The middle of February is tough. In the northeastern U.S., spring is still a month away, and the weather is cruel.

Leaden sky. Damp, bone-chilling temperatures. Forecasters warning about the next round of wintry mix.

It feels like the universe is sucking the joy right out of your soul.

We don’t need to give in. We can push back against the darkness and cold by making a change in something as simple as how we handle online search.

By making that change, by taking a few simple steps to change your default search settings, you force yourself to learn something new and position yourself to receive tangible downstream personal benefits in increased creativity and adaptability.

Far fetched?

Stick with me.

When we learn something new, it can have several impacts.  

We acquire a new skill or bit of information. More than that, though, as reported in a National Institutes of Health press release in 2021 in a quote attributed to Joshua A. Gordon, M.D., Ph.D., director of the National Institute of Mental Health, “The ability to flexibly learn in new situations makes it possible to adapt to an ever-changing world.”  

In other words, by forcing ourselves into a new situation – switching away from Google search, for example – we arm ourselves to better cope with other, inevitable changes in our lives over which we have no control.

Underscoring that, in Mark Schaefer’s new book, “Audacious: How Humans Win in an AI Marketing World,” he wrote about Giant Spoon, one of the most creative marketing agencies in the world. In Chapter 4, Schaefer shared “16 golden nuggets” he gleaned from the agency’s creative leaders which can help others create “audacious, breakthrough moments.”

One key takeaway:

“New routes create new dots.”

By doing something different, the Giant Spoon team knows it helps them see new connections in the world. We can apply that same approach. By changing one routine, one default setting, we begin to see the world differently.

Why change the way you search online?

Google owns online search. According to Statcounter, 87.3% of the online search market in America belonged to Google in January 2025. 

It won’t miss your clicks.

How dominant is Google?

Two examples:

• Google Search does not return every result linked to the query you enter. It returns only the results it wants to show you based on a secret algorithm it changes periodically.
• Google is so powerful it can unilaterally decide to erase any mention of several “cultural and identity-based holidays” from Google Calendar as recently reported by Mashable.

Google runs its business as it chooses.

And we can choose to reject the status quo, to create new dots. That’s the change I recommend for you.

I use DuckDuckGo for all my searches. This CNET article breaks down the top reasons you should use it, too:

1. Fewer ads
2. Faster load times
3. No stored search history
4. Search results not influenced by browser history

DuckDuckGo does sell ads, but it ads are tied to what you’re searching for instead of how Google does it; tieing the ads to your online behavior across the entire internet. That’s a tradeoff I’m glad to make. 

No matter which browser or phone you use, switching your default search engine will take a few seconds. That small investment, though, will alter every search result while materially changing how you see the online world.

• Chrome
• Safari, Mac
• Firefox
• iPhone
• Android

Things you will not get on DuckDuckGo:

• Sponsored search results
• Seeing an ad for something on Facebook one day after searching for it on Google
• AI-driven search result filtering.

Jump in. The water’s fine.