My emotions are really jumbled today. One of our employees lost a cousin in the Roseburg shooting yesterday. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by this senseless violence.

Our subject of the month is DuckDuckGo, not to be confused with Duck Duck Goose. You might remember Duck Duck Goose as the children's game where lots of children get in a circle and one child walks around the outside of the circle tapping friends and saying Duck with each tap. Eventually, the child will shout GOOSE and the race begins. Whoever was tapped as Goose has to race the tapping child around the circle. Last one back to the starting point is the new tapper.

I've tapped DuckDuckGo as my new search engine. It has raced google around the circle and DuckDuckGo has won the race. I started using DuckDuckGo a couple of months back. Originally, I made the switch because DuckDuckGo doesn't track your browsing history, and even though I've nothing to hide, I like the idea of not having every search recorded. In preparation for writing this newsletter, I did a more thorough search of what exactly it means to be track free and was surprised by what I learned.

Google, Yahoo and Bing all track search history. They use your searches to build a profile about you so they can deliver "relevant" ads to you. That explains why I'm inundated with ads for refrigerators and kitchen appliances. Several months ago my refrigerator died and I was comparing brands and features and ratings. Google knows I was keen on refrigerators in April. I wish there was a way to tell them I bought a new one so they could dispense with the refrigerator ads.

Major search engines "bubble you". This was a new term for me and I suspect it's new to you as well. It means the search engine modifies the results based on what you clicked in previous searches. Example: I'm researching alternative health options, specifically, the use of essential oils. For research purposes, I want to see the positive and negative results. Google is real big on showing me the positive results because that is where I started the research. DuckDuckGo will show me all results.

I also like the speed of DuckDuckGo. It is fast. I like that it is ad free, and I like the results it returns. I have never once had to switch over to Bing, Yahoo, or Google to get better results for my searches. DuckDuckGo has delivered 100%. If you would like to try it, you can find the DuckDuckGo search engine here:
https://duckduckgo.com
If you are long time google user you can see your google search history here:
https://history.google.com/history/
If you want more information concerning DuckDuckGo you can find it here: http://donttrack.us/
If you are in need of inspiration, check out Live Your Legend (this months quote) here: http://liveyourlegend.net/. If you are interested in starting a local chapter, let me know, I would be interested in joining you.

Surf Safe,

~Janet