I think you missed the point here -- people synonymize googling with searching and therefore aren't choosing to google -- they're choosing to search but ending up using google despite having made no conscious effort to do so (it's just there).

Google is the default search on the vast majority of phones and desktop browsers by default.

People don't change their search engine from something else to Google, because it is already the default search engine on the devices they buy and the web browsers they use.

So people do not make a conscious choice to use Google. The vast majority make no choice at all. Google is synonymous with search because it is already the search engine on their phones and computers. They are simply never asked which search engine they want to use.

Most consumers have no idea that you can even change your search engine. After talking with hundreds of users, they find it's either impossible to change (iPhone/MacOS) or too hard (Chrome).

If you're Duck Duck Go or Bing, at least you're in a very limited dropdown list if someone does want to try something else. If you're a new search engine startup, you're not an option at all.

Your argument supports the original poster. It is no longer a conscious choice, "Do I search for this via Google? Maybe I should use Bing? What about DuckDuckGo?", it is, "Oh, lemme Google that".

the other day, on HN i mentioned i was trying to find some relevant meme on DDG, and someone said "try googling 'foo bar baz'" and i thought it was funny.

I don't use google search if i can avoid it. I'll try 3 others first, and generally just give up. Google doesn't deserve any money.