I updated my Android phone the other day. Naturally, this lead to me going through the set-up procedure, logging into accounts again, etc, etc. But because I live in the European Union, I was also confronted with something I hadn’t seen before, a search choice screen.

Google has a huge hold on search in the EU, well over 90%, and a few years ago action was taken to punish Google for exploiting this monopoly. One result, that Google brought in of its own accord, was this search option choice.

In theory, I like this. Rather than your phone being automatically defaulted to Google, you can choose to set a different default. If nothing else this makes you think twice, and if you are one of the minority who already use an alternative to Google (hello me!) then at first you think, ‘great, this will simplify the process.’

However, I then looked at the options I was given … despite being someone reasonably interested in Google alternatives, someone who has tested a range including Bing, Duck Duck Go, Ecosia, Qwant and Startpage, among others, I was intrigued that I didn’t recognise any of the suggested apps. I was tempted to choose one, but instead searched for more info on these companies. The result, they all looked quite dodgy! So, surprise, I defaulted to Google (before changing it later).

This is a shame, as the idea is good. In fact, done well, a proper choice system as part of setting up a phone or computer could be very convenient for a user, no matter the operating system. As I set-up the phone, had I been given a real choice for the most functions I use, I could have saved a lot of time.

For example, imagine that I went through a process where I was offered the default in-built messages app, or a list of the five most popular on the Play Store, AND an option to search for a specific app if my own preference isn’t included. Then continue this process for music, video, camera, and so on. Wouldn’t this be good for users, allowing us to get to the apps we actually want or use quicker. And could it also prevent pre-installed apps existing!

Well, I live in a dream world, cause if you read this excellent article from Tech Crunch, Europe’s Android ‘choice’ screen keeps burying better options, you can see how Google has successfully manipulated a ‘choice’ that can only lead a sensible user to wanting to use Google more.