Debate: Are those "Don't use Google" alternative search engines actually any good?

I've been trying out DuckDuckGo and Ecosia for the past 2 weeks after a buddy swore they were better for privacy and the planet. Last month I even tried a smaller one called Mojeek for a few days, which felt clunky but had no tracking at all. But honestly, I keep going back to Google when I need to find something fast, like a specific restaurant menu or a tutorial from 2016. Three years ago I wouldn't have even bothered, but now I'm wondering if the privacy trade off is worth the worse results. Has anyone else stuck with an alternative long term, or do you just use Google for the convenience?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_henry9d ago

My buddy Tom tried to switch to DuckDuckGo for like three months straight. He even put one of those stickers on his laptop to commit. But one night he was trying to find an old pizza place in Chicago and after ten minutes of nothing he just yelled "screw it" and typed the search straight into Google again. @roseb47 I get what you mean about the brain being hardwired, Tom said the same thing, it's like your fingers just know how to get to Google before your brain even catches up. He still uses DuckDuckGo for basic stuff like news or weather, but for anything specific he admits he's back on Google within two minutes.

roseb479d ago

oh totally, i tried ecosia for a month because i wanted to plant trees or whatever, and then i realized i was just adding "site:google.com" to the end of every search anyway. it's like my brain is hardwired to think googles the only way to find anything, even though i know that's dumb.