Easy Win

Search Engine

Google records every search you make. Use a search engine that finds answers without tracking you.

My recommendation

DuckDuckGo

The most popular private search engine. No tracking, no search history, no filter bubble. Just results.

Try DuckDuckGo
  1. 1

    Go to DuckDuckGo.com

    Visit duckduckgo.com and try a few searches. It works exactly like Google.

  2. 2

    Set DuckDuckGo as your default search engine

    Chrome: Settings → Search engine → DuckDuckGo. Safari (iPhone): Settings → Apps → Safari → Search Engine → DuckDuckGo. Firefox: Settings → Search → Default Search Engine → DuckDuckGo.

  3. 3

    Use !bangs for quick searches on other sites

    DuckDuckGo has a powerful feature called !bangs. Type !a to search Amazon, !w for Wikipedia, !yt for YouTube. For example: !a wireless headphones takes you directly to Amazon search results.

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If you miss Google for a specific search

Type !g before your search in DuckDuckGo to send that one search to Google. You get the best of both worlds without making Google your default.

What Google does with your searches

Google stores every search you make, tied to your Google account or your device’s IP address. Over time, this builds an extraordinarily detailed profile of your interests, health concerns, financial situation, political views, and personal relationships. This data is used to serve targeted advertising and is retained for years.

Your search history is also subject to government requests. Google receives tens of thousands of law enforcement requests per year and complies with a significant portion of them.

The filter bubble problem

Because Google personalizes your search results based on your history, it tends to show you content that confirms what you already believe. This “filter bubble” effect means two people searching for the same thing may see very different results. DuckDuckGo shows the same results to everyone for the same query — no personalization, no filter bubble.

Is DuckDuckGo as good as Google?

For most everyday searches — recipes, directions, product research, news, how-to questions — DuckDuckGo returns excellent results. It sources results from over 400 sources including Bing, its own crawler, and specialized databases. For highly specific or technical searches, some users find Google still has an edge. The !g bang makes it easy to fall back to Google for those cases without making it your default.

Further Reading