I recently read an article where the author is describing his switch from Google to DuckDuckGo on his phone. He found himself googling things that could be found easily using any other browser. He came to the realization that he did not need Google in order to find out the information he wanted to know. He decided to switch his phone search engine to DuckDuckGo. However, he still uses Google for work and business out of necessity.
Google processes more searches a day than DuckDuckGo, but the search results are similar. In addition, when using Google, as a search engine, it brings up many adds which often promote other Google services. Sometimes you have to search harder for the answer because of how many unrelated things pop up. The main benefit of using DuckDuckGo is for privacy reasons. When searching for something it does not record and track a user’s search history. Another benefit is it does not share the user’s information with companies to target them. Have you ever experienced after you search for something on Google you then see advertisements about it? Even if you have only searched something once or a few times? The advertisements on DuckDuckGo are more general because there is no personalized shopping based on the user’s data. Where DuckDuckGo lacks is if you are looking for something specific. Google can infer what you are looking for better and pull from more data than DuckDuckGo. This is only a slight drawback.
Using DuckDuckGo allows a user to find simple information without being tracked and more privacy invasions. It works in fundamentally the same way as any other search engine. I value my privacy and would prefer to not be tracked and recorded on the internet. I think nowadays people accept the internet is tracking them, especially with newer technology. I do not think we should accept this assumption as easily. I have never really considered using other search engines. On most of my devices Google is the default search engine and I had never thought about changing that. This article brought up the point for simple and trivial searches I can use another search engine. If you do not want Google to track and record your information to use for their own uses then consider switching to another search engine.
Source https://www.wired.com/story/i-ditched-google-for-duckduckgo-heres-why-you-should-too/#intcid=recommendations_default-popular_57dd101a-4d81-4d82-ba0f-e92253e50058_popular4-1