Come to the Duck SIde

 Bye, bye, Google.  I'd say it's been nice, but lately that would be a lie.

You've gotten too big for your own britches.  I don't need you.  I don't need you stealing my private information.  I don't need you storing it forever.  I don't need you stalking me wherever I go.  I don't need your "personalized" ads.

And I especially don't need you to censor information, simply because it disagrees with your agenda, narrative, and/or political affiliations.  Who do you think you are?

You were supposed to be the best at simply providing information to us.  And you used to be.  But no longer.  No, now you see yourself as the "gatekeeper" of knowledge, deciding what we can and cannot see as if we need your guidance to "protect" us from "unverified" information.  Oh, sure, you *may* technically reveal the actual relevant information - ten or more pages into the inquiry, but you know that the attention span of most users rarely continues for more than 3 pages (if even that).

You have become a disgrace - whatever happened to free, uncensored, unfiltered (unless a filter was requested) access to information?

Fortunately, there are other search engines that still believe in personal privacy*.  DuckDuckGo (DDG) has been around for a while, now, and is an alternative search engine that prioritizes users' privacy.  Unlike many other search engines (including Bing, Yahoo! and, of course, Google), DDG does not collect your IP address or collect/share any personal information.  They are my new, default search engine.

Does this mean I am 100% free from Google?  Unfortunately, no.  I still have my Gmail accounts, my Android phone is tied to a Gmail account (a requirement for Android, but they are still better than iPhones), "Blogger" is owned by Google, One-Drive is owned by Google, Google-Docs still exist...

But seeing as how I (like most users) tend to do more web searches than e-mailing, blogging, or use other Google-owned apps, it's a start.

"Friends Don't Let Friends Get Tracked".  #ComeToTheDuckSide

😉

____
* And, no, I am not talking about Yahoo!  I moved away from them years ago, when they officially changed their "privacy" policy to their current "you have no privacy when you use any Yahoo! product" policy, which, if you can believe it, is worse than Google's (or at least, was...).

😉