The day I told her that I was leaving Google search

Two weeks back, once I switched on the laptop in the evening, I made an important announcement at home. My daughter could not believe her ears when she heard, I was not going to use Google any more.

“What do you mean?” 

“Henceforth I shall not use the Google search engine”.

“But you are still using Google” a bit perplexed.

“I shall abandon only the search engine, while I shall continue to use chrome, Blogger, YouTube as usual”, I clarified.  

“Aren’t both chrome and the search same!” still confused.

“They are not the same although it is designed to have that look and feel.” I told her and further explained,

“Chrome is a web browser similar to Internet explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Safari while Google Search is a search engine that could be used with any of the browsers. 

There are other search engines available such as Yahoo search, Bing search, DuckDuckgo search, SwissCows search, DogPile search etc.

“I have started to use DuckDuckGo”, I declared .

“The name is so funny and doesn’t sound real” she commented.

“Google too didn’t make any sense as a name when it started”

 Finally she asked “Why are you changing?”

"Google was less of a search company and more of an advertising company"

I told her that anything that we search are mined by Google and sold to the advertisers. Then the advertisers follow us all over the internet and those annoying banner ads keeps popping into our eyes.

If we search for pens for example, we will be bombarded with advertisements from pen companies. I reminded her how we have been followed by hotels, airlines etc. before we went for vacation. We feel that we are being followed, watched and monitored on our life in the internet.

DuckDuckGo promises us freedom from the prying eyes and let us search with privacy. I still have to get used to not using Google search Apps on my phones too.

Will you be joining me?