Ok, I’ll admit it. I was deeply confronted by the suggestion that we use search engines which are not Google, as I am a self-confessed Google aficionado who primarily utilises Google platforms on a professional level. NOT use Google? Perhaps I’d had bad experiences before, but I could not see the value in this initially. I hadn’t heard of most of the search engines in the module readings, but I’d used Bing and thought it was vastly inferior.
But I soon realised I had perhaps been too hasty. I liked DuckDuckGo because it didn’t track data and didn’t personalise ads and search results. I even found Bing to be much better than I recalled it being in the past. This opened my eyes to other alternatives beyond Google, and made me think more deeply about the dangers of collecting data and filtering / personalising results. As a TL, it is imperative that I model ethical use of technology and this means I should be encouraging students to use safer search engines.
References
The Windows Club. (April 25, 2021). DuckDuckGo search tips and how to get the best out of it. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjZM9uw_wZE
Weinberg, G. (n.d). Why should I use DuckDuckGo instead of Google? Spread Privacy. https://spreadprivacy.com/why-use-duckduckgo-instead-of-google/#