facebook is the next AOL, geocities, friendster, myspace etc. You never hear anyone saying I'm going to cancel my 'Search' account. The kinds of things you are seeing now happen with 'social media', not algorithmic search companies.
> You never hear anyone saying I'm going to cancel my 'Search' account.
Today I saw a fellow DuckDuckGoer in the wild. That's effectively someone who, like me, cancelled their Search account.
To be clear, I agree with the sentiment that search and "social networks" are fundamentally different. I just don't agree that search is immune from blowback from hightened privacy awareness.
Good. That's generally the only way the general public can counteract the abusive behavior of entrenched and powerful organizations.
A common tactic used by large businesses is to stay silent and ignore public outrage, because the public usually doesn't have the time, money, or energy to maintain the pressure of the public voice against a single target. By ignoring the outrage most of the time the public moves on to the next scandal and the original abusive behavior can continue unchallenged as the "new normal".
If you're seeing a pattern of outrage, that's a sign that people are very angry and might - if luck is on their side - actually force one change in the public interest.
