14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft’s Bing is often considered the only worthy alternative to Google’s search engine, despite several other similar services growing a lot lately, including the privacy-oriented DuckDuckGo.
As per EU regulations, Google has recently decided to update the Android experience with a search engine choice screen that is displayed on new devices.
In other words, Android users will be able to select the search engine they want to enable on their devices, and Bing will be one of the displayed choices in a total of 13 countries.
This is because Google has decided to auction off every single slot on this screen, and in addition to its search engine, PrivacyWall will make it to the prompt in 12 countries, while GMX will be an option in 16 countries. DuckDuckGo will only be displayed in 8 countries.
Google says that the options displayed on this screen will be shown in a random order that changes from one device to another.
“The choice screen will always show a maximum of 4 providers, including Google. The auction winners, and Google, will be ordered randomly in the choice screen on a per device basis. In the event of a tie, Google will allocate the slots randomly among the tied bidders on a per device basis,” the company explains.
DuckDuckGo blasting Google for this approach
Auctioning off the search engine choice screen isn’t necessarily the best approach, DuckDuckGo explains, as this approach forces companies to compromise the privacy of their users in an attempt to make more money and increase profits.
“The central problem with Google’s search preference menu is that it is a pay-to-play auction in which only the highest bidders are on the menu. This auction format incentivizes bidders to bid what they can expect to profit per user selection. The long-term result is that the participating Google alternatives must give most of their preference menu profits to Google! Google’s auction further incentivizes search engines to be worse on privacy, to increase ads, and to not donate to good causes, because, if they do those things, then they could afford to bid higher,” the company says.
Microsoft hasn’t yet released any statement on becoming a search engine choice on Android.