Testimonies in the case have been held mostly in closed sessions to protect company trade secrets and other sensitive information.

In his testimony, DuckDuckGo’s Weinberg said his company had 20 meetings with Apple, including phone calls, between 2018 and 2019 to discuss making the search engine the default for Safari’s private mode. 

“We were talking about it, I thought they would launch it,” Weinberg said. Weinberg added that Apple uses DuckDuckGo’s privacy technologies in other aspects of Safari. “Multiple times we’ve gotten integrations all the way through the finish line. Really, almost everything we’ve pitched except for search.”

Apple’s Giannandrea, for his part, testified that the tech giant wasn’t committed to making the switch. And in an email dated to February 2019, he reportedly told other Apple executives it was “probably a bad idea” to make the switch to DuckDuckGo. Giannandrea believed that because it relied on Microsoft’s Bing for search results, it may share user information with Microsoft.

The Department of Justice alleges that Apple’s decision to keep Google as the default search engine was made due to money and not putting customers first. The government alleges Google paid at least $10 billion to be the default search engine on Apple devices. Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella also testified in court this week to say that Apple has used negotiations with Bing as leverage to strike larger deals with Google.