TechTok #11. Anniversary Special

As 2025 draws to an end, mood tends to shift from more serious to a lighter one. We at AdGuard are not the exception, and when we decided to wrap up the year with another TechTok article, the idea to make it on a less serious side came naturally.

We received the very first TechTok question a year ago, almost on the dot: on December 17, 2024. Over that year we’ve published 10 editions of TechTok and covered a lot of your questions — but even more remain unanswered. And for this special edition we’ve run through all of them once again and selected some of the… let’s say more controversial, funny, or even cryptic ones, which wouldn’t normally find their way into a regular TechTok article. But however mysterious, humorous or seemingly off-topic they may be, we’ll try to reply to them all, one way or another.

We will start with a simple and harmless question (and for this article, we will omit all the usernames):

Why not TechTalk? 🙂

Indeed, why not? In these articles we talk about tech — wouldn’t that be logical? Yes, it would; but there are already a plethora of various Tech Talk channels, podcasts, and whatnot. “TechTok,” on the other hand, is much less common. Plus, let’s be real: it sounds much more hip and young and, well, who doesn’t want to seem a little younger than they are? And besides, we were secretly hoping to lure in some of that TikTok crowd, even if by mistake — our TechTok is referencing the tech side of TikTok, where people often give quick tech tips. Just like we aim to do in our articles!

Alright, now to slightly more perplexing questions:

Has Google infiltrated Bing?

The user who asked this question left no further notes or comments, which makes it open to interpretation. So I gave it some thought and came up with a few possible ones — let’s consider them one by one.

1. This could be a reference to Bing potentially using some of Google Search’s technologies. This is, indeed, a somewhat common occurrence on the web search market, especially for smaller players. But Bing is known to have its own search index, crawler, and primary ranking algorithm, all developed in-house. In fact, many smaller and regional search engines add their own UI but use Bing for the underlying web and image search!

2. The question could also imply that Google has been somehow secretly influencing how Bing (and perhaps other search engines) works or what it shows in the search results, to achieve its dominant market position. First of all, if it was really happening, AdGuard wouldn’t be the one to know anything about it. And secondly, I prefer simpler explanations when possible, especially when there is no way of knowing if anything more complicated is in play. So I would say that the reason behind Google Search taking up almost 90% of the market share is a combination of its default status on so many devices and browsers, high results quality, and user habit.

3. Finally, the question could simply address the abundance of Google-related links in the results of regular Bing searches. This hypothesis is kind of boring, though: Google is, indeed, everywhere, and it may seem at times that it follows you wherever you go. And it doesn’t require any corporate espionage-style infiltration — it’s just the current state of the internet, for better or for worse.

I am curious to see if you have any other versions, or what you think about mine. But for now let’s proceed further:

How to change the ownership of an email account? (I’m selling accounts in games)

Okay, that escalated quickly! Disclaimer — we do not condone such actions, both transferring the ownership of an email account and selling in-game accounts. Both of them would almost assuredly violate various Terms of Service and End-User License Agreements, no matter which email provider or game developer you pick. For example, Google explicitly prohibits changing the ownership of your GMail account and provides no official mechanisms of doing so. Special tools for transferring GMail accounts to a different person exist, but we won’t link them here, of course — if you’re hellbent on doing it and ready to risk a ban, I’m sure you will be able to find one.

And also, kids, — don’t buy boosts in games. Git gud instead.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret now: people submit a lot of questions about AdGuard to TechTok, despite the disclaimer saying “This is not a support form.” Most of them wouldn’t make good content, but a couple are worthy of mention.

Will it be possible to buy AdGuard VPN for 1/3 of the device?

As far as we can tell, this person would like to have an option to purchase a cheaper AdGuard VPN subscription for 1 or 3 devices. I’ll remind you that currently the paid subscription allows you to protect up to 10 devices at a time. You can see why one could make an assumption that reducing the number of supported devices to just one would lower the price — after all, it is true that more connected devices means larger server load, which leads to higher maintenance costs. Unfortunately, it is not that simple. The vast majority of our users only connect one device at a time anyway, so even if our subscription covered, let’s say, two devices, there wouldn’t be much difference price-wise. The number ‘10’ was chosen semi-arbitrary to satisfy the needs of few power users, but it doesn’t play any major role in determining the subscription price.

I have to admit though, the first time I read this question, I couldn’t resist entertaining a thought about a subscription that would literally cover one-third of your device. If anything, it’s a fun thought experiment, so as soon as our devs figure out a way to protect 1/3 of a device, we will let you know!

This next, very short question, if taken without context, sends you into a pondering mood:

What to do?

Oh boy, where do I even start? I could turn to Ancient Greek philosophers… Oh, wait — there’s a follow-up in a different field: “No connection to the server.” Got it. So it’s about AdGuard VPN. True, these things do happen from time to time. For technical issues like this, the best course of action is to contact our support team — they’ll be able to resolve it much faster.

There are more questions, but I don’t want to take too much of your time with this article, especially now when we all have our hands full with festive preparations and getting presents for our friends and relatives. But before I wrap it up, here are two more short questions. Both lacked any context, and both were asked in a different language, so the translation may not be perfect. Here’s the first one:

How to achieve dollar income?

I promised to answer all the questions, but I have to admit — this may be the hardest one yet. Let’s strike a deal: as soon as I figure it out, I will let you all know. For now, it’s the same old grind for me.

And, finally, the very last TechTok question of the year:

Did you see it?

Couldn’t have said it better myself, my anonymous friend. Blink and you’ll miss it — I swear, every new year flies by quicker than the previous one. At least we’ll have memories: stay tuned for AdGuard’s annual recap post where we’ll look back at everything that we managed to achieve this year and take a quick glance at what may be awaiting us in the next one. See you soon!