Privacy is becoming an important issue for an ever increasing number of Internet users each day, and the search engine that prides itself on the fact that it does not track any of its users’ data is profiting from it. While not yet as famous as some of DuckDuckGo’s well-known competitors, the niche but rapidly growing search engine has seen use of the site increase by an astonishing 70 percent this year.

According to data released by the site, nearly 3.3 billion searches were made through DuckDuckGo for 2015. This represents a substantial increase of around 74 percent compared to last year. Not only that, but the Paoli based search engine achieved its latest record number of searches on December 14th, when 12 million queries were performed within 24 hours.

While this cannot truly compare to the hundreds of billions of searches that Google performs through its engine monthly, for a startup search engine, it represents a significant achievement to both be able to compete with other search engines, and to see continual growth, rather than the decline that others have been experiencing.   

DuckDuckGo’s CEO, Gabriel Weinberg, has credited the majority of this growth to its latest strategic partnerships with Mozilla and Apple, the browsing and technology behemoths. Another significant factor, according to the company’s CEO, is the increasing concern from American citizens on how their data is tracked and recorded by other search engines.   

The biggest problem for DuckDuckGo, according to Weinberg, is the lack of awareness among Internet users about its existence. There are a lot more people who do not want to see their data monitored by search engines, but many of them do not know there is an alternative only a few keystrokes away.

However, that should not be an insurmountable obstacle, as a well-developed campaign aimed at educating and informing potential users could do wonders for the search engine. Next year will show whether the company can continue on its positive trajectory, as it builds on its current momentum by getting its name out to even more people looking for a more private way of searching the web.