Interesting, I remember a lot of people switching from Google and even seeing billboard ads for DDG. Even Ecosia, the site I use myself, is just returning Bing results (which are somewhat less ideologically curated compared to Google results). I don't like Bing either (Microsoft are a criminal enterprise). Has anyone used another search engine to recommend for privacy and good social values?
True. I agree. If the software is too well-known, ie Firefox, it is targeted by more hackers due to a larger number of targets. If it is too small, it is more likely to have code that is not as well-reviewed and patched, or could even be malicious.
Your second point was really good, because of the use of single-sign on by a variety of services. But yes. Better to have your own domain and email hosting (ideally from 2 providers).
Not to mention if you're using something really obscure, it gets really easy to fingerprint you.