Migrating from Google to DuckDuckGo

Overview

I’ve known about DuckDuckGo for years now, and before a couple of months ago, I used it once. I didn’t even give it a chance, I had grown up on Google, so why would I bother switching? There were two reasons:

1. I wanted to further diversify my data (but without sacrificing usability and performance)
2. I watched a documentary called, The Creepy Line

So with those two reasons, I decided to make it a one-month long experiment to see how I fared. I set a couple of ground rules for myself:

1. I would set DuckDuckGo as the primary search engine across all of my devices (computer and phone)
2. I would use Firefox as the primary browser on my computer and Safari as the primary browser on my iPhone
3. I would not use Google as a backup during the first month of this experiment — if I wasn’t getting the results I was expecting, I must change my search query

For those of you unfamiliar with DuckDuckGo, they offer a suite of privacy protection tools and are most known for their alternative to Google Search, DuckDuckGo Private Search.

After finishing my month of only using DuckDuckGo, I am proud to say it is now my 3rd month strong as my primary search engine. Here are some of the reasons why I continue to use DuckDuckGo today:

• No tracking: This is a no-brainer and one reason why DuckDuckGo has surged in popularity. I never see different search results using the same query, which puts me at ease knowing that my data is not being manipulated to give me what I want. Even though in some instances I may want it quicker, it is a sacrifice to let Google tailor what they think I want to see.
• Search Engine of Search Engines: DuckDuckGo has search engines built into it. If you want to search something on Wikipedia, simply add !w to the beginning. If you want to find a product on Amazon, add !a to the beginning. And if you really can’t get the results you’re looking for on DuckDuckGo, find it on Google starting your search query with !g.
• Control back into my hands: Computers are moving towards dictating what they believe they want you to see/know/have/want. This is a problem, machines should be there to serve us, not to manipulate us. With DuckDuckGo, I might not always get the search result I was expecting (I did grow up using Google), but I have control over what search I get to see. Once we as humans lose control, it becomes a downward spiral from there.
• You’re not trapped in the Google ecosystem: As much as I love Google Products (and I still use a lot of them today), I try to diversify my data across companies. DuckDuckGo isn’t an ecosystem, but just a service that helps get you to the place you want to go as quickly as possible–their goal is to get you off of their site.

All of these reasons are not without drawbacks:

• Image search is OK: Google has the ability to search images much better. Image search is hard, and I usually want a specific look for a picture, yet metadata text for images still has a while to go.
• Tracking enables growth in other areas: I do believe tracking is important in certain aspects. First of all, both DuckDuckGo and Google make money from advertising. DuckDuckGo ads are tailored to the search, while Googles are personalized and tailored to the search. Personalized ads usually have higher conversion rates, cost more money, and make the internet more free (there is room to argue here). Secondly, Google uses its massive amount of data to move into other ventures that enable good for society and enables them to create free products that we all use today.