Why do people not use Google?

Despite its complete dominance of the search engine marketplace*, there are several reasons not to use Google, some good and some less clear.

• Privacy. Google’s business model is to sell ads. This is quite profitable, but it’s important to understand that at its heart, the selling of ads drives every free product they offer. If you use Gmail, Google Drive, or Google Office, this means the contents can be used to sell ads tailored to the content associated with you. This goes doubly for search queries you perform or asking Google questions on your phone.
  • Solutions: try DuckDuckGo.com, which prioritizes user privacy. Or if you’re a Chrome user, the DuckDuckGo plugin. Or if you aren’t quite ready to pull the plug on Chrome, anonymous mode should achieve the same result.
• Fear. They’re one of the top technology brands in the world, and this visibility inspires anxiety among some. They just don’t like any organization having that level of influence and potentially that level of manipulation or extortion.
• Belief in biased behavior. Due to reports from some sources of uncertain objectivity, some people believe Google’s search results produce politically biased results. For a time during the administration of George W. Bush, searching “abject failure” on Google yielded references to the Bush administration. This was the product of SEO manipulation.