DuckDuckGo cries fowl after being expunged from Google's Android search preferences menu for most of Europe Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo will no longer appear on Google's European search preference menu for Android in most countries, despite being the most popular choice after Google. The company has complained in response to Google's publication of its latest "choice screen winners". In 2019 Google agreed to provide …
Firefox came bundled with my Linux Mint distro and it gave me several options for search provider including Duck Duck Go. That was on my PC, but I like to think if I were ever to go wandering down that dark and treacherous avenue where I re-enable the internet and app goo on my mobile, I would be able to similarly install Firefox and get Duck Duck Go.
You could, but a) you wouldn't be shown any menu at startup to choose, instead your device would just route everything through google by default, which is what's important here because having a default and showing no menu will cause most people to just use that default, and b) if you wanted to use a chrome-based browser for some reason there would be no easy way to choose DDG as the default (or at least this was true the last time I tried to use a chrome-based browser on android).
"and b) if you wanted to use a chrome-based browser for some reason there would be no easy way to choose DDG as the default (or at least this was true the last time I tried to use a chrome-based browser on android)."
You can just download Brave and Firefox apps (or even DDG I think?) and set one as default browser and make search engine choices from there - DDG and Startpage for me usually.
I go further and delete Google from my android phone completely which is not for everyone but normally, depending on the phone, it is not that difficult to get rid of the google browser.
I'd like to see an option for the user (you know, the guy or girl that actually does stuff on the kit) to add or remove their own choice of search engines from the list.
"Choice" is a fraud when you get handed a limited set of alternatives by someone else.
I've never seen the selection screen on Android, even though I have set up half dozen Android devices since the decision.
But the first thing I do on any new phone is set DuckDuckGo as my default search engine and Firefox as my default browser.
I actually go so far as to disable nearly all Google services on the phone.
But Google's solution is taking the proverbial. Imagine, if Microsoft hat charged for the browser ballot? I think this is absolutely disgusting and I am aghast that the EU didn't put its foot down to stop Google from profiting from the remedial action, it is supposed to be a punishment, not a new profit centre.
Isn't DuckDuckGo using Bing! in the background? So apart from privacy (questionable), you never get what you wanted. No surprise Google comes first.
And yes, I did use DuckDuckGo for a couple of years before it went Bing!.
Unhappy because the choice is good results but no privacy vs bad quality searches.
Isn't DuckDuckGo using Bing! in the background?
[citation needed]
Even if they do, that doesn't mean they're not protecting your privacy. They're a damn sight better than google. But I'll be curious to see your citations.
No surprise Google comes first.
Indeed - they own the OS. Which means that they get to a) can put themselves in first place regardless of user preferences and how much other providers pay, and b) not pay anything to get themselves listed. Unlike every. other. search provider on the planet.
choice is good results but no privacy vs bad quality searches
I've had DDG as my default for maybe a decade now. In maybe one out of every 50 searches I don't find what I'm looking for and have to use another search engine. I wouldn't call that "bad quality" at all.
The winners get the privilege of paying Google each time a user selects them from the menu. "This auction remedy, proposed by Google, was constructed to make Google money, not to provide meaningful consumer choice,"
Yeah. It shocks me that this scheme has apparently been negotiated and approved with the EU. Even looking at it at a surface level it's pretty blatantly unfair and biased in google's favour (both in terms of search preference AND in raising them revenue). The ideas of showing only 4 options and auctioning off those spaces is ridiculous. Especially when one of these options is always google, and the amount they're bidding in the auctions is $0.
> Yeah. It shocks me that this scheme has apparently been negotiated and approved with the EU.
Well, looking at the last two European Commissions, it doesn't surprise me one bit.
It would be an understatement to say that the worst enemy of European citizens and the EU are the Commission and the Council.
The EU should never have allowed googlies to use this “solution” to the problem. It was bleedin’ obvious it was bollocks.
But, it seems like most of the recent attempts by the EU to get the likes of googlies and faecesbook etc to behave, it’s a half-arsed plan that takes years to come to fruition and when it finally does, it’s shown to be completely inadequate.
The question arises - Google are fully aware they will lose and challenge based on the IE/NN case, so what are they doing differently to cover their arses? Or are they just making so much money that the fine at the end will be tiny compared to the extra income generated while the case is rolling on?
Never heard of PrivacyWall so let's give it a try..
Hmm. It overlays the home page with an advert for its Firefox addon. With NoScript blocking the site the ad won't remove itself. Admittedly the ad only seems to be on the home page but it's not a good first impression for something with its particular claims.
.. Google is following the old Microsoft playbook to the letter.
Been there, seen it and admired the current pointlessness of EU's attempts at regulating companies that can buy the whole of Brussels outright before.
The flaws start with the fact that honest politicians generally don't rise to a level where they can be dangerous, and it's downhill from there.
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Google can't be trusted. Period.The only services that we use are Maps (which Google redacts data or adds false data); and translate (which it captures}. Ever checked the length of Google search expressions? Little wonder the InterNet is slow.
It sleeps with Government agencies. it shares search data, as in volunteering search data to the (without warrant}.
The only complaint I have with the Duck is the length of it's URL.
Even if Google scoops data through the Android OS, it likely doesn't on our hand phones, they don't even have SIMs (yet we still get full service)
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