For goodness' sake, there's a middle ground for making your product sticky that doesn't need people to commit to stop using Google Search without trying your pr

For goodness' sake, there's a middle ground for making your product sticky that doesn't need people to commit to stop using Google Search without trying your product once! Let me repeat that - you're asking me to give up Google Search, one of the seven wonders of the online world! Yes, I know, you can still go to google.com. But based on your messaging you clearly understand that a search engine that isn't in the search bar is one that doesn't exist. And maybe you know beyond a doubt that your product is better, but you sure haven't earned that trust with the rest of us yet! Here is the middle ground: Ask users to add you to their chrome://settings/searchEngines with a one-letter shortcut, so they can search with You by typing "y <searchterm>". You're targeting technical users; we know how to work with hacks like that. There may even be a way to set this up programmatically. I already have custom search engines set up for language study and Wolfram Alpha, and use them all the time. The evidence that this is effective is that Google seems to have intentionally crippled the keywords for competing search engines in its defaults, despite the known antitrust risks. This is an easy trial option, and if users start using your engine more, you can occasionally nudge them about making you their default. I've just added you to my one-letter list, because a nice user shared a GET request that showed me your search results, and they seem interesting. And also monopolies are bad for the end user. But the very fact that you're making demands like this implies such a strange thinking about your relationship with users that I've got one foot out the door already. (Edit: Okay, despite the above, after more tests via one letter shortcut your ideas about search actually do seem very decent. I guess this means Google really does have it too easy at the moment. If this is what ends up fixing your onboarding, remember me when you IPO, please and thank you)