Yep, DDG talks a good game like Apple but take it with many grains of salt.
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Google Allegedly Pays Apple Portion of Chrome Search Revenue as Part of Secretive Non-Compete Deal
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No thanks they don’t provided accurate web searches and the company as a whole is questionable, they still collect data…
Easy, see below:
- Chrome extensions are far superior to Safari's implementation of extensions, and there are a more diverse collection of Chrome extensions than Safari.
- Safari constantly reloads the webpage if it detects that the webpage is using significant energy or pops up with the annoying "This webpage is using significant energy. Closing it may improve the responsiveness of your Mac" warning message, with no way to stop it.
- In my experience, Chrome loads much faster than Safari.
Those are all fine reasons you prefer Chrome, but I don't think any of those mean Safari is not a credible alternative.
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I am NOT defending Apple or Google but there is something to be said for being an informed consumer. If Apple locked us in to Google then I would be upset. But they don't. If Apple wants to take money from Google, fine. I don't use Google, I use Duck Duck Go.
Thanks for the heads up on DDG.
OK, so if DDG is not the answer, what is the answer?
Which search engine should I use to ask this question... lol.
OK, so if DDG is not the answer, what is the answer?
Which search engine should I use to ask this question... lol.
I don’t really have a good answer for that! Anybody else? Chime in.
I personally am never logged into Google and I use Firefox focus for searches which delete instantly. Also I use iCloud+ with private relay, etc.
Sometimes I use SearX. It’s super stripped down. No google tracking you. More technically inclined users.
Nerdy ish, but those are my personal options.
I’m from the camp where I believe there is no privacy if you’re using a device and it’s digital and online.
So even when I do “privacy oriented” things I know it’s not doing much.
We really all do just build upon this false sense of privacy that companies like DDG give us, or Apple with iCloud+ (uses cloudflare… that’s a whole discussion alone right there.)
I’ll admit to it though!
Have you ever heard of a company called Microsoft? They are a fairly large player in the Desktop/Laptop Operating System space. They have a search engine called Bing on which they have spent billions. It has a tiny market share. Why do you think Apple would do any better?
As long as there are lots of people like you who say both: "Google almost has a monopoly" and "I use it frequently" there will be no very successful serious competition.
But your lack of trust does not stop you from using them "frequently". Until it does, nothing will change.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
When easy profit opportunity collides with PR spin, there can be only one victor in modern Apple. 💰💰💰
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Just replying to Apple possibly doing better than Microsoft/Bing with search. Microsoft lost the battle to Android and exited the smartphone hardware business pretty bruised by it. Apple has tons of iPads and iPhones in our pockets (billions sold.) They would have a significant search volume from the start.
There is definitely a huge opportunity there for them. It’s all in the delivery and execution of it. Once they figure out the how and when, they’ll hit the go button.
I set the default search engine on my iPhone and iPad Pro to DuckDuckGo myself. Google search is not as useful as it used to be.
My thoughts exactly. Another example that the “privacy” pitch is just a marketing term and an excuse for falling behind Google and Amazon with their assistants.
Apple gladly takes $15bil a year from Google and even apparently a “don’t make a competitor” charge as well from Google too. If it was really about privacy, would they be in bed with Google at all? They would have made their own search engine or purchased DDG long ago.
Privacy is just to make people feel good and safer about their purchase.
Wow, after five pages of excuse-making and hand-ringing we finally have our first sensible comment!
As Scott McNealy said back in the late 90s, "You have zero privacy anyway… Get over it!" The mental gymnastics that Apple fanboys perform when it comes to "privacy" are hilarious. If Apple cared so much about privacy, they wouldn't let apps that invade one's precious privacy into the App Store. But - wait for it, it's a shocker - the App Store is full of apps that track location, collect user data, and monetize that data.
So is anyone surprised that Apple is a complete hypocrite when it comes to its relationship with Google? They bash Google in public but happily take all that privacy-invading money! Again and again we see that the ends justify the means when it comes to Apple these days.
If you're hung up on online privacy, you need to get over yourself. Everyone is tracking you. Every web page you visit has numerous trackers embedded. Most of the apps you've downloaded from the App Store are tracking you. Apple is selling you out to Google. Your ISP is tracking you. Your phone carrier is tracking you. But, by all means, use DDG! Good luck pushing the river.
That said, has anyone crying about privacy actually had something bad happen to them as a result of all this tracking? Sure, the thought that huge corporations are building dossiers about us and our online behavior is unsavory, but can anyone actually demonstrate how online data collection has hurt them? I doubt it. Oh my, you saw a targeted ad instead of a generic one! How offensive! How outrageous! There's a word for the kind of folks who bray and bray about privacy all day: narcissist.
Bing was already the worst search experience I have used and now they have added that dumpster fire ChatGPT on top of that.
All this tells me is that Apple's stance on privacy is nothing but a marketing bullet point. Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft and others are for profit companies. They only care about profit.
I understand this and I use several methods to lesson the data collection, Ublock, PiHole...etc..etc but I know that those are mostly minor speed bumps in the collection of my data. To that point, Google Search is the best search engine in terms of results, IMHO. Combine it with some ad blocking tools and you get clean results.
Didn’t know bookmarking was still a thing in 2023. Reminds me of good ole days of digg.
Use what’s needed for your use case, and make sure those extensions aren’t snooping on what you do in the browser. You pretty much give access to browser for these extensions.
There is a difference when they can manage the types of data offered. Search via Apple, the data is on Apples side. Use search using Google via their website, all bets are off.
Considering they have not invested heavily into the data side. The only thing that give google search an edge is they have invested heavily in forcing media and businesses to depend on them.
Maps was the same thing. Having to use others data in the beginning and building their own from scratch. Now they have a better solution in my opinion. If they put the same effort into search google knows they would have a problem.
Apple doesn’t want to make applications like this. They want to focus on devices and services. They do software out of necessity