Beginning today, Blekko will power the DuckDuckGo search experience for all queries determined to be in any of Blekko's seven auto-slashtag categories: health, colleges, autos, personal finance, lyrics, recipes and hotels. If you recall, Blekko automatically applies slashtags to these searches -- to limit queries to curated sets of web sites for topics -- for spam-free results.
DuckDuckGo differentiates itself with anonymous searches, keyboard navigation and its "zero-click info." The latter feature displays relevant informational text on search terms and links above the results for added context. On Blekko, this additional DuckDuckGo data will now be made available in the "info" portion for each search result.
Search is a highly competitive space currently dominated by Google and Bing. While the partnership will do little in the way of moving market share, it should help both sites combine forces and appeal to power searchers tired of surfacing spam results. Plus, it provides additional distribution and exposure for both companies' unique technologies. Blekko plans to announce additional partnerships in the weeks ahead.
Blekko has raised a total of $24 million over the past three years to eliminate spam from search. The search startup reports that more than 30,000 slashtags were created during the first week post public launch.