Although Google is the most popular, there are others that offer good privacy guarantees
There are brands so popular that they end up being associated with a product or service. It has happened with cola drinks, with paper tissues, with video game consoles… and with internet search engines, since for many people there is only Google. The multicolored logo of the company owned by Alphabet has been with us since the beginning of the Internet and is by far the most used search engine, with a market share of 92%, according to data from Statista. All web pages are designed and written taking into account the Google algorithm to appear in the first positions of searches and the company is the fifteenth with the best reputation in the world according to the Reptrak ranking. But there are more options beyond Google. These are the 10 most prominent alternative search engines to Google.
It was conceived to find answers to questions asked in colloquial language, making it more intuitive, although it also accepts keywords. It has been reviled because it installs a search bar in the browser that is difficult to uninstall.
It works with several search engines at the same time. It is easy to use and has the option to search websites, images, videos and news. On the negative side, trying not to accept more cookies than necessary implies that the user must spend considerable time on this. Gives the option to hide or delete recent searches.
It is the most used search engine by those who want to safeguard the privacy of their data on the Internet. It does not store user information, so what they do remains anonymous. It uses various sources for its searches and offers fast results. It includes almost no advertising and the interface is clean. It has a Chrome extension and you can also use DuckDuckGo’s own mobile browser, with a search engine, tracker blocker and encryption.
It is the second most used search engine, used by 3% of Internet users. Shows a preview of the documents of this company and can be opened in the browser. It has common features with Google, such as currency conversion or text translation. Visually it’s nice, as the background images are beautiful HD snapshots, and it’s also convenient for video searches.
It focuses on respecting the privacy of its users. It is one of the last to be created and it is French, which means that it is governed by EU legislation (the General Data Protection Regulation) when it comes to processing user data. It stores the data of those who use it anonymously and does not personalize the user experience for advertising purposes, since it does not create a user profile of you. It offers an untracked mapping service, three levels of content filters, and its pages include current information.
Like DuckDuckGo, Startpage is one of the standard-bearers for the privacy of user data while browsing, so queries do not record any personal information. It uses Google to find the results, but then removes the tracking cookies before displaying the results. It has a plugin to add it to the most important browsers. It blocks price trackers, uses an ‘anonymous view’ proxy to mask the user’s identity while browsing, blocks third-party access to the user’s personal data, and does not create profiles based on their internet activities.
It is specialized in image search, either indicating what you want to find such as typing the URL of an image or dragging a photo to the search box and looking for other similar ones, it even indicates if the images are stock and includes a function to compare between the search and the results. TinEye is scouring the internet and adding images to its index: it currently has 52.3 billion images. Images used for search are not saved or indexed. It can be included as an extension in Firefox, Chrome, Edge and Opera.
It is a very special search engine that has indexed more than 300,000 million web pages since 1996. If you enter an exact URL or the words that allow you to reach the home page of a website in the search box, the timeline of the versions will appear that are saved in WaybackMachine; You just have to go to the year you want to consult and choose a day on the calendar from those marked in blue to travel back in time and see what the page was like at that exact moment.
It specializes in searches in the categories of math, science and technology, society and culture, and everyday life. It can be searched –only in English– in natural language or with mathematical formulas. It does not track the user’s movements.
It is one of the oldest, even before Google, although it is no longer as popular as it was 20 years ago – it maintains a loyal user base, especially in the US. It is more than a search engine as it includes email, news or weather.