Today I installed the Duck Duck Go extension for Google Chrome browser. My default search engine is now DuckDuckGo and I didn’t even have to switch browsers. I guess another feature of the DuckDuckGo extension is that it also blocks advertisers from tracking you. But mainly I installed the extension for the search engine.
I’ve been using Google Chrome as my default browser for years even though I’m fully aware Google is an evil corporation working to silence people like me. The thing is, I’m used to the browser and the search engine, and it’s so convenient to have the search bar right at the top of the screen at all times. Plus I have all my bookmarks and passwords saved on Chrome so switching to something else would be a hassle.
In the past I’ve used the DuckDuckGo search engine here and there for when I really need real search results as opposed to Google’s politically biased search results, but this required Google searching “DuckDuckGo” and then searching from DuckDuckGo, and that was kind of annoying so I didn’t do it often.
But now that you can set DuckDuckGo as your default search engine on Google Chrome I’ll be using DuckDuckGo exclusively.
From what I gather DuckDuckGo provides completely unbiased search results, meaning its algorithms show you results that are the closest thing to what you searched, rather than what the company behind the search engine wants you to see.
What prompted me to make the switch was when I Google searched for an article on this site and got no relevant results.
Then I searched for just “Today in Politics” on Google and my site didn’t even show up:
Wow. Awesome. As far as Google is concerned, this website doesn’t even exist.
So then I searched my site on DuckDuckGo, which I’ve used several times in the past and came away with a favorable impression because I thought its results were superior to those I got from Google. On DuckDuckGo, when you search “Today in Politics,” the site called “Today in Politics” is one of the top three results. Go figure.
Look at that. There I am, third from the top.
So one of these three scenarios is true:
- Google is biased against me and is either pushing my website down the list in its search results or filtering me out entirely, while DuckDuckGo is biased in favor of me and is pushing my website up the list in its search results.
- Or, DuckDuckGo is simply unbiased and bases its results solely on relevancy to the terms searched, while Google is negatively biased against me and bases its results not on pure relevancy to the terms searched but on its own political agenda.
Now, given that I don’t know a single person working at DuckDuckGo it’s highly unlikely they’ve decided to randomly do my website a solid and boost me up in the search results. This then makes scenario 1 highly unlikely.
That means scenario 2 is almost undoubtedly true.
So the conclusion is twofold:
- If you like this site and read it regularly, I highly recommend switching your default search engine to DuckDuckGo.
- More generally, if you don’t like the idea of Google manipulating the search results it shows you to fit Google’s political agenda, and if you find it sort of terrifying that Google is basically the gatekeeper standing in between you and the vast ocean of content and information that is the internet, then I encourage you to switch to DuckDuckGo as your default search engine.
It really is scary to think that Google can control what you know. When we want to know the answer to something these days, we search it on Google.
But if Google thinks You Can’t Handle The Truth, it will either manipulate its search results to filter out all the the sites that will actually give you the truth, ensuring you never learn the truth, or it will direct you to a Uniparty-Approved website full of propaganda and lies meant to brainwash you.
On top of all this, there’s the very real possibility that Google, again a very evil corporation, is keeping track of everything you search so that one day it can/will use it against you.
Imagine one day in the not-so-distant future, when the Democrats finally repeal the First Amendment and this nation goes full totalitarian police state: the Uniparty Government is conducting purges of dissidents, and Google is passing along your search history to the government to help root out Enemies Of The State. A Google employee tips the Secret Police off to the fact that you’ve searched for things like “Breitbart News” or “how to donate to Trump’s reelection campaign” and then, the next night, you hear a loud knock at the door and are dragged off to a gulag, never to be heard from again.
Bottom line: it is now easier than ever to wean off of our Google Dependency. For your own good, switch your default browser to DuckDuckGo ASAP.
Been using DuckDuckGo for a number of years now. It’s great! As wonky as Firefox has become, I still prefer it over Chrome. I refuse to use any Goolag surveillance “products”.
I came to the identical conclusion a couple of months ago — Google gives you what Google wants you to see. Period. It makes me hunt for articles that I know are there, and have found with simpler searches in the past. Typically, this was never announced (perhaps they might have admitted to it if they could have sold it as “bespoke service” or similar B.S.?) It was done on the sly, and if they denied it, they would enjoy the added pleasure of imagining conservatives scratching their heads, doubting themselves, and suffering all the other pleasures of being gas-lighted. Like you, I avoid Google for political stories and often use Yahoo or Duck Duck Go.
On a hunch and because I personally know someone who went from the Obama Treasury Dept to a high position at Google (along with his boss), I recently googled “Google Obama Administration” and up came lots of articles, going back years, discussing the frequent visits to the Oval Office of Google-personalities and the exodus from the Administration to the tech-leviathan, mentioning as well former-CEO Eric Schmidt’s tight links to the Democratic Party, and even yesterday’s headline: “Breaking up tech giants would be ‘illegal’ and will harm consumers, says Google’s Eric Schmidt”. Fancy that.
Funny how Lefties make the most monopolistically-minded capitalists…
Whatever suits their political agenda in that precise moment is that they support, even if it goes entirely against their supposed “principles.”
Big corporations are bad in the left’s eyes, but not all of them. If they’re aligned with the left’s agenda then not only are big corporations not bad, but they should have unlimited power.
Austin,
I appreciate your comments and likewise am not a Google fan, however I don’t believe there is anything specifically at work here apart from Google’s very broad search strategies.
Regretfully, “Today in Politics” is a very common term used by many news-oriented publishers with more traffic. On Google, traffic drives searches (for better or worse). Further, Google made the decision to use the phrase as if the search is meant to express a generic request rather than the name of a specific site.
Hence, searching for that phrase displays a list of high-volume publishers with daily political updates—sometimes under a heading with the phrase.
One can bypass this search strategy by instructing Google to be literal. Put “today in politics” in quotes and add “blog” also in quotes. In this way, one is asking for precisely what one wants to see. The tip site will appear in the first two lines.
Duck Duck and similar tools don’t use these techniques and hence deliver more what you and I may want. Google search techniques have long been frustrating for all sorts of businesses and publishers.
Not excusing; just explaining.
All the best.
Thanks for explaining that. The problem is, Google has not earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to manipulating its algorithms, especially when it comes to political biases.
My site was already banned from Medium and I still haven’t been given a reason so I’ve lost any and all faith in liberal tech companies.
Yeah, I’ve seen their spin bias for years and used DuckDuckGo instead, although will check Google when communicating with others to see if they will even find what I might be trying to say. Since I know most people blindly rely on Google still.
Like a recent 4 year old at McDonald’s shooting at police. Mainstream blurs the dad and hides names and identities so most social media comments rant about him being White. While the Recent Booking website in Utah has him listed as Black, as well as alternative video news channels like ape huncho, 6 seconds in, shows the guy face on unblurred. But the booking site url will give zero results via Google,
“https://recentlybooked.com/UT/SaltLake/SADAAT-JOHNSON~2799_22006685”
Even If You Put The Exact Address in Quotes.
It will show up searched in quotes in DuckDuckGo and Bing, haven’t tried others, but of course you’d have to know the url since most people don’t know his name and even with it search results generally just lead to main stream sites with no real info. No pictures, no ethnic/racial details, they act as if it isn’t available or intentionally let the masses believe a false narrative. Supposedly to protect minority victim groups, but really to create a, for the moment, majority targeted group. That being White males in particular.