I try to use Google products rarely and this includes when searching the web. Over the years, I have jumped between a few alternatives; DuckDuckGo, Bing, and now Ecosia.
The real jump away from Google was when DuckDuckGo became a viable alternative that vowed to not track your activities around the web in order to make money. They offered something different, new and… better. It opened my eyes to trying new search engine experiences.
Ecosia, based out of Germany, are relatively new kids on the block. Their unique selling-point is that they promise to use the majority of the money they make to plant trees around the world.
Each month, in the hope of being open and transparent, Ecosia publish their financial reports so you can see exactly how much money they have made and where they spend it. If the reports are to believed, then they give around 80% of their profits to charitable and non-profit organisations around the world that plant trees.
The search results are based on Bing, so some data is transferred between Microsoft and Ecosia – but they respect the “Do Not Track” option in your browser, if you can work out how to activate that.
Using something other than Google isn’t for everyone. People seem to trust Google so much that they have an aversion to the alternatives. From what I have seen so far, Ecosia has a good, honest intention and I encourage you to give them a try.
Which search engine you use and why? Let me know in the comments.
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