It’s no secret that Google is a powerful search engine. However, it’s not the only one on the block, and many people are starting to wonder if it’s really worth its privacy and security risks.
If your concerns over Google outweigh your desire to keep using it as a search engine, you’re in luck: there are plenty of alternatives out there.
These range from Google-based search engines that respect more privacy to non-Google based ones with even more protection for its users. Here are seven of them (or eight, depending on how you count).
1. DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo is a search engine that prides itself on priding users in the privacy of their searches. It doesn’t track, profile or personalize your results—which isn’t to say you won’t find similar results as with other engines.
There are no ads, cookies, history and logging for all sites visited via DuckDuckGo‘s web browser extension and mobile app versions (Android and iOS). And there is zero data mining/collection/retention and sharing/selling of any kind going on here—not even with employees!
The company does keep some aggregated statistics about geolocation queries and responses from its servers so they can optimize the search experience for everyone else; otherwise they don’t retain any identifiable user data at all.
2. StartPage
Like DuckDuckGo, StartPage is a privacy-focused search engine. It promises not to track your activity and collects no personal information from you.
StartPage is based in the Netherlands, which has stricter privacy laws than the US or UK. In addition to its home country of Holland, it also has offices in Spain and Germany.
StartPage is a meta-search engine; that means that it uses the results from other search engines like Google and Bing rather than having its own index of webpages stored on its servers. By using these third party sites for their indexing power, StartPage has to deal with less data about what people are searching for than if they had their own index (though they do store some user data). This makes their service faster than some other non-tracking options because they don’t have as much work to do when delivering results back to you
3. Gibiru
Gibiru is a privacy-respecting search engine that’s also safe, fast, and free. Gibiru does not track any of your personal information (such as your IP address or computer information) and it does not harvest data from users. Gibiru doesn’t use cookies or other tracking methods to find out about you or your browsing habits. It doesn’t remember what you searched for previously; it only remembers the last thing you searched for in order to make suggestions when you start typing something again.
You can also run Gibiru from anywhere with the Tor browser, which will make you anonymous from anyone trying to track your location or IP address (and thus break into any accounts connected with that information).
You’ll need Tor for certain websites like Facebook and Google—but if you’re worried about hackers or government surveillance agencies monitoring what websites you visit, using Gibiru could help prevent them from doing so.
4. YaCy
YaCy is a peer-to-peer search engine that is decentralized, meaning it is not controlled by one company or organization. It was originally launched as a non-commercial project in 2003 and has since been used to index more than 30 million pages on the internet.
The main idea behind YaCy is to create an accessible search engine for everyone around the world — even those who cannot afford to use centralized commercial search engines like Google or Bing because of their high costs and restrictions with regards to privacy and freedom of speech.
YaCy indexes content from its users’ computers, which makes it much faster than most other open source alternatives such as DuckDuckGo or Searx because there aren’t any servers involved in its operations at all (unlike how most other open source projects work).
5. Searx
Searx is a metasearch engine that uses the power of others to provide you with the best results. It’s a decentralized search engine, which means its data is spread out among many computers and no one has control over it. Searx uses this decentralization to protect your privacy because your searches aren’t stored on any single server.
Searx also makes use of multiple sources in order to return results from different engines (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo), which allows you to see those results all at once rather than going through each separately and having them show up as separate tabs in your browser window. You can also add your own custom search engines or remove ones you don’t like by clicking “Preferences” in the upper right corner of your screen when searching on Searx.
6. Swisscows
Swisscows is a search engine that doesn’t track you. The Swiss government has strong data protection laws, and Swisscows is based in Switzerland. This means that it’s not subject to US law, so it can’t be compelled to share information about you with anyone else. It also doesn’t store any data about you: no IP addresses, no tracking cookies, no login info—nothing!
Swisscows doesn’t use any tracking cookies or other technologies like fingerprinting (which identifies users by their browser settings). This means that if someone does something unethical with the data they collect from you (like selling it), there’s nothing for them to sell!
7. Qwant
Qwant is a search engine that was launched in France in 2013. Like DuckDuckGo and StartPage, Qwant has no user tracking policies. The company also does not collect any personal data (including IP addresses).
However, unlike DuckDuckGo and StartPage, Qwant uses a combination of search results from other platforms (like Wikipedia) along with social networks like Twitter and Facebook to personalize results for the user. This means that when you conduct a simple query on Qwant, you’ll get information from multiple sources – Google results will be mixed with those from other sources like Wikipedia or Twitter.
Another difference between DuckDuckGo/StartPage and Qwant is that while they both offer private browsing modes as default options, Qwant provides an additional option called “incognito mode.” This mode allows users to browse without being tracked or monitored by anyone else on the network (even administrators).
8. Ecosia
Ecosia is a search engine that plants trees with its ad revenue. The non-profit company donates 80% of its profits to planting trees, and as of 2018 has planted over 37 million trees worldwide.
Ecosia was founded in 2009 in Germany by Christian Kroll and Tobias Baldauf who were concerned about the environmental impact of using Google for searches. The two were inspired by Wikipedia, which uses advertising revenue to fund its content. Ecosia works like any other search engine: users enter words or phrases into the search bar, and results are returned along with sponsored links from companies like Amazon or eBay at the top of the page (which you can choose to ignore). The difference is that when you click on these ads, instead of sending money back to Google or Bing (their direct competitors), it sends cash straight into Ecosia’s coffers so they can plant more trees!
9. MetaGer
MetaGer is a search engine that doesn’t track you. In fact, the site’s tagline is “No Spying.” MetaGer uses the DuckDuckGo browser extension to protect your privacy and prevent tracking by ad networks, social media platforms, and other third-party sites.
You may want to use MetaGer if you’re looking for German content or searching specifically in German (the search engine supports both English and Deutsch).
Gigablast is a powerful search engine that uses a different algorithm than Google. Gigablast is also a non-profit organization, which means that it’s not primarily out to make money. Instead, its goal is to provide users with accurate, relevant results in the most transparent way possible.
10. Gigablast
Gigablast works differently from other search engines because it finds information based on what was previously published on the web rather than trying to predict what you might want based on your previous interactions with the engine (like Google does).
The process of determining what content should rank highest in search results isn’t as straightforward as it seems—which is why Gigablast employs an algorithm called “The Maturity Model.”
This algorithm helps determine how trustworthy a given piece of content is by analyzing how many people link back to it and whether those links are active or dead ends (meaning they lead nowhere).
11. Wolfram Alpha
Wolfram Alpha is a search engine that can answer factual questions, but it can also be used to search for data and images. It’s a great tool for research, especially if you’re looking for information about scientific concepts or specific people.
You can use Wolfram Alpha to generate reports on a particular topic or situation; for example, you could use it to get an overview of oil prices over time or how many people live in various countries around the world.
12. Lilo
Lilo is a non-profit search engine that donates money to charities. It’s based in Germany and not as well-known as Google, but it is a good choice for people who want to support charities with their search engine. If you’re looking for some alternatives to Google, Lilo might be worth a try!
13. Dogpile
Dogpile is a meta-search engine that uses the results from other search engines. It does not store user search data, so it’s far more private than Google. If you’re looking for an alternative to Google that won’t track your every move online, Dogpile is a great solution. In addition to being privacy-focused, Dogpile can also be used when you want to narrow down your results or get more specific with advanced tools like Boolean operators.
14. Excite
Excite was a popular search engine in the 1990s and was acquired by Ask Jeeves in 2003. It was shut down in 2009.
Excite‘s focus on entertainment-related searches (such as sports, music, and movies) made it an easy option for people looking to find information on their favorite topics.
15. WebCrawler
WebCrawler (www.webcrawler.com) is a search engine that was founded in 1994 by three web developers at Excite and spun off as an independent company in 1995. Originally owned by Excite, it was sold to AOL in 1999 for a whopping $12 million. In 2003, WebCrawler got into trouble when it failed to comply with new rules set out by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). This led to InfoSpace purchasing WebCrawler for $120 million in cash plus equity shares worth up to $55 million.[1]
Table of Contents
What is the importance of Google alternatives?
Google is a great search engine, but it’s not the only one out there. For many people, Google has become a default choice because of its ease of use and free price tag. However, there are other search engines that can provide you with different results than what you would find on Google.
The importance of Google alternatives is that they allow you to get access to information in different ways than what you would find on the world’s most popular search engine. If you do a lot of research or work with certain types of content, then it may be important for you to use an alternative search engine so that your results aren’t biased or limited by Google’s algorithms.
Which is the most secure and privacy focused search engine?
The best search engine for privacy is DuckDuckGo. DuckDuckGo is a completely private search engine that does not track its users’ searches. This means that, unlike Google, Bing, or Yahoo!, DuckDuckGo doesn’t keep any data about you.
The way it works is this: when you type in a search query, the site looks up your request on several different sources and then gives you back the results. There are no personal details associated with your request; there’s only an anonymous number that identifies you as a user of the site. Because of this, DuckDuckGo doesn’t know who you are or what you’ve been searching for—but it can still give you accurate results.
Conclusion: Google Alternatives
In a nutshell, all of these Google alternatives are far more secure and private than using a traditional search engine like Google. Choosing to use one of them is a great way to protect your browsing history from being sold to advertisers and other third parties like the NSA. At this point in time though, none of them are as good as Google when it comes to the quality or volume of their results. It’s up to you whether you want to sacrifice functionality for privacy and security, but if you do then DuckDuckGo or StartPage are probably your best bet!
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