Set Your Calendars and Contacts Free
From Google to other search engines
Illustration by Florian Biege
Google Search provides results that aren't tailored to you – but to the needs of Google’s advertisers. To do this, Google tracks what you search for, when you search for it, and what you click on. If you want to break free from this, you can choose search engines that respect you and your privacy (or even plant trees). These have pros and cons, but in our view, they are definitely more focused on the common good than the market leaders.
By the way – having diverse search engines is a prerequisite for a pluralist democracy: Only when we strengthen them, can they build their own infrastructure.
Different ways to cook
Our digital switch recipes provide an easy, simple way to give Big Tech the push, but there are other options available. We have tried to make it easy by focusing on a single approach and a small number of options, but there are other alternatives that are just as good. After all, what we mean by ‘good’, ‘not so good’ and ‘bad’ is open to debate: DI.DAY is about easy ways to give Big Tech the push (without getting into purism or being preachy). Our decisions are based on advice from our advisory panel.
An overview of the alternatives is available on the next page:
Ingredients
Your browser (whether on your phone or computer)
Deciding on an alternative
for example:
- Ecosia.org: A European search engine that uses results from Google, Microsoft Bing, and European Search Perspective (ESP, European search index together with Qwant). According to the company, 100 percent of its profits go toward environmental protection, especially tree planting projects. Some critics have raised concerns about the optional, energy-intensive AI search feature.
- Qwant, a French search engine that provides Bing and ESP results, has set up a French search index together with Ecosia. Qwant claims that privacy is important and that users are not tracked.
- Startpage.com/de: Delivers Google results but anonymised. So Google doesn’t know who did the search.
- MetaGer.de: a German meta search engine (Verein SUMA-EV) that combines results from various search engines, though it now charges a fee. Data protection “Made in Germany” and non-profit.
- DuckDuckGo.com: the classic search engine from the U.S. It primarily displays Bing results. They don’t disclose the proportion of results from their own crawlers. And there is a strong focus on user privacy. Some view the click-through, energy-intensive AI search feature critically.
Preparation
1 Open your browser settings
2 Look for “Search engine” in the menu
(usually found under “Search” or “Privacy”)
3 Select your new default search engine from the list
(e.g. MetaGer, Ecosia, Qwant, Startpage, or DuckDuckGo)
4 If it’s not listed,
go to the search engine website – it often asks directly: “Add to Chrome/Firefox?”. Click “Yes”.
Dessert
Install your new search engine app on your smartphone and place it where the Google bar used to be.
And before you click on AI search, ask yourself: Is it really necessary to use ten times as much energy for this search as you would for a standard internet search?
Enjoy your meal! You have just taken a big step towards a more independent digital existence.
Once you #DIDit – share our post about the digital switch and inspire others to take control of their own digital lives!
Topping
If possible, avoid using any of the new AI browsers as they fall short when it comes to data privacy. More on that in the ‘Chrome to Firefox’ recipe.
