I love that people keep making alternatives, but I can't shake the feeling that whatever displaces search engines won't be recognizable as a search engine.
I do this if I don't want a notification popping up on the person's computer when someone else might be looking (i.e. I don't know if they're sharing their screen, which is common on teams I work with).
An anecdote: I got an offer to leave my mid-level FAANG job to return to the Midwest for a VP role at a 200+ person company. The compensation was about 35% of my total comp, and it was maybe one of 3 companies in the area I would consider working for. Not to mention going back to cold winters, McMansions, and chain restaurants.
I don't think people fully appreciate the value of unenforceable non-competes + many companies congregated in one area. No where else in the world does the labor have this level of negotiating power and flexibility. Even if it can be replicated (and I hope it is!), it won't be overnight.
It's notable that a lot of people are moving, but I'd wait until at least early 2022 to make judgements about lasting impacts on SV. WFH might not stick widely, and some firms will pick a hybrid model (i.e. partial WFH) over going fully remote.
Not to mention that few places can match all the benefits of SV, i.e. unenforceable non-competes, fantastic weather and surroundings, an educated and diverse population, cultural activities, very high compensation, etc. I don't think it'll be as easy to displace SV as these articles regularly imply, despite the downsides of living here.
As a designer, I'd say this is correct. Many of my weeks consist of coming up with concepts, prototyping them quickly, and testing designs on users. The faster I can cycle through this, the better my designs are for users.
In other words, designers favor tools that let them prototype a high volume of designs in a short period of time. Framer lets me work faster than jQuery, and at a higher quality than tools like Axure, Fireworks, OmniGraffle, etc.
Designer and ex-founder weighing in. One thing I felt was that we had conflicting advice and incentives.
On one hand, incubator advisors, investors, and startup writers would say:
(1) "You should read pg's essays. You have to spend more time finding a market fit. Study your users. Make that your priority."
Frequently, from the same crowd, we'd also something along the lines of:
(2) "Make decisions faster. Ship it. Execution."
My design training was well-suited to (1), and completely undermined in (2). The problem was that we heard (2) a lot more because the main people we were talking to were investors and incubator staff, and their overriding priority was having a functional product with paying customers.
Of course design processes can move faster and balance planning with execution at a startup pace. But that doesn't happen much. The more common scenario is for a designer to be shown a working prototype and then make it prettier / more usable. And maybe that's the most reliable way for startups to get off the ground? I have no idea.
(And I have no idea what it's going to be.)