Gabriel Weinberg
CEO & Founder of DuckDuckGo & Co-author of Traction
Discussion
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Gabriel Weinberg
@yegg · Founder & CEO, DuckDuckGo
Hi! I’m Gabriel Weinberg, CEO & Founder of DuckDuckGo, a search engine, and co-author of Traction Book, the book that helps any project or business get traction. I’ve been doing startups my whole career (I’m 36 now), and have experienced many failures and successes in a variety of contexts (solo founder, angel investor, board member, acquisition, author, etc.). The second edition of Traction comes out in a few days on Oct 6! You might have seen Traction Course & Traction Stack recently on PH in the run up to the re-launch. Ask me anything!
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Tomas Ruta
@tomasruta · Growth Lead @ Founders Factory
@yegg Hi, what's in DuckDuckGo's analytics stack?
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Gabriel Weinberg
@yegg · Founder & CEO, DuckDuckGo
@tomasruta since DuckDuckGo doesn't track you, we are quite limited in what we can do with regards to analytics. We currently do not use any third-party analytics tools, relying instead on just home grown stuff that we can ensure works within our strict no-tracking privacy policy. This analytics stack really just involves counting things on an anonymous basis like how many search pages resulted in a given Instant Answer shown or clicked.
Eric Leebow
@ericleebow · Founder and CEO
How can I advertise FreezeCrowd.com on DuckDuckGo instead of Google, Bing or Yahoo? I've advertised on the others, but I'd like to help out the startup search engine sometimes if there's any opportunity to advertise my social networking site. I feel the same challenges going up against bigger competitors, but believe it's possible to win in many ways with a different idea.
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Gabriel Weinberg
@yegg · Founder & CEO, DuckDuckGo
@ericleebow thanks for the support! We syndicate the Yahoo/Bing search alliance ads, and don't have our own direct ad platform, so consequently you need to go through there to advertise on DuckDuckGo, and on which you can't presently just advertise on DuckDuckGo.
Eric Leebow
@ericleebow · Founder and CEO
You're welcome, and got it! So, the fact I'm advertising on Bing it automatically goes to DuckDuckGo? When is DuckDuckGo going to have its own advertising platform, and why not have your own advertising, too?
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Gabriel Weinberg
@yegg · Founder & CEO, DuckDuckGo
@ericleebow you also have to check the box to say you want your ads on syndicated platforms like DuckDuckGo. We have no plans right now to do our own advertising platform because quite simply it is a lot of work! It's a complicated technology stack, a whole new set of customers, a sales and support staff, etc.
Ryan Hoover
@rrhoover · Founder, Product Hunt
No doubt many people doubted you (and anyone else really) could create a better search engine than Google. It's a hard challenge. Why are you working on DuckDuckGo, @yegg?
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Gabriel Weinberg
@yegg · Founder & CEO, DuckDuckGo
@rrhoover thanks for making Product Hunt! This article from yesterday gives a bit more about the history of starting DuckDuckGo: http://www.fastcompany.com/30516...
The shorter version is I wanted to do something that I could see myself doing for a decade or more, after not being too into from a user-perspective the product of my previous company. However, it was hard to tell in the abstract what would really resonate with me for that long, so I just started a bunch of side projects to find out. Three of those ended up being search related and I ultimately combined them into what became DuckDuckGo after realizing that I'm really drawn to data, algorithms, and helping people solve logic and information problems.
That was starting it eight years ago! Now we're an awesome position where we feel we can both help define one of the biggest markets and day-to-day tasks on the planet (search) as well as move the needle on one of the biggest issues (privacy). I think it would be very challenging to get back to a point where I could make such a dent in the universe, and so that really motivates me.
A bit more granular though, I wrote that I'm motivated by being on the cusp of something big (https://medium.com/life-learning...), and I really feel we're at the cusp of some big things.
Jared Dees
@jareddees · Content Marketing Manager
You're doing a great job with the re-launch of Traction. What channels are in your "inner circle" for this launch? Are you doubling down on what worked the first time or experimenting with new channels?
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Gabriel Weinberg
@yegg · Founder & CEO, DuckDuckGo
@jareddees thanks! We are indeed doubling down on what worked last time, and took another huge run at podcasts, which are mainly coming out in the next week. We also kept email marketing, and http://tractioncourse.com came directly out of that. Given though that I could only arrange so many podcasts and we finished the course, we did try some other things! Continuing in email marketing, we recruited an awesome launch team who is helping us reach out to local email lists. To anyone out there who wants to join this team in the final hectic week, please reach out to me :)
Beyond those, the third channel in the inner circle has been content marketing. I've put out a series of posts at https://medium.com/@yegg and have more planned, with some trying to syndicate on other platforms like on Product Hunt!
Eric Leebow
@ericleebow · Founder and CEO
I have an Android device, and Google is always the default. Is there a way to easily vacillate between Google and DuckDuckGo easily other than using the DuckDuckGo Android app? Actually, if I use DuckDuckGo I can use the bang for Google I suppose, so it makes sense.
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Gabriel Weinberg
@yegg · Founder & CEO, DuckDuckGo
@ericleebow if you install a launcher, you will have more flexibility.
Emily Hodgins
@ems_hodge · Community and Marketing, Product Hunt
You're working on a lot of things right now! How do you keep focus? What drives to work so hard, and juggle so many things at once? What advice can you give to others who also wear multiple hats to keep moving everything forward?
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Gabriel Weinberg
@yegg · Founder & CEO, DuckDuckGo
@ems_hodge I really try do try to focus :). This is not a simple answer without sounding vague! I really try to define goals and not work on things that don't move the needle for those goals. Those goals I try to further align with life objectives. I say no a lot as a result, and try to delegate everything I can. I try to focus on things that will create leverage. I stay motivated by feeling like I'm the cusp of something big (https://medium.com/life-learning...).
Veronica
@veronicatheblog · marketing @ lovepop cards
Do you have any great examples of gaining Instagram traction?
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Gabriel Weinberg
@yegg · Founder & CEO, DuckDuckGo
@veronicatheblog yes! Barbie on Instagram: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/20... http://www.boredpanda.com/hipste...
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Gabriel Weinberg
@yegg · Founder & CEO, DuckDuckGo
@dp25501 hi Dim! I assume you mean a DuckDuckGo Community Leader (if anyone is interested, you can find out more here: https://duck.co/help/community/c...). We have no age requirement :)