{"id":14777,"date":"2024-05-22T07:26:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-22T12:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/?p=14777"},"modified":"2024-05-22T12:57:25","modified_gmt":"2024-05-22T17:57:25","slug":"duckduckgo-best-way-to-break-up-with-google","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/real-estate-tech\/duckduckgo-best-way-to-break-up-with-google\/","title":{"rendered":"DuckDuckGo is still the best way to break up with Google"},"content":{"rendered":"

A popular1 Wired editorial<\/a> caught our eye, urging folks to consider using DuckDuckGo instead of Google. We continue revisiting this story. And as someone who does use DuckDuckGo as my default search engine, it made me smile.<\/em><\/p>\n

In the modern world of telecommunications, the only real currency is trust. When you buy an iPhone or an Android, you\u2019re not really buying a set of features. You\u2019re buying assurance that the cell phone company you\u2019ve chosen isn\u2019t going to screw you over too badly. You have a device in your pocket that tracks you, everywhere you go.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Even when you have location services off, your smartphone knows where you are through a combination of the Wi-Fi networks nearby and your phone\u2019s motion sensor. Here\u2019s an article<\/a> from nearly a decade ago talking about how this process is 90% accurate. How much better do you reckon it\u2019s gotten since then?<\/p>\n

The thing is, Apple and Google both kinda suck at the privacy thing. Here\u2019s an article about Siri recordings<\/a> being made when Siri isn\u2019t meant to be turned on. Here\u2019s an article about a big ol\u2019 leak<\/a> of Google Home recordings, many of which were made without the user activating Google Home. Here\u2019s an article about Amazon leaking 1,700 audio recordings<\/a> from someone\u2019s Alexa to a complete stranger!<\/p>\n

So your phone companies don\u2019t really protect you that well. Apps take advantage of this too. If you still have the FB app, you should probably delete it! Here\u2019s a story<\/a> about a psychiatrist realizing that Facebook was suggesting that her patients add each other!<\/p>\n

So privacy matters and Google sucks at it. Google is also a HUGE business. It\u2019s an enormous company that wields so much influence on our lives that there is an entire industry now called \u201csearch engine optimization\u201d dedicated to unraveling its whims.<\/p>\n

And at this point, Google only kinda wants to serve you results. Mostly they wanna serve you ads, and highly-optimized shopping results. One of the big problems facing SEO workers right now is that you can bust your ass to get a company to the front page of results, and it may not matter if you don\u2019t crack the top 3. Because people do most of their Internetting on their phones now, and ads take up most of the screen space when someone Googles.<\/p>\n

So Google isn\u2019t great at privacy AND its priorities are skewed<\/a>. But this is an article about DuckDuckGo, right? And we\u2019ve barely covered it! So let\u2019s talk about that a little.<\/p>\n

DuckDuckGo doesn\u2019t save your searches. It forgets everything you search and you know what? That feels incredible, but there are drawbacks. When I type the letter L into DuckDuckGo, it doesn\u2019t immediately suggest \u201cLeonard Bernstein shirtless\u201d like Google does. But the ten seconds it takes to type that out is worth the knowledge that my data isn\u2019t being stored by my search engine.<\/p>\n

And yes, Google pours a ton of money and attention into their algorithms, and they\u2019ve got a years-long head start on DuckDuckGo. But usually, DuckDuckGo still manages to get me exactly what I want. Sometimes, it\u2019s even better at giving me what I want. Because it\u2019s not serving me ads or trying to second-guess me. It just\u2026gives me the thing I asked for.<\/em><\/p>\n

There are still some instances that send me to Google. If I\u2019m looking for a specific image or gif, for instance. Or if I\u2019m looking for a certain news story. And there are certain niche searches where Google\u2019s experience is necessary. But for the vast majority of what I need, DuckDuckGo is there, serving up only what I want and protecting my privacy while it does. And it feels GREAT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DuckDuckGo is a search engine that doesn’t listen to home recordings, sell you stuff, or track your every movement. They just give results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":335814,"featured_media":19713,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[1895,1234,299],"class_list":["post-14777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-estate-tech","tag-duckduckgo","tag-real-estate-news","tag-real-estate-technology-2"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/duckduckgo-on-computer.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/335814"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14777"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21258,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14777\/revisions\/21258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}