Strangely, searching from the UK it doesn't seem to be in my results at all. I'm through to the 4th page, and I've come across an article with the same story as the OP, but still not the actual site...

Edit: found it near the end of page 6! Alongside "Duck Donuts" and "London Duck Tours".

Incognito search in the UK here:

1st result: Wikipedia Duck

2nd: Wooden Ducks

3rd: BBC duck recipes

4th: Toilet duck cleaner

5th: BBC iplayer, Sarah and Duck

It goes on. The only mention of duckduckgo on the first 5 pages is this recent news

Same experience here. I wonder if this is some kind of bug?

It's locale sensitivity.

Duck doesn't mean very much in Germany, so there's little that competes with duck.com. In Britain duck has many other meanings.

If you search for an abbreviation that's commonly used as company name, you may find that Google's top result is the one near you, and that the eponymous company in Petrapavlovsk isn't listed.

I doubt it's a bug. I think we just eat a lot of duck in the UK. Additionally I've never heard of duckduckgo referred to by just duck

To add to the "did it come first list", search from the Netherlands:

1st is EN wikipedia with "Duck"

2nd is DuckDuckGo

3rd and on is several restaurants with "duck" in the name.

So it probably is location/language related to some extend.

Just to be sure, I just asked bing.com for "duck". I never, ever, EVER use bing, so unless they get their search results from someone else, they should be relatively unbiased.

Once more, duckduckgo.com comes up as the first result. Once more, from _Germany_. "duck" is a German word (imperative, as in "duck and cover"), but it is really rare, so I would not be surprised if the search results were biased in favor of our new fowl overlords. But I don't think it's all filter bubble, either.

Colorado checking in. Results for "duck" ...

a. Top stories [not organic result]

1. Wikipedia

b. Maps to "duck" restaurants [not organic]

2. Wiktionary

3. allaboutbirds.org/guide/browse/shape/Ducks

4. Merriam Webster

5. Related article from theverge.com

6. duckduckgo.com

If it's really a trap like parent suggests, then Google will just change that behavior later on, right?

It was sarcastic, the audience of DDG does not need a search engine to find a search engine. In case of WoM, it's easier to hint a friend to go to duck.com

your experience is biased because they give you results based on your google profile.

I just tried it in Incognito, corporate VPN going through Virginia. DuckDuckGo was second result.

For me, DuckDuckGo is second after Duck on Wikipedia (from US).

In the US for me it's the 4th link after wikipedia, the restaurant results insert, wikitonary, and Merriam-Webster. Not bad honestly.

Incognito search from Iowa.

Top hit - duckduckgo.com