Incognito mode could be what you always want when you open your web browser as you like your device forgetting where it has been on the internet and dropping cookies when you close a tab or window. Doing this is actually easier in Firefox and Safari where there are checkboxes to enable this. In Firefox, get into Settings, then Privacy & Security, then find History and click on the dropdown to find and select “Use custom settings for history.” Check “Always use private browsing mode.” For Safari, it is buried less deep, go into Safari’s settings and click on the General tab. Click on the “Safari opens with” dropdown and select “A new private window.” Chrome and Edge require working with shortcuts and such so you may which to just learn the keyboard shortcut of ctrl+shift+n (Windows) or command+shift_n (macOS) to start a new Incognito window.
Android devices have a Find My Device network being rolled out by Google to help find your misplaced device(s.) You need at least Android 9.0, released back in fall of 2018 (so hopefully your lost device has at least that version) and you need to log into https://www.google.com/android/find/ or install the Google Find My Device app from the Google Play store.
Fight back against algorithmically determined content by visiting Project Random. It randomly serves obscure content from around the web to see things you might otherwise never be given. https://0xbeef.co.uk/ is where to test this out and there are no guarantees about the quality of what you might see.
AI is now embedded in Google and many other search engines, but at least with Google you can drop your search back into the old Web text only search results you may prefer. After you do your search at google.com, on the results page find and click on the three vertical dots or “More” to find Web. Click on Web to find those older style results. Once you are at the Web results you can continue using the search box above the results to start new Web (non-AI interpreted) searches.
If you are concerned about talking with an AI search site and having your interaction used to further train it or have privacy concerns, DuckDuckGo now has a site, http://duck.ai/, providing anonymous access to a few of the common AI platforms.
Use different profiles in your web browser can help keep your work and personal life separate, keeping you out of trouble even. Profiles let you keep different sets of bookmarks, privacy settings, passwords, and preferred tabs to keep open. Different browsers handle the making and use of profiles in different way, use your favorite search engine to find more specific how-tos.
Google Street View can blur your house but it is a one-way street. If there is something about your house or the car’s license plate in front that you don’t want on Google Street View you can ask them to blur it. But, once blurred, they won’t or can’t undo it. So, be careful about requesting it, and make sure it is your house you are blurring. Pull up your house in Street View and click on the 3 vertical dots to see if you can report a problem. You will be prompted through what you want to have Google blur. There is no promise of when they will get to it.
Tree and building shade can be calculated any number of ways but to get a quick sense of how tree shade might affect a project, look at https://shademap.app/ where you can search your location and play with time of year and time of day to see how shadows change.