DuckDuckGo has seen a 600% rise in search traffic over the past two years, the search engine has reported.

DuckDuckGo grew in popularity after Edward Snowden’s leaked information made many people more concerned with how their information was being tracked online.  DuckDuckGo bills itself as a search engine that doesn’t track users as they search the web.

They still do not have a large search share – comScore’s latest search share report does not even include DuckDuckGo.  Currently in 5th place is AOL with 1.2% US search share, so they still have a long ways to go in order to be competitive in the space.  But their growth in the search market is definitely worth watching, especially if they continue to get their brand known.  They recently were added as an option for the default search in iOS8.

DuckDuckGo say that they handle 3 billion searches per year, or about the same number of searches that Google serves over the course of 24 hours.