That was my "choice," not Perlmonks', and it wasn't deliberate. My feeling is that if someone is tracking you closely enough to sniff unencrypted packets, encryption won't stop them. Google's results are still better, but they come at a significant price. I have found DDG good enough for most queries. It falls down on more obscure stuff -- it has a smaller index -- but I always try it first before I resort to Scroogle and Google.