By comparison, Google&#x27;s parent Alphabet has revenues of close $240 billion. During a congressional testimony last year, Weinberg confirmed that much of DuckDuckGo&#x27;s search capability originated with Microsoft&#x27;s Bing search engine and was not homegrown.

Huge Microsoft outage takes down Bing.com, DuckDuckGo and ChatGPT for thousands of users | Daily Mail Online

For instance, DuckDuckGo and Ecosia, two alternative search engines that rely on Bing’s search results, weren’t returning any search results. Microsoft Copilot wasn’t loading either. ChatGPT Plus subscribers, who have the ability to perform web searches, also got an error when they tried ...

Bing’s API was down, taking Microsoft Copilot, DuckDuckGo and ChatGPT's web search feature down too | TechCrunch

Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai is scheduled to testify Monday in the company's antitrust trial, where he will seek to rebut the US government's portrait of the search giant as a colossus wielding billions of dollars to unfairly smother competition.

Google’s Pichai to Defend Search Dominance as Trial Pivots

Alphabet Inc.'s Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai sought to portray Google's position as the dominant internet search engine as constantly challenged by the whims of rivals such as Apple Inc., as he took the witness stand Monday to defend his company against the US government's antitrust charges.

Google’s Pichai Defends Search Dominance as Rivals Circle

Sundar Pichai defended the $26 billion Google spent to become the default search engine during Monday's antitrust trial hearing.

5 things we learned so far about the Google antitrust case

Google CEO Sundar Pichai spent a good chunk of Monday in a DC courtroom, testifying as part of the ongoing US v. Google antitrust trial. He stood at a podium instead of sitting (apparently he hurt his back),

Sundar Pichai argues in court that Google isn’t evil, it’s just a business

A loss by Google could bring about big changes for the entire industry, according to former White House CTO Aneesh Chopra.

New revelation in Google antitrust case could make it tough for company

Safari's Private Search Engine feature lets you select a privacy-centric search engine for your incognito sessions and different one for regular browsing.

How to Set Up iOS 17's Private Search Engine in Safari

Google CEO Sundar Pichai asked Apple CEO Tim Cook to ship iPhones with the Google Search app pre-installed, but Cook did not

Google Wanted iPhones to Come Pre-Installed With Google Search App

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, testified in federal court Monday defending his company's multibillion dollar deals that lock in Google Search as the default on the vast majority of devices and web browsers.

Google's CEO defends search agreements on stand at antitrust trial

DuckDuckGo

duck-duck-go

Links To create a link, enclose the link text in brackets (e.g., [Duck Duck Go]) and then follow it immediately with the URL in parentheses (e.g., (https://duckduckgo.com)). My favorite search engine is Duck Duck Go. The rendered output looks like this: My favorite search engine is Duck Duck Go. Note: To link to an element on the same page, see linking to heading IDs. To create a link that opens in a new tab or window, see the section on link targets. Adding Titles You can optionally add a title for a link. This will appear as a tooltip when the user hovers over the link. To add a title, enclose it in quotation marks after the URL. My favorite search engine is [Duck Duck Go](https://duckduckgo.com "The best search engine for privacy"). The rendered output looks like this: My favorite search engine is Duck Duck Go. URLs and Email Addresses To quickly turn a URL or email address into a link, enclose it in angle brackets. <https://www.markdownguide.org>
<fake@example.com> The rendered output looks like this: https://www.markdownguide.orgfake@example.com Formatting Links To emphasize links, add asterisks before and after the brackets and parentheses. To denote links as code, add backticks in the brackets. I love supporting the EFF.
This is the Markdown Guide.
See the section on code. The rendered output looks like this: I love supporting the EFF.This is the*Markdown Guide*.See the section oncode. Reference-style Links Reference-style links are a special kind of link that make URLs easier to display and read in Markdown. Reference-style links are constructed in two parts: the part you keep inline with your text and the part you store somewhere else in the file to keep the text easy to read. Formatting the First Part of the Link The first part of a reference-style link is formatted with two sets of brackets. The first set of brackets surrounds the text that should appear linked. The second set of brackets displays a label used to point to the link you’re storing elsewhere in your document. Although not required, you can include a space between the first and second set of brackets. The label in the second set of brackets is not case sensitive and can include letters, numbers, spaces, or punctuation. This means the following example formats are roughly equivalent for the first part of the link: [hobbit-hole][1]
[hobbit-hole] [1] Formatting the Second Part of the Link The second part of a reference-style link is formatted with the following attributes: The label, in brackets, followed immediately by a colon and at least one space (e.g., [label]: ).


The URL for the link, which you can optionally enclose in angle brackets.


The optional title for the link, which you can enclose in double quotes, single quotes, or parentheses. This means the following example formats are all roughly equivalent for the second part of the link: [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle


[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle "Hobbit lifestyles"


[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle 'Hobbit lifestyles'


[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle (Hobbit lifestyles)


[1]: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle> "Hobbit lifestyles"


[1]: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle> 'Hobbit lifestyles'


[1]: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle> (Hobbit lifestyles) You can place this second part of the link anywhere in your Markdown document. Some people place them immediately after the paragraph in which they appear while other people place them at the end of the document (like endnotes or footnotes). An Example Putting the Parts Together Say you add a URL as a standard URL link to a paragraph and it looks like this in Markdown: In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends
of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to
eat: it was a [hobbit-hole](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle "Hobbit lifestyles"), and that means comfort. Though it may point to interesting additional information, the URL as displayed really doesn’t add much to the existing raw text other than making it harder to read. To fix that, you could format the URL like this instead: In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends
of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to
eat: it was a [hobbit-hole][1], and that means comfort.

[1]: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle> "Hobbit lifestyles" In both instances above, the rendered output would be identical: In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. and the HTML for the link would be: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle" title="Hobbit lifestyles">hobbit-hole</a> Link Best Practices Markdown applications don’t agree on how to handle spaces in the middle of a URL. For compatibility, try to URL encode any spaces with %20. Alternatively, if your Markdown application supports HTML, you could use the a HTML tag. ✅  Do this

❌  Don't do this



[link](https://www.example.com/my%20great%20page)<a href="https://www.example.com/my great page">link</a>

[link](https://www.example.com/my great page) Parentheses in the middle of a URL can also be problematic. For compatibility, try to URL encode the opening parenthesis (() with %28 and the closing parenthesis ()) with %29. Alternatively, if your Markdown application supports HTML, you could use the a HTML tag. ✅  Do this

❌  Don't do this



[a novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Milagro_Beanfield_War_%28novel%29)<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Milagro_Beanfield_War_(novel)">a novel</a>

[a novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Milagro_Beanfield_War_(novel)) This guide is a Matt Cone project available on Markdown Guide under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license. Links To create a link, enclose the link text in brackets (e.g., [Duck Duck Go] ) and then follow it immediately with the URL in parentheses (e.g., (https://duckduckgo.com) ). [Duck Duck Go] (https://duckduckgo.com) My favorite search engine is Duck Duck Go . Duck Duck Go The rendered output looks like this: My favorite search engine is Duck Duck Go . Duck Duck Go Note: To link to an element on the same page, see linking to heading IDs. To create a link that opens in a new tab or window, see the section on link targets. Note: To link to an element on the same page, see linking to heading IDs . To create a link that opens in a new tab or window, see the section on link targets . Note: linking to heading IDs link targets Adding Titles You can optionally add a title for a link. This will appear as a tooltip when the user hovers over the link. To add a title, enclose it in quotation marks after the URL. My favorite search engine is [Duck Duck Go](https://duckduckgo.com "The best search engine for privacy"). My favorite search engine is [Duck Duck Go](https://duckduckgo.com "The best search engine for privacy"). The rendered output looks like this: My favorite search engine is Duck Duck Go . Duck Duck Go URLs and Email Addresses To quickly turn a URL or email address into a link, enclose it in angle brackets. <https://www.markdownguide.org>
<fake@example.com> <https://www.markdownguide.org>
<fake@example.com> The rendered output looks like this: https://www.markdownguide.org fake@example.com https://www.markdownguide.org fake@example.com Formatting Links To emphasize links, add asterisks before and after the brackets and parentheses. To denote links as code , add backticks in the brackets. emphasize code I love supporting the EFF .
This is the Markdown Guide .
See the section on code . EFF EFF Markdown Guide Markdown Guide code The rendered output looks like this: I love supporting the EFF . This is the* Markdown Guide *. See the section on code . EFF EFF Markdown Guide code Reference-style Links Reference-style links are a special kind of link that make URLs easier to display and read in Markdown. Reference-style links are constructed in two parts: the part you keep inline with your text and the part you store somewhere else in the file to keep the text easy to read. Formatting the First Part of the Link The first part of a reference-style link is formatted with two sets of brackets. The first set of brackets surrounds the text that should appear linked. The second set of brackets displays a label used to point to the link you’re storing elsewhere in your document. Although not required, you can include a space between the first and second set of brackets. The label in the second set of brackets is not case sensitive and can include letters, numbers, spaces, or punctuation. This means the following example formats are roughly equivalent for the first part of the link: [hobbit-hole][1] [hobbit-hole] [1] [hobbit-hole][1] [hobbit-hole][1] [hobbit-hole] [1] [hobbit-hole] [1] Formatting the Second Part of the Link The second part of a reference-style link is formatted with the following attributes: The label, in brackets, followed immediately by a colon and at least one space (e.g., [label]: ). The URL for the link, which you can optionally enclose in angle brackets. The optional title for the link, which you can enclose in double quotes, single quotes, or parentheses. The label, in brackets, followed immediately by a colon and at least one space (e.g., [label]: ). The label, in brackets, followed immediately by a colon and at least one space (e.g., [label]: ). [label]: The URL for the link, which you can optionally enclose in angle brackets. The URL for the link, which you can optionally enclose in angle brackets. The optional title for the link, which you can enclose in double quotes, single quotes, or parentheses. The optional title for the link, which you can enclose in double quotes, single quotes, or parentheses. This means the following example formats are all roughly equivalent for the second part of the link: [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle "Hobbit lifestyles" [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle 'Hobbit lifestyles' [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle (Hobbit lifestyles) [1]: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle> "Hobbit lifestyles" [1]: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle> 'Hobbit lifestyles' [1]: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle> (Hobbit lifestyles) [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle "Hobbit lifestyles" [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle "Hobbit lifestyles" [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle "Hobbit lifestyles" [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle 'Hobbit lifestyles' [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle 'Hobbit lifestyles' [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle 'Hobbit lifestyles' [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle (Hobbit lifestyles) [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle (Hobbit lifestyles) [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle (Hobbit lifestyles) [1]: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle> "Hobbit lifestyles" [1]: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle> "Hobbit lifestyles" [1]: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle> "Hobbit lifestyles" [1]: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle> 'Hobbit lifestyles' [1]: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle> 'Hobbit lifestyles' [1]: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle> 'Hobbit lifestyles' [1]: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle> (Hobbit lifestyles) [1]: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle> (Hobbit lifestyles) [1]: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle> (Hobbit lifestyles) You can place this second part of the link anywhere in your Markdown document. Some people place them immediately after the paragraph in which they appear while other people place them at the end of the document (like endnotes or footnotes). An Example Putting the Parts Together Say you add a URL as a standard URL link to a paragraph and it looks like this in Markdown: standard URL link In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends
of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to
eat: it was a [hobbit-hole](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle "Hobbit lifestyles"), and that means comfort. In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends
of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to
eat: it was a [hobbit-hole](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle "Hobbit lifestyles"), and that means comfort. Though it may point to interesting additional information, the URL as displayed really doesn’t add much to the existing raw text other than making it harder to read. To fix that, you could format the URL like this instead: In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends
of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to
eat: it was a [hobbit-hole][1], and that means comfort.

[1]: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle> "Hobbit lifestyles" In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends
of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to
eat: it was a [hobbit-hole][1], and that means comfort.

[1]: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle> "Hobbit lifestyles" In both instances above, the rendered output would be identical: In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole , and that means comfort. hobbit-hole and the HTML for the link would be: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle" title="Hobbit lifestyles">hobbit-hole</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle" title="Hobbit lifestyles">hobbit-hole</a> Link Best Practices Markdown applications don’t agree on how to handle spaces in the middle of a URL. For compatibility, try to URL encode any spaces with %20 . Alternatively, if your Markdown application supports HTML , you could use the a HTML tag. %20 supports HTML a ✅  Do this

❌  Don't do this



[link](https://www.example.com/my%20great%20page)<a href="https://www.example.com/my great page">link</a>

[link](https://www.example.com/my great page) ✅  Do this

❌  Don't do this [link](https://www.example.com/my%20great%20page)<a href="https://www.example.com/my great page">link</a>

[link](https://www.example.com/my great page) ✅  Do this ❌  Don't do this ✅  Do this ✅  Do this ❌  Don't do this ❌  Don't do this [link](https://www.example.com/my%20great%20page)<a href="https://www.example.com/my great page">link</a> [link](https://www.example.com/my great page) [link](https://www.example.com/my%20great%20page)<a href="https://www.example.com/my great page">link</a> [link](https://www.example.com/my%20great%20page) <a href="https://www.example.com/my great page">link</a> [link](https://www.example.com/my%20great%20page) <a href="https://www.example.com/my great page">link</a> [link](https://www.example.com/my great page) [link](https://www.example.com/my great page) [link](https://www.example.com/my great page) Parentheses in the middle of a URL can also be problematic. For compatibility, try to URL encode the opening parenthesis ( ( ) with %28 and the closing parenthesis ( ) ) with %29 . Alternatively, if your Markdown application supports HTML , you could use the a HTML tag. ( %28 ) %29 supports HTML a ✅  Do this

❌  Don't do this



[a novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Milagro_Beanfield_War_%28novel%29)<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Milagro_Beanfield_War_(novel)">a novel</a>

[a novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Milagro_Beanfield_War_(novel)) ✅  Do this

❌  Don't do this [a novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Milagro_Beanfield_War_%28novel%29)<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Milagro_Beanfield_War_(novel)">a novel</a>

[a novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Milagro_Beanfield_War_(novel)) ✅  Do this ❌  Don't do this ✅  Do this ✅  Do this ❌  Don't do this ❌  Don't do this [a novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Milagro_Beanfield_War_%28novel%29)<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Milagro_Beanfield_War_(novel)">a novel</a> [a novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Milagro_Beanfield_War_(novel)) [a novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Milagro_Beanfield_War_%28novel%29)<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Milagro_Beanfield_War_(novel)">a novel</a> [a novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Milagro_Beanfield_War_%28novel%29) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Milagro_Beanfield_War_(novel)">a novel</a> [a novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Milagro_Beanfield_War_%28novel%29) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Milagro_Beanfield_War_(novel)">a novel</a> [a novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Milagro_Beanfield_War_(novel)) [a novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Milagro_Beanfield_War_(novel)) [a novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Milagro_Beanfield_War_(novel)) This guide is a Matt Cone project available on Markdown Guide under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license. This guide is a Matt Cone project available on Markdown Guide under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license. Matt Cone Markdown Guide

The Dead Simple Markdown Guide to Links

Well, We all use browsers for suffering on internet. Browsers help us to retrieve data from the World Wide Web. Besides all these, we all want a safe and secure browser that will not steal our data. In this article I am gonna list some best browsers for android which are totally safe and secure. Best Browsers for Android 2020 1. Google Chrome The reason why I am keeping this on number one is because it is provided by one of the most trusted organization, that is Google LLC. By default it is installed in every android phone, but in case you don't have it installed, just go to play store and search for Chrome and install it. That's it, Now your phone is safe from spy's and data stealers. Highlights Private Browsing. Ad blocker Incognito mode. Night Mode. Totally safe. Lite Mode. (To save data). Offline web view. Google Translator in built. Fast Processing. 2. Opera Mini Opera Mini is also a trusted web browser. It has all the features that you expect from a best Android web browser. It have some amazing features like Download Manager, private browsing, Ad blocker and also a very fascinating UI.  It also have a data saver mode and built in VPN which you can use to unblock the banned sites in your country. Its amazing data saver mode helps you to save you data by compressing the videos and web pages. As a result, your web page loads faster and it saves your data. If you don't have a good data plan then you should go with Opera Mini. Highlights Ad blocker. Built in VPN. Data Saver Mode Fascinating UI. 3. Puffin It's also one of the best and safe browser available in the play store. Its primary focus is on the speed and safety. It also send all its data to us in encrypted form so no one can misuse it. Let me tell you that there are two versions of Puffin one is free for everyone and second version is paid one. In free version, company forces you to always turn on location tracking. They use this data with third party company for the relevancy of ads. So if you don't want to do that, you need to purchase the paid version for US$4.99. Highlights 1 GB cloud support. High speed of page loading. Cloud support of Abode flash. Comes with two versions. 4.  Duck Duck Go Duck Duck Go is an android web browser which doesn't track user cookies, data and user identity. I will recommend DuckDuckGo if you're concerned about your privacy because whenever you open a Website or a webpage in the browser the owner of the website will receive an impression of usage and keep your data safe and private. It's a very simple and clear browser. The reason why I am putting this on this list is because it doesn't track your data or cookies. Highlights Never stories cookies . Block trackers. Safe and secure. No third party apps. Faster loading. 5. Firefox Firefox is an open source free web browser developed by the Mozilla Corporation. It uses its own Gecko engine to load web pages faster and provide a good experience. Its packed with all the features which is required for being . most secure web browser It also contains private browsing and offline reading mode. There is also an amazing feature which helps you to customize Firefox using different themes. You can also call it an alternative of Google Chrome. Highlights Reliable and secure. Fast and quick processing. Syncs with its desktop version. Safe and secure with modern encryption method. Shorts cuts for quick access to the pages. Conclusion There are number of web browser that you can install from the play store but if you are reading this article that simply means your are highly concerned about your privacy. I strongly recommend you to install any web browser that is listed above because they all are from trusted brands and totally secure. Now the choice is yours. On a serious note please do not install UC browser. It's a Chinese organization which can easily spy and steal your personal data. Recently there are many allegations on it for stealing user data without permissions. Stay safe from it.

Top 5 Best Android Browsers In 2020

Photo by Rajeshwar Bachu on Unsplash Predicting the future is oftentimes a foolhardy thing to do. If you were old enough to understand the internet in the late 90s, you might remember the Y2K scare; a small glitch in the internet matrix that experts said was going to mess things over temporarily. Similarly, technophiles have also been predicting the death of newspapers and magazines since the emergence of computers. But the print media — despite significant decline in readership — have stunned their critics by adapting to the taste of today’s digirati. Celebrity investor and contrarian thinker Peter Thiel, once famously quipped, “We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters,” taking a dig at the 90’s predictions about technological innovation for the early 2000s that fizzled out in unexpected ways. Predictions are perhaps most rampant in the marketing realm because we (the marketers) like to assume some level of certainty — even if we are just hypothesizing. It’s become an annual ritual for a majority of marketing teams to come up with a round-up of things that are going to die in the coming year. Here is the marketoonist’s take on the annual apocalyptic tradition of marketing predictions: In defense of all marketers, I think it’s a good thing for us to try and get a feel of which way the wind is blowing. The world of marketing runs on experimentation and continued elimination of processes that become invalid after a certain period of time. Therefore, the marketing community is often very quick to jump to conclusions even when our judgment seem sloppy and exaggerated. As a faithful member of the tribe, I have my own strong opinions about the future of marketing. Now I am no Nostradamus or a marketing seer in any way (at least not yet). And expecting things to happen within 2020 would be short-sighted because trends don’t change by the calendar dates. Therefore, I try not to be prescriptive and myopic about my forecasts. My predictions are largely based on the current marketing norms that are indicative of certain trends and also certain aspects that are timeless. Therefore, I have tried to zoom out and envision these marketing trends to gradually take place over the next 10 years. With that said, let’s take a closer look at my crystal ball for the future revelations. Abracadabra…! 1. Google will face-off new rivals If TV ads and billboards were the past of marketing, Google is the present. Google is one of the most powerful platforms that helps millions of businesses worldwide market their products to their customers. If, by chance, an online apocalypse were to befall upon us tomorrow and Google ceased to exist, its consequences would be as big as the exodus of Noah’s Ark. It’s important to understand that Google is not just a tech conglomerate like Apple or Amazon. Google is not just in the business of making software products or fiber optics. If you look closely, you will see that Google is the world’s biggest advertising agency — its biggest source of revenue is online ads. Google aggregates ads to help businesses discover their customers and vice versa. But the consumer community are somewhat worried by a few worrying trends surrounding Google. The general consumers as well as businesses are coming to a bitter realization that while Google enjoys an absolute monopoly for their consumption needs, it’s not always their best friend. AngelList CEO and Silicon’s Valley philosopher-at-large Naval Ravikant says that the most powerful people in the world today are people who design algorithms, because they can influence people’s decisions and sway their behaviors towards whatever side they want. And that seems to be true with people working in the Alphabet Inc. It’s no secret that Google wants to expand their walled garden, just like others in the club do. So they deliberately shoot down businesses that pose a threat to one of their services and manipulate results that favor them. Google can especially be a femme fatale for you if your business poses some kind of threat to one of its revenue stream. FAANG Take Expedia for example. It’s one of the largest online travel aggregator (OTA) in the world. A few years back, Expedia’s CEO Mark Okerstrom publicly accused Google of trying to in the search results in order to promote their own flight recommendations. Google is supposedly down-ranking Quora results because it’s posing similar threats to Google’s monopoly of having a ready-answer for every online search query. kill Expedia’s pages Most importantly, a large section of the consumers are riled up about Google’s habit of hoarding users data and reportedly selling it to third-party vendors. Similarly, the U.S. senate and courts in the past have summoned Alphabet Inc’s executives time and gain for accusations against unethical manipulation of algorithms. Hence, the marketing ecosystem around Google looks a little different based on the present-day zeitgeist sentiments. I am inclined to believe that Google’s monopoly will soon end. It’s hard to imagine a world without Google at this point and it would be a gross exaggeration to say they might be completely obliterated. However, my prediction is that Google will get a few rivals who will take advantage of the distrust consumers have on Google. For instance, Duck Duck Go is already quite popular among the privacy-loving communities. With its CEO Gabriel Weinberg directly pitching his company’s promise about not snooping on people’s data across the internet forums, they might just be lucky (and prepare) for a widespread adoption. 2. The future is probably no marketing Consumers are already very sensitive and resistant to marketing and sales and this trend is likely going to grow bigger. People will antagonize the traditional marketing for the manipulative and shady practices it involves. I have to clarify though. When I say the future of marketing is no marketing, I don’t mean marketing as a discipline will cease to exist. I just think this form of marketing is going to live up to its true form, i.e., to bridge businesses with the ideal customers. The marketing that we know traditionally will pivot to become a conversation between business and its consumers. Given the growing distrust between businesses and consumers, marketing is going to be highly inbound and commoditized in a self-service manner. The current marketing trend already leans towards this direction. In B2B realm, for example, prospects complete 57% of their buyers journey on their own before even getting in touch with a company’s sales team. To compensate for the lack of such push marketing, businesses will have to come up with better, more genuine ways to communicate the value of their services. Marketing will have to become more conversational and less transactional, more DIY and less cryptic, more niched and less arbitrary. We will talk about the nuances of niche-based marketing in more detail in the next section. Naturally, the conversational aspect of marketing will also lend ways to accommodate dynamic interactions between business and consumers, powered by the likes of artificial intelligence, voice search, and augmented reality. 3. Community marketing will grow bigger This is my favorite prediction of all and I strongly believe this is more likely to happen because we already have proof for it. I am a long-time Redditor and I love the neatly-organized smorgasbord of knowledge that are scattered across the thousands of sub-reddits. Communities like Quora and Stack Overflow are other examples of niche-based communities that are go-to resources for many people who hang out in those watering holes to seek answers to their specific pursuits. Even to rejig their algorithms to encourage interest-based interactions and counter account-based bias. Topical communities are more helpful because they cater to a limited set of specific interests rather than being a massive motley of unorganized information. Twitter is contemplating Community marketing will also have direct implications on online search. Imagine dozens of niched-down Hacker News and threads emerging at the top of search results when you look for topics such as “best account based marketing software”. We are already seeing instances of this happening in forums such as Product Hunt and Indie Hackers. The conversations in these communities are highly moderated, and thus, cremier and meatier in quality. When done well, marketers will have better chances of reaching the right audience and wooing them. In other words, riches will be in the niches. Cake.co Let’s gear up Besides the aforementioned trends, the glocal approach of running business will also influence the marketing norms in the coming decade. For example, as we step closer to a gig-based economy, managing and/or collaborating with remote teams from across the world will be a highly sought-after skill for business professionals, including marketers. I think the coming years will also help businesses settle the row between which has been in a tricky spot for the last decade. Maybe permission-marketing will become the norm because of tighter data and privacy regulations all over the world. personalization and privacy William Gibson, who introduced the concept of cyberpunk through his sci-fi literature, once said, “The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet.” And that’s true for most of the future predictions — most of them are already happening around us albeit at a small scale, but they are far from being mainstream. And for all you know, most of them might fall out of fashion before we notice. But hey, if any of these forecasts come through — remember that I told you about it first. 🙂 Lastly, if you liked reading this blog post, I’m sure . you will love the 4th episode of our ABM Conversations Podcast

Three Trends that Will Define the Future of Marketing

If you’re unfamiliar with DuckDuckGo, they are an Internet privacy company that empowers you to seamlessly take control of your personal information online, without any tradeoffs. Whenever you are connected to the internet your data can be collected, tracked, and used against you, Google and Facebook are tracking you, what you watch, where you shop, even when you sleep, their hidden trackers follow you through the internet on millions of sites and apps. They build detailed profiles and allow advertisers to bid on you, that'show their business works. Over the years, DuckDuckGo has offered millions of people a private alternative to Google, serving over 16 billion anonymous searches. However, they are excited to launch fully revamped versions of our browser extension and mobile app, extending DuckDuckGo's protection beyond the search box to wherever the Internet takes you. It’s hard to use the Internet without it feeling a bit creepy – like there’s a nosey neighbor watching everything you do from across the street. Except, instead of a nosey neighbor, it’s a vast array of highly sophisticated tracker networks, run by big companies like Google and Facebook, recording everything you do online, often without your knowledge, and selling their findings to the highest bidder via targeted ads. While closing the blinds at home can put a stop to your neighbors, there isn’t something that simple that can work online. Until now. Today DuckDuckGo is taking a major step to simplify online privacy with the launch of fully revamped versions of DuckDuckGo's browser extension and mobile app, now with built-in tracker network blocking, smarter encryption, and, of course, private search – all designed to operate seamlessly together while you search and browse the web. DuckDuckGo updated app and extension are now available across all major platforms – Firefox, Safari, Chrome, iOS, and Android – so that you can easily get all the privacy essentials you need on any device with just one download. The DuckDuckGo browser extension and mobile app will also now show you a Privacy Grade rating (A-F) when you visit a website. This rating lets you see at a glance how protected you are, dig into the details to see who they caught trying to track you and learn how they enhanced the underlying website's privacy measures. The Privacy Grade is scored automatically based on the prevalence of hidden tracker networks, encryption availability, and website privacy practices. To date, cobbling together an effective privacy solution has required researching complicated technologies, installing multiple add-ons and apps on each device, and often worsening your Internet experience. Others have been unfortunately misled by supposed simple solutions. Think “Incognito” mode blocks Google from watching what you’re doing? Think again. Private browsing modes are marketed to make you think that if it's not in your device’s browser history, it never happened. Sadly, that couldn't be further from the truth. With the new DuckDuckGo browser extension or mobile app, you are now able to seamlessly: Expose and Block Tracker Networks Watching You The vast majority of websites across the Internet contain hidden tracker networks, with Google trackers now lurking behind 76% of pages, Facebook’s trackers on 24% of pages, and countless others soaking up your personal information to follow you with ads around the Web, or worse. DuckDuckGo Privacy Protection will block all the hidden trackers they can find, exposing the major advertising networks tracking you over time, so that you can track who's trying to track you. Increase Encryption Protection While not all sites offer an encrypted version, thankfully this has been rapidly changing. If DuckDuckGo discovers a site that offers an encrypted version but does not send you to it automatically, DuckDuckGo will. This encryption protects you from eavesdroppers, like ISPs, grabbing up your personal information as it travels across the Internet between you and the websites you visit. Decode a Website’s Privacy Policy Most privacy policies are difficult to understand and aren’t reviewedclosely enough. Even if DuckDuckGo block all the tracker networks DuckDuckGo finds, and even if DuckDuckGo upgrade encryption, a website could still be using your data for nefarious purposes, such as selling it to third parties. DuckDuckGo partnered with Terms of Service Didn't Read (TOSDR) to include their scores of website terms of service and privacy policies, where available. However, because most privacy policies still remain unstudied, DuckDuckGo is working with TOSDR to help them to rate and label as many websites as possible. Search Privately Of course, the DuckDuckGo app and extension also include DuckDuckGo private search! You share your most personal information with your search engine, like your financial, medical, and political questions. What you search for is your own business, which is why the DuckDuckGo search doesn’t track you. Ever. Once you start using the new app and browser extension, you’ll quickly notice something: hardly any website currently gets an "A" on privacy. That’s because hardly any website out there truly prioritizes your privacy. Because of these widespread poor privacy practices, too many people believe you simply can’t expect privacy on the Internet. DuckDuckGo disagrees and has made it their mission to set a new standard of trust online. DuckDuckGo wants privacy to be the default, not the exception, and this launch is a major step in that direction. For the last decade, DuckDuckGo has been giving you the ability to search privately, but that privacy was only limited to the DuckDuckGo search box. Now, when you also use the DuckDuckGo browser extension or mobile app, DuckDuckGo will provide you with seamless privacy protection on the websites you visit. DuckDuckGo's goal is to expand this privacy protection over time by adding even more privacy features into this single package. While not all privacy protection can be as seamless, the essentials available today and those that DuckDuckGo will be adding will go a long way to protecting your privacy online, without compromising your Internet experience. If you’re unfamiliar with DuckDuckGo, they are an Internet privacy company that empowers you to seamlessly take control of your personal information online, without any tradeoffs. Whenever you are connected to the internet your data can be collected, tracked, and used against you, Google and Facebook are tracking you, what you watch, where you shop, even when you sleep, their hidden trackers follow you through the internet on millions of sites and apps. They build detailed profiles and allow advertisers to bid on you, that's how their business works. Over the years, DuckDuckGo has offered millions of people a private alternative to Google, serving over 16 billion anonymous searches . However, they are excited to launch fully revamped versions of our browser extension and mobile app, extending DuckDuckGo's protection beyond the search box to wherever the Internet takes you. 16 billion anonymous searches It’s hard to use the Internet without it feeling a bit creepy – like there’s a nosey neighbor watching everything you do from across the street. Except, instead of a nosey neighbor, it’s a vast array of highly sophisticated tracker networks, run by big companies like Google and Facebook, recording everything you do online , often without your knowledge, and selling their findings to the highest bidder via targeted ads. While closing the blinds at home can put a stop to your neighbors, there isn’t something that simple that can work online. Until now. recording everything you do online Today DuckDuckGo is taking a major step to simplify online privacy with the launch of fully revamped versions of DuckDuckGo's browser extension and mobile app, now with built-in tracker network blocking, smarter encryption, and, of course, private search – all designed to operate seamlessly together while you search and browse the web. DuckDuckGo updated app and extension are now available across all major platforms – Firefox , Safari , Chrome , iOS , and Android – so that you can easily get all the privacy essentials you need on any device with just one download. Firefox Safari Chrome iOS Android The DuckDuckGo browser extension and mobile app will also now show you a Privacy Grade rating (A-F) when you visit a website. This rating lets you see at a glance how protected you are, dig into the details to see who they caught trying to track you and learn how they enhanced the underlying website's privacy measures. The Privacy Grade is scored automatically based on the prevalence of hidden tracker networks, encryption availability, and website privacy practices. To date, cobbling together an effective privacy solution has required researching complicated technologies, installing multiple add-ons and apps on each device, and often worsening your Internet experience. Others have been unfortunately misled by supposed simple solutions. Think “Incognito” mode blocks Google from watching what you’re doing? Think again. Private browsing modes are marketed to make you think that if it's not in your device’s browser history, it never happened. Sadly, that couldn't be further from the truth . couldn't be further from the truth With the new DuckDuckGo browser extension or mobile app, you are now able to seamlessly: Expose and Block Tracker Networks Watching You The vast majority of websites across the Internet contain hidden tracker networks , with Google trackers now lurking behind 76% of pages, Facebook’s trackers on 24% of pages, and countless others soaking up your personal information to follow you with ads around the Web, or worse. DuckDuckGo Privacy Protection will block all the hidden trackers they can find, exposing the major advertising networks tracking you over time, so that you can track who's trying to track you. contain hidden tracker networks Increase Encryption Protection While not all sites offer an encrypted version, thankfully this has been rapidly changing . If DuckDuckGo discovers a site that offers an encrypted version but does not send you to it automatically, DuckDuckGo will. This encryption protects you from eavesdroppers, like ISPs, grabbing up your personal information as it travels across the Internet between you and the websites you visit. this has been rapidly changing Decode a Website’s Privacy Policy Most privacy policies are difficult to understand and aren’t reviewed closely enough. Even if DuckDuckGo block all the tracker networks DuckDuckGo finds, and even if DuckDuckGo upgrade encryption, a website could still be using your data for nefarious purposes, such as selling it to third parties. DuckDuckGo partnered with Terms of Service Didn't Read (TOSDR) to include their scores of website terms of service and privacy policies, where available. However, because most privacy policies still remain unstudied, DuckDuckGo is working with TOSDR to help them to rate and label as many websites as possible. Terms of Service Didn't Read Search Privately Of course, the DuckDuckGo app and extension also include DuckDuckGo private search! You share your most personal information with your search engine, like your financial, medical, and political questions. What you search for is your own business, which is why the DuckDuckGo search doesn’t track you. Ever. Once you start using the new app and browser extension, you’ll quickly notice something: hardly any website currently gets an "A" on privacy. That’s because hardly any website out there truly prioritizes your privacy. Once you start using the new app and browser extension, you’ll quickly notice something: hardly any website currently gets an "A" on privacy. That’s because hardly any website out there truly prioritizes your privacy. Because of these widespread poor privacy practices, too many people believe you simply can’t expect privacy on the Internet. DuckDuckGo disagrees and has made it their mission to set a new standard of trust online. DuckDuckGo wants privacy to be the default, not the exception, and this launch is a major step in that direction. For the last decade, DuckDuckGo has been giving you the ability to search privately, but that privacy was only limited to the DuckDuckGo search box. Now, when you also use the DuckDuckGo browser extension or mobile app, DuckDuckGo will provide you with seamless privacy protection on the websites you visit. DuckDuckGo's goal is to expand this privacy protection over time by adding even more privacy features into this single package. While not all privacy protection can be as seamless, the essentials available today and those that DuckDuckGo will be adding will go a long way to protecting your privacy online, without compromising your Internet experience.

DuckDuckGo Is A Step In The Right Direction For User Privacy

I admit I have bad digital habits. I post too often on FB and Instagram, rant on Twitter and I do check mobile like zillion times per day. I won’t say all this is fine but I can rationalize that it fulfills some of my basic social needs. But in recent year or so I managed somehow to limit some of these activities and what’s more important (for me), I started to think and act to protect my privacy. Or better to say, filter what and how it is delivered to data hungry services. (Are you also annoyed with binding address analytics.twitter.com when you click on a link?) So what I did in recent year or so was: I learned (and acted) about browser fingerprinting and how to (try) protect myself. Sandboxed and use various browsers for different services (one for browsing, one for FB, Google and so on). Started using strict cookie policy (deleting, rejecting…). De-Googled: I stopped using Google and related services as much as possible (duckgogo, no Keep, Maps, Docs anymore…). Replaced my broken Android with iPhone (and related services) and I am all Mac. (One would say one devil for the other, but I can’t sacrifice my business). Strict App control in iPhone/iPad (location services, access…). I am not logged into services even if I use them (stores, bookings…). Using different mail accounts for different services (especially on mobile). I don’t use FB Messenger and I only access FB on mobile via Opera Mini (that is used for FB only). Some other stuff I can’t remember. Call me paranoid, but I it made me feel comfortable ;). I understand the “data company” business model, but it just became as a huge vacuum cleaner that sucks all the data. FB and Instagram bad habit remained, tho I managed to control it more. I don’t Like Pages out of my close interest, don’t click on the articles (FB is not my primary article source) etc. Anyway, all this was pretty simple to do. It demands a bit of discipline and getting out of the comfort zone, but nothing a lazy person can’t handle. So the expected result should (ideally) look like: Google or FB (and others) can’t detect where I am surfing. I don’t provide them with the various data if I don’t want to. I can spoof Google Analytics and others (to some extent; browser fingerprinting is heavy stuff). Android is not sending tons of data to Google via Play services. All these services know about me exactly what I provide to them in one browser during single session (not cross browser detection of my identity). But let me share few things that happened to me in the last two months or so: With my teammates, we discussed a product on a closed Slack channel. I didn’t search it on Google, neither checked their web site. But in few minutes the bloody service appeared on my FB stream as promotion. I was checking Instagram on a train, with a location service unaccessible for IG. A (pretty) girl was sitting next to me and she appeared as suggested contact a few hours later. Pretty cool and scary at the same time. I booked a bus ride on one browser with only session cookies on andjust after that the ad on FB for exactly this destination/company appeared on my other browser (sandboxed for FB). Got a promo mail on my pro mail account that is unrelated with a mail I use for FB login… and bam, you guessed, here comes ad on FB for the product shortly after that. I can understand that vacuum data sucking strategy and data companies are doing many things to get relevant data. But the extent of their capabilities how to get all the meta data and my inability to protect myself really annoys me. I am in Internet of Things business and you don’t have to be rocket scientist to figure out IoT is ticking privacy bomb. I mean, the article about a guy who is afraid of his smart Samsung TV is kinda fun, but the case when Google Echo or Amazon Alexa (forgot which one) called the police automatically while people were arguing is a good warning. In a way it’s easier for my biz at the moment, because we are in the Industrial IoT where data privacy is still a standard and that and our service protects privacy and security by default. I plan to write my next article about IoT security, so stay tuned. Well, I made my soul lighter by posting the issue online with another privacy sacrifice. Written and too lazy to edit by Jernej Adamic

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