Google is having an issue on the internet. And the results go far beyond its prejudice.
Over 85% of the search engine market is held by Google, making it the de facto search engine for the web and vastly outpacing competitors. However, despite its widespread use, the search engine has faced a number of serious issues over the past few years that have prompted users to seek out alternatives.
In point of fact, in addition to the obvious issues like frequent algorithm changes, biased search results, a declining indexing state, and an increase in inaccurate and dissatisfying results, Google has recently come under fire for its privacy policy, which has enraged many.
However, given that Google's search engine has been widely reported to track every user's online activity for years, it is not surprising that such concerns are being raised. Additionally, this is only a portion of a much larger issue that has persisted for some time.
However, if you are concerned about your privacy and are looking for alternatives to Google, there are a number of privacy-focused search engines that can help you get started. You can browse the internet privately and, in some cases, anonymously using these private browsers.
Let's take a look at a few of the most effective private search engines, which you can use right away.
Best Private Search Engines
There are basically two types of private search engines: metasearch engines, which get their results from major search engines; full-fledged search engines with their own indexes for storing data from all of the internet's websites.
1. DuckDuckGo
One of the most well-liked Google alternatives is DuckDuckGo. It is the best privacy-focused search engine available, guaranteeing your online privacy while also providing more relevant and accurate results than Google for your queries. Having said that, there is a widespread perception that because DuckDuckGo—or any other private search engine—does not track you, it does not know anything about your preferences. As a result, it is less able to provide you with relevant results. However, this is not actually the case due to the distinction between targeted results and relevancy. Additionally, although you absolutely require relevant results for your search queries, we believe that you are content not to see targeted results.
Regarding privacy, DuckDuckGo makes use of the standard strategy of displaying advertisements that do not in any way reflect your preferences. In a similar vein, it successfully prevents websites from identifying you based on your personal information, such as your IP address or other user identifiers, by removing what is known as "search leakage." In addition, DuckDuckGo maintains a Tor exit enclave that can be utilized to obtain encrypted search and complete anonymity. We have a guide for switching from Google to Duckduckgo if you are convinced.
2. SearX
SearX is a metasearch engine that provides users with relevant search results while simultaneously safeguarding their privacy. A metasearch engine is a tool that produces its results by obtaining information from web search engines. To put it succinctly, it depends on the data indexed by other search engines like Google, Bing, and others to provide results for your queries. Diversity, which enables metasearch engines to obtain information from multiple search engines as opposed to a standard search engine, which by design has only one indexed source, is one factor that works in their favor.
SearX, like every other metasearch engine, hides the user's IP address from search queries to prevent the search engine from knowing where the user is located and what preferences they have. This is how SearX manages to keep users' privacy intact. SearX says it can get results from 82 different web crawlers across all classes, including famous web indexes like Bing, Google, Reddit, Wikipedia, Yippee, and Yandex. Instead of being saved on the servers of the search engine, all of your preferences are saved locally in a cookie on your browser. SearX's access to multiple user-run SearX instances—some of which even run Tor services—is a major advantage over other search engines. As a result, you can choose one based on your privacy and security preferences.
3. MetaGer
Another metasearch engine that prioritizes serving search results while protecting user privacy is MetaGer. It allows you to send all of your search queries to approximately fifty different search engines, which then sort and filter the results before presenting them to you. MetaGer, like SearX, has a hidden TOR service that lets you use the Tor network to search the web while remaining anonymous and secure.
MetaGer serves Shopping option results in addition to standard web search results, allowing you to search for items you want to buy without worrying about being tracked later on the web. In a similar vein, there is a separate section for news and politics results to distinguish them from one another. MetaGer also ensures that it never returns results that are clicked more frequently in order to block preference bias (filter bubble) and improve the quality of the results. It says that by doing so, searchers get unbiased and trustworthy search results rather than results that align with their beliefs or points of view.
4. Qwant
Qwant is a search engine based in the EU that strongly supports user privacy. In the past, browsers like Google Chrome and Firefox made it their default search engine. Additionally, it remains one of Chrome's default search engines for French users as of this writing. The fact that Qwant has its own indexing engine sets it apart from the majority of other search engines and allows it to keep its search results relevant to the query without tracking users or entangling them in a filter bubble. This sets Qwant apart from the majority of other search engines.
When it comes to features, Qwant has undergone a number of transformations over the past few years. The introduction of Qwant Lite is one of the most notable of these changes: Qwant Junior is a lighter, faster version of Qwant designed to be user-friendly and compatible with older browsers. Qwant Maps and a child-friendly portal with filtered results: an open-source maps service that uses the OpenStreetMap database to provide maps and routes that respect privacy. Regarding privacy, Qwant, which is based in Europe, provides users with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) protections, giving them control over their personal data. Additionally, the platform has security measures in place to prevent third parties from gaining insight into search queries made by users.
5. Swisscows
Swisscows is a privacy-focused alternative to Google and another popular web search engine. It claims to have omitted explicit sources from its results because it describes itself as "family-friendly." SoundCloud for music searches, Yandex for language translation, and Bing for web searches make up the majority of the search engine. In addition, Swisscows maintains its own index for its German-language search engine.
Regarding privacy, Swisscows promises that it will never store any user information so that users can browse the internet anonymously. In addition, the business mentions that, in order to reduce risk, it uses its own servers for the service rather than relying on the cloud. The fact that Swisscow's data center is located in the Swiss Alps, outside of the EU and the US, enables the company to maintain a firm hold on protecting user privacy.
6. Startpage
In 1998, Startpage, formerly known as lxquick, launched as a metasearch engine that provided searches from 14 distinct search engines. It later merged with Startpage, which at the time was a web directory, to become the Startpage that it is today. Startpage, like the majority of other privacy-focused search engines, promotes user privacy and gives users more control over their personal information.
Startpage basically gives you results from the Google search engine, but they are completely anonymous, so neither Google nor your ISP (Internet Service Provider) know what you're looking for online. Instead of masking some of your IP address, it does this by changing it to the default system IP of the search engine. This ensures that you never leave any trace when you browse the internet. Startpage also offers Anonymous View, which, as the name suggests, lets you visit a website while remaining anonymous. This takes privacy to a whole new level. In addition, Startpage offers an email client called StartMail that claims to assist you in sending private and secure emails to everyone.
Browse the Web Privately with Private Search Engines
Despite its incredible AI prowess and set of useful features, Google is still the best search engine, but it is not the best when it comes to protecting user privacy. Contrarily, private search engines adhere diligently to their core objective of serving search results while protecting user data, despite having a limited set of features and functions. In addition, a few of these search engines are known to provide more accurate and relevant results for user queries than Google, which is yet another reason to use them.
