It is no more a secret that many search engines gather personal data about their users, as per their individual privacy policies. If you want to steer clear of this data privacy trade-off and still use search engines to your advantage, there are some excellent options mentioned in this article.
Eighty seven percent of computers and four percent of mobile phones use Google as their search engine, indicating that Google is the top-ranked, most popular search engine worldwide.
Today, the majority of internet users opt for Google’s Chrome, Gmail, Google Photos, and YouTube daily for various purposes. On most desktops and Android devices, Google is the default internet browser; and in a single day, roughly 5.6 million searches are made using Google, making it the king of search engines.
Now, we want all our data and personal information to be private in cyberspace. However, with Google, our data does not really stay confidential. Google has been reported for misusing its popularity by abusing the user’s privacy, manipulating search results, and more. Due to these reasons, Google has been facing stiff competition from other search engines in recent years.
There are several other search engines available if privacy is your major concern and you do not wish to use Google. These search engines might not be rich in infrastructure and innovation like Google, but they do not collect or store the user’s personal information also. Your search experience may not be as amazing as Google, but fewer advertisements and promotions will be there to interfere with your work.
So, if you want to ensure data privacy, here are four major Google search engine replacements you can try out.
- DuckDuckGo
The DuckDuckGo search engine was established in 2008, and they have asserted not to collect, store or share users’ personal data. DuckDuckGo is the most popular and potent Google search rival. As this search engine is privacy-oriented, at the beginning of 2021, the daily search queries exceeded 10 million in a single day and passed 90 million every month.
The company says that the root of their search result is Microsoft Bing and 400 other sources. Just like Google, DuckDuckGo also makes money from advertisements and promotions popping up around your search results. These advertisements are different from those displayed by Google. Google generally shows ads combining the data collected from the user’s browsing history and other personal information collected from the user. On the other hand, the ads and promotions displayed on DuckDuckGo are purely based on the specific term used while browsing.
- Neeva
Neeva was developed by two former Googlers, Sridhar Ramaswamy and Vivek Raghunathan, in 2019. The major objective of Neeva is to provide its users with a private corner of the web. This is a completely advertisement-free platform whose revenue relies on the subscribers instead of ads. This 100% ad-free platform confirms that user history is safe and not accessed by third-party users. Neeva enables you to connect to your Gmail and other online accounts to display every search result in a single place.
- Mojeek
Mojeek is British by origin and was started in 2006. Mojeek does not rely on search results from additional or supplementary search engines. When it comes to securing your confidential information, Mojeek is on point. Mojeek provides you with impartial search results and never compromises on the quality. They do not collect IP addresses or search histories, and the search results are entirely based on the terms and phrases you type in. Like Google and Bing, Mojeek is developing its own web index.
- StartPage
StartPage is another privacy-oriented search engine that understands the importance of people’s privacy. The most significant feature of StartPage is that you can access Google’s search results without actually using Google. But the experience will not be as efficient as Google, but your data will not get tracked. StartPage search engine was developed in 2004 in the Netherlands. This displays ads and promotions but does not store personal data, IP address, or browsing history. The company also has a feature that limits price trackers and wards off advertisers that display advertisements linked to your search history.
Conclusion
Until now, no company has matched with Google’s efficiency. But ensuring user privacy is of utmost concern especially in today’s times when there are rising cases of cybercrime. And sadly, Google has disappointed many with concerns of breaching user privacy. In such cases, switching over to these search engines will ensure you a safe and privacy-first browsing experience.
