Over the past few years, the private search engines have seen immense growth. And yes, it wasn’t even thinkable of competing with Google search. But we have some small players in the market which have gained attention through their rapid growth.
Last year, February 2017 Google market share was 78.7%, but in February 2018, it has seen a drastic decline and marked below 70%. There are some of the best private search engines, including StartPage and DuckDuckGo which were started as standard search engines.
But these private search engines had no privacy enhancements, and thus, after realizing about the massive risk with data storing, they took a different approach. YES! Privacy does matter, and the list which I will be providing you here can help you in staying private online.
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The Best Private Search Engines- Alternatives to Google
DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo tops the list of our best private search engines because it is one of the popular Google alternatives. All the searches on this private search engine are sourced from Yahoo. This private search engine has one of the coolest features, that is, Bangs.
The Bangs feature helps the users in searching other websites including YouTube, Wikipedia, Amazon or Yelp directly by beginning the sentence with an exclamation mark (!). Recently, they added a new extension which helps in keeping all the searches on grades and private.
StartPage
StartPage is a private search engine which is used around the globe as it gets all the search results from Google. So, if you prefer getting the Google’s search results, then it is a good choice for you.
An independent private search engine, Ixquick has developed StartPage which takes the Google search results. The features of StartPage include HTTPS support, proxy service, and URL generator.
And yes, we have a unique feature of URL generator here which remembers all the settings as well as helps in eliminating the cookies too.
BitClave
BitClave manages to be on our list of alternatives to Google as it is a decentralized private search engine which has its encryption, that is, Blockchain. This private search engine allows the users to choose the particular information which they need to share with advertisers.
It easily makes a contract between the user and advertisers by eliminating the interference of the middlemen in the advertising process. Also, it gives the users with CAT (consumer activity tokens) which helps in making all the searches relevant to the advertiser.
Search Encrypt
Search Encrypt is a private search engine which has local AES-256 encryption for securing your searches. It has got a Search Sockets Layer Encryption which helps in retrieving the search results from the network of their search partners.
After the completion of your searching, all the search items expire. So, if someone gets access to your PC, all the searches will remain private. It is a new addition to the list of the best private search engines, and it’s quickly growing.
Swisscows
Swisscows is a semantic search engine. It doesn’t use any unique identifiers or build any tracking profiles for the users. For evaluating the context of the search by the user, it uses machine learning as well as artificial intelligence.
In simple words, I would say that Swisscows is a cool search tool which provides the users with results including the best answers to the questions.
Gibiru
The services which are provided by Gibiru are same like that what Google provided early to the users. Though this private search engine doesn’t track the user’s activities, yet it provides the users with reliable information and sources.
The Giribu private search engine doesn’t track the cookies, and even the users don’t require any customize sort of personalization. And thus, this makes one of the fastest private search engines than the NSA search engines.
Oscobo
The Oscobo is one of the best alternatives to Google because it was created with a sole purpose of protecting the user’s privacy. It full encrypts the information and data by the user. Even it doesn’t use any third-party analytics or scripts, and thus, the user will be the only one who will know what he/she has searched for.
SearX
SearX is an easily customizable private search engine which truly deserves mention here. It doesn’t gather any information or data from the user. It makes the Internet more decentralized. It provides the users with the results from some sources including Wikipedia, Yahoo, etc.
It is an open source private search engine which is customizable as well. You can even host SearX on your server too. Also, you can easily tweak all the settings accordingly. Yet it is an excellent option for the Torrent lovers as they will get the magnet links for extracting the files efficiently.
According to me, the above top 8 listed alternatives to Google are the best private search engines available in the market at present. But, I have a few bonuses for you.
YES! YES! It’s a Surprise!
- Discrete Search is a private search engine which uses end-to-end encryption. It is an excellent choice for those users who always looks out for quick results.
- Quant is another private search engine which never uses the user’s date for advertising, not even records or tracks the searches. It does have a similar feature to Bangs in DuckDuckGo, which is a Qwick search shortcut.
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We have heard a lot about the NSA as well as ISPs intrusions into the privacy of the users. And while browsing the internet, there is an inherent risk when a user is sharing any information. So, this is where the private search engines come as beneficial to the users.
The private search engines don’t track any information which is linked to your searched words or items. So, when it is about protecting the data, it is better to be safe.
Skip Google! And try a Private Search Engine.