Google receives over 63,000 searches per second. That equates to 3.8 million searches per minute and 5.6 billion searches each day. It is easily the number one search engine available and has many benefits for people who have their own websites or blog.
But not everything related to google is sunshine and rainbows. If you like getting natural results, your information safe, and your privacy a priority, you just might want to stop using Google. Today will talk about some of the most popular reasons why more and more people are starting to avoid Google and switching over to other user-friendly search engines.
Table of Contents
Reasons Why You Should Avoid Google
Targeted Ads
Have you ever looked at a product on Amazon or another online e-commerce store only to suddenly find that same product advertised to you all across social media? That is thanks to Google.
The search engine creates targeted ads based on your search inquiries and displays them to you across several different platforms. I don’t know about you, but that is not only creepy but makes it feel like Google is forcing you to buy something just for looking it up.
Hot.comis a great alternative to Google. You can search for whatever information you’re looking for without needing to be worried about getting ads targeted directly towards you. This way you can focus on getting the results you’re looking for without feeling pressured to buy something from a search engine like Google who uses your information for marketing.
Unnatural Results
Of course, Google tracks your information. However, that does not necessarily affect user experience. What does is the fact that that google serves targeted ads. As such, it is biased based on what you look at and how often you look at specific things up.
This will make your results unnatural and curated just for you. While this may sound like a good thing to some people, it’s not natural and leaves out a lot of search results that may be helpful. Do you want to find out what you already know, or what you don’t yet know?
Hotbotis a fantastic alternative to Google if you want organic and natural results. Why? Because it uses Google along with three other search engines to bring you a ton of relevant results. These results won’t be given to you based on your search history and personal information, but actually based on what you’re looking for.
Poor Suggestions
When using specific Google features such as Google flights, Google images, maps, and Google video, you will get different results than that of other search engines. This is due to the way Google’s interface is designed. There are also more user-friendly tools such as a result filter and different options on how you’d like to view the order of your results
Collecting Data
It is shocking the number of people who don’t know that Google is tracking them. You are able to easily check your Google activity and see the amount of information that has accumulated there.
You will be able to look up specific dates and see your location and what you searched on that day. This is why it is important to clear your google history, use private search engines, and clear your cache
DuckduckGo is a search engine that doesn’t collect data. It is designed similarly to Google and is incredibly easy to use. When you complete a search inquiry using DuckduckGo you won’t have to worry about your personal information and search history going to a third party without your permission. If you’re looking for an easy to use and privacy-oriented search engine, this is the one for you.
Censorship
Another reason why you should avoid using Google is that there is a lot more censorship that you may not even be aware about. Google will automatically put on a form of “parental mode”. Many people don’t even know that this is turned on.
You are able to go into your privacy settings and switch it so that you are able to see all the search results for the specific things you’re looking for. While being family-friendly is great, it should be up to the user whether or not they want these controls on or not, not up to the search engine.
Final Words
Even though the majority of people rely on Google as their search engine of choice, there are things you need to be aware of for you and your family’s safety. Whether that is changing your privacy settings, getting targeted ads forcing you to buy specific things, or the fact that the website often tracks its users, there are many reasons to avoid Google. In addition, there couldn’t be a better time to switch to a different search engine. There are many other safer options out there.
