Duck it VS Google it

Those who are not yet informed about NSA PRISM scandal can check out HERE.

     Recent revelations concerning NSA has been a tremendous event for less-known search engines who put much effort marketing themselves as privacy-concerned searching mediums. One of such internet search engines is the DuckDuckGo. In 2013, the previously mentioned search engine was experiencing a steady 1 to 1.5 million daily searches, but as the PRISM scandal has taken place, the users of DuckDuckGo have increased significantly, reaching 2.5 million daily queries. Of course it has still a long way to go compared with Google, Yahoo and Bing, but still it has a promising potential.

     According to DuckDuckGo's founder, Gabriel Weinberg, the surveillance story is in the center of worldwide media and this fact is paramount for DuckDuckGo, as it offers something that Google and other search mediums are not able to provide any more - COMPLETE PRIVACY !

     Nowadays, and especially after the recent PRISM scandal, people are more sensitive towards their profiles and information available on Internet. They more and more care about privacy and DuckDuckGo is in the center of such discussions and therefore creating a valuable and positive word of mouth about the new search engine. 

     As you remember, Google became people's trusted partner and source of information, because, back in the days, it was concentrated mainly on the relevancy of the searched information. It was so simple, that people sometimes were wondering how google was monetizing all this. But now, after every single search we are exposed to numerous ads with the remainder of google sponsored and created websites. There is already a trend towards finding the most relevant information on the second page of google's results which signals about inaccuracy and the need to review google's algorithm for relevancy.  

DuckDuckGo:

"Our users know that we don't track and were telling their friends and family," Weinberg explained. On its privacy page, the search engine promises: "When you search at DuckDuckGo, we don't know who you are and there is no way to tie your searches together."

     Well, this is rather a strong move towards getting people's trust. And the way they advertise and promote themselves is a direct attack pointed to Google. In DuckDuckGo's website you can find a very good explanation of how google works in reality and what is the reason behind all the ads we are exposed to while surfing in the internet. Here are the links to those pages: Link 1; Link 2

     But then you will ask: "OK. How do they make money out of their search engine?" They are just selling keywords and not profiles and audience like Google. If the product or your search in general has an official page it will be shown as a first result and the rest would be Wikipedia and other websites that contain these keywords. 

     DuckDuckGo is already concerned about anti-competitiveness on part of Google. The Founder of DuckDuckGo, Gabriel Weinberg cites several examples; his company's disadvantages in the Android mobile OS, and browsers, which in Firefox requires only a single step to set DuckDuckGo as the default search — while doing so in Chrome requires five.

     Another interesting fact about Google vs DuckDuckGo, is that recently Gabriel Wienberg has requested to buy the domain duck.com which was later bought by Google. Now if you try this website, it will direct you to Google's webpage.

     DuckDuckGo has announced a significant amount of guarantees that they will never track you and collect personal information. They have built their entire brand on these guarantees. Their billboard slogan is "Google tracks you. We don't." You don't have to simply trust their goodwill, their self-interest will enforce this too. If they broke their guarantees, their company would lose its reputation very quickly, their brand would soon be worthless, and they'd likely be vulnerable to a host of lawsuits.

Is Google Evil ?

      It is hard to think of a website that could be as useful as google, as the latter is assiduously dedicated to helping people find the information they are looking for on the internet.

       Steward Brand, American writer best known as editor of the Whole Earth Catalog, told once that "Information wants to be free" and since then, for more than 25 years, this phrase has been one of the most circulating citations in the Digital Era. Now, when it's "free" and accessible you just need to find it, and the aim of google is to facilitate that search.

      Of course no one can deny the fact that google is the most successful company throughout the internet history, which has reshaped the world economy and has triggered a revolutionary approach towards searching anything that comes to your mind. But let's not forget the fact of google having under their disposal and using a very sensitive and private information that all of us are negligently scattering on countless amount of websites, programs and applications.

      Just think of what happens every time you search for something on google... . It is recorded, stored and then sold to companies that want to know more about you. If you use Chrome Browser, it is possible that google knows every single website you have visited. It may have all your Gmail content, it may know your last location (if you use Google Latitude), it may hold your photos in various web albums and in Google+ network of course.
   
     There is another interesting feature if you are using Chrome Browser. There is a mode called "Incognito window" and while being in this mode your search history and the websites you have visited are not recorded in your computer. But still, Google knows what kind of websites you are visiting and again the same procedure of selling your information takes place.

      Technically, Google doesn't know every single detail about your internet behavior, meanwhile it has a tremendous amount of data about all us and our activity, from the content we create online, which is later used in commercial purposes by google, but which still lacks full and efficient utilization.

      Google has now a lot of services like google Maps, Latitude, Local, Gmail, Google+, Calendar, etc... . All these services  provide a huge source of information which is being updated almost every second in Google's servers. Other services like Android and Youtube are also big contributors to google's information gathering.

      From my personal experience with google I should admit that everytime I need to finish an assignment at my university, first thing I do is opening google and gathering information related to my topic. Every time I download an application or register on a new website I am offered to skip the procedure of registration by simply signing in with my current google account and therefore giving up another source, another medium for google to track my behavior. Just recently, I have send an e-mail to insurance company asking for health insurance termination and the next day when I checked my Gmail there was an ad related to health insurance offering much lower prices per month.

      In conclusion I want to say that the question "Is Google Evil ?" is hard to answer, as it depends first of all what kind of user you are. Do you really care about privacy, and to what extent ?

Here is a good video illustration of Google trying not to be EVIL: