Comment: Ive used DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a year, and heres what I learned – 9to5Mac

Sometime in late 2019, I became increasingly more concerned with personal privacy. Ive never been the type of person to lean into sharing details with companies when I didnt need to, but I became aware of the ways I was leaking data to companies. One of the easiest things I did to help curtail some of the data I was sharing was changing my default web search to DuckDuckGo, and after a year of using it, I wanted to share some of my thoughts on it.

One of the opinions Ive heard from others about switching to DuckDuckGo is that they believe Google provides better search results. I agree with them, but that hasnt changed my opinion. Google is the best search engine globally, and there is no changing that fact. Just because its the best doesnt mean its good to use. Facebook is the best way to stay connected to people, but I still dont want to use it.

If you want the best search results, then use Google. If you want excellent search results that arent used to target you with better ads, use DuckDuckGo. For me, Ive decided that protecting my privacy is a worthy trade-off for slightly worse search results. I still generally find what I am looking for when searching.

DuckDuckGo isnt crawling the web in the same way that Google crawls it. Yes, they do have some crawlers, but they use a host of data they pull together in such a way where you arent tracked by it. Some of the search results are pulled in from Bing, while others are populated from Apple Maps, Wikipedia, Wolfram Alpha, etc. Its estimated that they use over 400 sources in total to populate their data. I personally like this approach of sourcing data from multiple places in order to provide better results.

I particularly like the integration with Apple Maps on iPhone as I can quickly search for a place and then launch the directions in Apple Maps. Google Search obviously integrates with Google Maps, and thats yet another service Ive chosen not to use.

Although DuckDuckGo has sponsored search results, they arent based on targeted data they know about you. On top of that, Googles search results have, in my use, started showing increasingly more ads above the organic results, so its become even harder to use. DuckDuckGo lets me quickly find what I need.

While Apple still ships Google as the default browser search engine, its straightforward to switch to DuckDuckGo as your default. On the Mac, there is a tab in your preferences for default search in Safari.

On iOS, go to Setting > Safari > Search Engine, and youll see the option to switch to DuckDuckGo.

Now, all of your Safari searches will be routed through DDG instead of Google. I have the DuckDuckGo homepage set as my default homepage on the Mac as it loads super fast with only a search window.

A common misconception with Google (and Facebook) is that they collect all of this information and then sell it to other companies. The truth is your data is so valuable that they want to be the only ones that have it. They sell access to your data by letting companies advertise to use in a targeted way based on the data Google and Facebook knows about you. For some people, thats a fair trade. They love Facebook and Googles services enough that theyre willing to trade that data for access to free services.

I was willing to do that for a long time, but today, I am not. Ive personally been off of Facebook since 2009 and Instagram from 2016. I use iCloud for my personal email. Ive started using Sign in with Apple whenever possible when signing up for new services. When I am on Wi-Fi networks that I dont manage, I use a VPN service to protect my privacy. I want to use services who arent interesting in knowing who I am in order to better target me with ads.

Ive seen this comment floated around the tech community for years, and while its an excellent idea, I dont think its needed. DuckDuckGos mission aligns nicely with Apples mission of protecting personal privacy. Apple should be making more aggressive moves to teach its users about your search history, though.

Apples problem is they make billions each year from Google from being the default search provider. I dont think Apple should change the default, not for privacy reasons, but from a user experience reason. If Apple set DDG as the default search provider in iOS 15, it would create chaos for Apple Support as people would be confused about what was happening. What Apple should do is when Safari is launched for the first time, asking users which search engine they want to use. Under the icon for DDG, there should be a mention that they dont track you, store identifiable information, etc. Doing this would undoubtedly cause many people to switch, but they would be choosing to change so theyd understand the experience.

I didnt think to write this article until recently as Ive become so used to having DuckDuckGo as my provider that it stopped seeming different. In my head, I replaced one search engine for another. In reality, I traded a search engine that wants to know more about me to one that actively works to avoid knowing anything about me.

The older I get, the more I turn into Ron Swanson from Parks and Rec in terms of privacy. The right to privacy is something I place more importance on as the years go by. The more we rely on technology to power our lives, the easier it is for companies to think they have the right to know as much about us as possible. Changing your default search engine to DuckDuckGo is an easy first step to taking back your privacy. Give it a shot for 30 days to see how easy is it to take back a small part of your privacy.

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Comment: Ive used DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a year, and heres what I learned - 9to5Mac