As the dominant search engine, Google has become synonymous with online search. However, there are several alternative search engines that offer unique features and prioritize user privacy.
Today, we will explore some of the best alternative search engines and tell you about some of their features.
Table of Contents
Brave Search
Brave Search is an alternative search engine that combines results from both Bing and Google with its own web-crawling site indexes. What sets Brave Search apart is its commitment to privacy. It does not track users’ searches or clicks and offers ad-and-tracker blocking features.
Additionally, Brave Search is constantly evolving and developing new features, such as an AI-powered Summarizer and a Discussions section that aggregates comments from platforms like Reddit. Another benefit of using Brave is the ability to earn cryptocurrency while browsing the web.
Bing
Bing, which receives about 3% of global search traffic and 6.5% in the US, offers rich results and AI tools similar to Google. One standout feature of Bing is its image and video search options, including visual and voice search capabilities.
Bing also excels in providing links to sources and offers a more full-featured search experience compared to Google. Recently, Bing introduced Bing Chat, an AI search bot powered by ChatGPT, which helps refine searches.
Yahoo Search
Yahoo Search has improved its user experience with a simplified page, trending searches, and access to Yahoo’s services. While Yahoo utilizes Bing for search results, it incorporates its own technology for Trending searches and other features. Yahoo’s search result pages include quick answers, although in a less refined format compared to Bing and Google.
DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo is well-known for its privacy policy, which ensures that it does not collect or share personal information. The search interface is simple and accurate, although it lacks the extensive info panels found in Bing and Google.
In addition, DuckDuckGo offers a range of search results, including images, videos, news, maps, and shopping. It also provides additional options depending on the search term, such as definitions, meanings, nutrition, and recipes. While DuckDuckGo prioritizes user privacy, some tracker reports originating from DuckDuckGo itself may appear on result pages.
Ecosia
Ecosia is a search engine with an environmental focus. It collaborates with environmental organizations worldwide and uses its profits to plant trees (over 180 million trees planted). While Ecosia’s search results may lack the polish of other engines, it generally provides a satisfactory search experience. Ecosia does not create personal profiles based on search history and anonymizes searches within one week.
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Mojeek
Mojeek is a UK-based, privacy-focused search engine with its own web index. Although Mojeek’s index is smaller than Bing or Google’s, users can generally find what they’re looking for. Mojeek offers a unique feature that allows users to search by emotions using deep machine learning. Additionally, Mojeek prioritizes privacy and claims not to track or sell user data.
Qwant
Qwant is an anti-Google search service from the EU that uses its own indexing robots and APIs from Bing, Twitter, YouTube, and iTunes. Qwant offers maps based on OpenMapTiles and a kid-friendly version called Qwant Junior. Qwant prioritizes user privacy by not storing browsing history, profiling users, or targeting personalized ads.
Presearch
Presearch is a decentralized search site that anonymizes queries with distributed nodes. It allows users to customize search provider buttons and offers its own cryptocurrency token called PRE. Users can earn PRE rewards by running a node server in Presearch’s distributed system or by using the search engine. Advertisers can also use PRE for bidding on keywords in Presearch’s advertising system.
Startpage
Startpage utilizes privatized Google search results and claims to be the most private search engine. It offers web, image, video, and news search options. One notable feature of Startpage is its Anonymous View, which allows users to view web pages through a proxy server without revealing personal data. Startpage removes users’ IP addresses and other information before submitting search queries for enhanced privacy.
Seekr
Seekr is a search engine that rates web results on reliability and ideology using machine learning. It indicates the political leaning and reliability of each link. Seekr’s evaluations are algorithmically based and are applicable to English-language websites worldwide. While Seekr’s evaluations work globally, it is not a privacy-focused search service and may share user data with business partners for advertising.
Swisscows
Swisscows is a privacy-focused search site based in Switzerland. In addition to search, Swisscows offers a VPN, messaging app, private email, and donates to charity. Its search results exclude nefarious sites and adult content, making it suitable for younger users. Swisscows also provides an Anonymous Preview feature for viewing sites without being tracked.
While Google remains the most widely used search engine, there are alternative search engines that offer unique features and prioritize user privacy. Whether you value privacy, environmental impact, or innovative features, there is a search engine on this list that can cater to your needs.