Google is by far the world’s most dominant search engine, holding over 92.71% of the search engine market share. Just because it’s dominant, however, doesn’t mean that it’s the only one.
With people becoming increasingly concerned about their online privacy, and Google collecting increasingly more personal information, numerous Google alternatives have sprouted up.
Some of the alternatives aim to offer better privacy policies to their users, while others attempt to become more eco-friendly. Whatever the reasons for finding alternative search engines may be, users can easily find the one that suits them best.
Bing
Bing is the second most popular search engine, with 2.45% of the global search engine market share. It’s the best Google alternative with the highest number of users.
Yahoo! provides the results, and users can access features such as translator, converter, spell checker, and the like. An app is available for both Android and iOS devices, and one of its strongest assets is the focus on the visual appeal.
DuckDuckGo
Users who are more concerned about their online privacy will enjoy DuckDuckGo the most. It’s one of the fastest-growing search engines precisely because of its focus on privacy.
The search engine doesn’t store any of the user’s searches and doesn’t collect any of the user’s personally identifiable information.
It’s open-sourced, and the search results are collected from dozens of different sources, including Bing, among others.
StartPage
For better search engine results and more privacy, many users turn to StartPage. The search engine’s strongest asset is the fact that it shows the users Google’s results but prevents Google from tracking the users.
Besides preventing Google from collecting user information, StartPage itself doesn’t store it. All users can also access “Annonymous View,” which will keep them protected when they click on a search result.
Givero
With a unique take on search engines, Givero promises privacy while supporting charitable organizations of the user’s choice. The search engine generates revenue through ads, and a percentage of it is sent to a charity that the user specifies.
Bing provides the search results, and while Givero does an excellent job of protecting users’ privacy, more could be done. Bing still has access to the users’ IP addresses.
While certainly not the best, Givero is a good choice for anyone looking for a Google alternative with a good cause.
Ecosia
Speaking of good causes, Ecosia is a search engine that helps protect the environment. It has a relatively small user base, but a portion of its profits go to reforestation. So far, the company states that it’s helped plant over 84 million trees.
Its biggest drawback is the privacy policy. While offering more privacy to the users than Google, it still collects IP addresses, users’ locations, browser agents, and more.
Bing provides the search results, and although they are collected and stored, they’re anonymized after seven days.
Google is unique in its ability to provide exact and relevant search results and offer a personalized experience to every user. However, this comes at the cost of user privacy.
The search engines mentioned above offer more privacy, but the search results leave something to be desired. All of them are good alternatives, but the choice is up to the end-user and will depend on their own preferences.
