So the other day, I was Google chatting with a friend and the topic of Crocs briefly came up in conversation. Minutes later, I performed a Google search related to firewall configurations and was BOMBARDED with sidebar ads for Crocs. It. Was. Infuriating! After doing some breathing exercises and walking off my anger, I came back and somehow managed to proceed with my day.
Has THIS ever happened to you?! Tired of Google mining your data and then selling your profile to third parties and using it to unabashedly deliver you targeted ads for things you don’t actually want? Well, then have I got a proposition for you. There are two, solid alternative search engines I typically use throughout the day that won’t serve you a smattering of garbage that you have no interest in.
DuckDuckGo is a search engine that advertises itself specifically as a privacy-focused service. It does serve some ads, but they are explicit about not saving any of your data and only serving ads based on the current search terms. Being a smaller company than the juggernaut that is Google, the searches can be less reliable when you’re looking for something very specific, but 90% of the time it will get you to where you want to go.
Ecosia provides similar privacy features to DuckDuckGo while also using a portion of their ad revenue to plant trees. If you are concerned about the imminent apocalypse that will occur because of global warming, then this is the search engine for you! I have only been using it for a short time, but search results have been generally more reliable than DuckDuckGo. I do still check both before resorting to the big players like Google or Ask.com.
So, unless you like a side-bar of Crocs (or whathaveyous), please give these a try. You might not go back.