Recommended Search Engines
Your search history is a diary of what you are thinking about. Google and Bing keep it, tie each query to you, and sell the attention that builds. A private search engine does not log or profile you. The results are not bent around a model of who you are. Privacy and where the results come from are two different questions. Most private engines pull from Google or Bing behind a privacy shield, while a few run their own index.
How to choose a search engine
The big question is who builds the index. A handful of private engines crawl the web themselves, which keeps them independent of Big Tech but means a smaller index. Most others are metasearch, pulling Google or Bing results through a privacy shield. You get familiar results without the tracking. Neither is wrong. It depends on whether you want independence or coverage.
Here are some things to look for.
- No profiling. It should not tie your searches to you or build a profile.
- Clear about where results come from. Whether it runs its own index or pulls from Google or Bing.
- No filter bubble. Everyone sees the same results, not a feed shaped by a profile of you.
- No tracking by IP or cookies. No identifiers stored to follow you between searches.
- Funding that is not surveillance ads. Paid by subscriptions, unprofiled ads, or donations.
- Open source or self-hostable. So the privacy claims can be checked or run yourself.
Brave Search
Private search on its own independent index, not Google or Bing.
SearXNG
Open-source metasearch you host yourself, aggregating dozens of engines.
