not to forget keeps bugging me to make google my default search engine. i mean if my default was set to ask.com maybe, if i set my default to ddg, it was probably on purpose..

and on that note, why/how are they able to detect that google isnt my default search anyway?

I've seen that message even when google is my default search engine. So I think it might just be something that shows up for everyone. I was using firefox though, perhaps Chrome + Default google will get rid of the message.

Which appear even if you're using Chrome....sigh.