I ditched Google Chrome years ago. I've been using Firefox and now Zen. And despite all the bitching, duck duck go is 99% as effective for most searches.
At most, you have to go through one or two more pages. Which nowadays is about the same you would have to do on Google. Only the entire time you were bombarded with advertising lies in AI slop. While also feeding their ad machine.
I cannot, in my lifetime, think of another company that had such overwhelming, positive public opinion and momentum and squandered at all so effectively and thoroughly to the extent that they are seen as almost a villain by huge chunks of the world globally.
I think the craziest thing is that someone in their company actually allowed them to get rid of their don't be evil motto. Even if they were going to do all the evil shit they already are doing, just keeping the motto around was such an easy PR win in slam dunk to deflect concerns to and say, oh no, we're always keeping in mind not to be evil.
I don't know if that was the day that Google's fortunes turned. But it definitely feels like it was a tipping point for the history of the company. And now, even though I'm posting this from an Android phone, they just announced plans to make Android shittier in one year by locking down the ability to install apps from online downloads even further. And here I am trying to think of how I can get a custom ROM installed on my phone again for the first time in over a decade. Not because I want new features or cutting edge technology. But because I just want that fucking company as far away from me as possible, and the "year of the Linux phone" is not here yet. So figuring out some kind of way to put Google Apps into a jail and lock them out of my life except when I need them is the new goal. (Probably GrapheneOS)
The fact that they lost their antitrust case and were declared a monopoly and then were hit with basically no punishment whatsoever other than sharing a tiny bit of the data with other super corporations, just makes me livid beyond belief.
Companies like this and the CEOs and executives that run them should not exist.