But Google has argued that it’s easy for people to change their search engine — just as simple as putting a box of cereal back on the store shelf.

The trial raises questions about how and why we use Google search. Many of us grew up doing web searches on Google because it seemed to deliver the best results with minimal effort. But if something better came along, would we really have known since Google came loaded on most of our devices? And even if we had known, would we have just stuck with Google since its search engine was set as the default?

I decided to test how easy or hard it really is to switch to a different search engine. In a blog post this month, Google said the change was a straightforward process and offered three examples:

• On an iPhone, it takes four taps.

• On a Mac’s Safari browser, it takes two clicks.

• On Android phones, it takes two taps.

So I followed Google’s instructions and also shared the company’s guidance with a panel of three design veterans. The verdict: It’s hard to switch — and most people would probably give up before completing the change.

“God help me, I’m dead,” Ted Selker, a product design veteran who worked at IBM and Xerox PARC, said after reading the steps to change the search engine on an iPhone.

Harry Brignull, a user-experience consultant in Britain, concluded about Google search: “Most people will just stick with it.”