"Alternative" search engine DuckDuckGo is manipulating their autocomplete algorithm. While disappointing, this is not surprising.Individually, humans can express a wide range of behaviors, but as part of a system they become much more deterministic. Group behavior is almost entirely dictated by the rules that govern the system.In this case, the funding and administrative model of DuckDuckGo is identical to Google's - provide a centralized search service, use that service to get eyeballs, sell those eyeballs to advertisers - and so they're heading down the same dark path of info manipulation. The problem isn't that evil people happen to be running Google, it's that the rules by which Google operates attract and encourage evil behavior.Take the example of this monkey fairness experiment . The rules of the game are unfair - both monkeys do the same task, one is rewarded more than the other. This causes the monkey being rewarded less to justifiably lose it's shit. If you replace the scientist with a different scientist following exactly the same rules, the monkey will suffer just as much. The rules of the system are what cause suffering, not the brand they fly under.If you want different results, you need different rules. A different revenue model. A different administrative structure. An alternative to the centralized client-server model. Something.