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Content index
Please note: to jump straight to the various alternatives to Google Search without reading our introduction/explanation you can use the index above. ☝️
You are tired of the usual searches and are looking for some alternatives to Google Search? The amount of Trackers and Google's profiling ability could alarm many also because in addition to an obvious ethical and moral problem in being constantly followed and profiled there is also the problem of the so-calledcultural bubble'. In short it means knowing you so well Google will mainly propose things that, In his opinion, you are interested in, thus avoiding broadening your horizons because you will always only see the same sites and the same references.
In addition to this there is also the problem that many believe it is enough surf incognito to be invisible and "unique" but remember that It is not so. Browsing incognito is only useful for hide from yourself the chronology, Google (and your provider) will know everything you are doing and will continue your profiling.
Did you know, for example, that even porn sites contain tracers? Yes, you are also tracked in digital intimacy. Do yourself a favor and when you want to be alone with yourself use a Browsers Safe as Firefox with related extensions or alternatives like Brave Browsers.
However, it is good to remember that give up on Google et al give to a similar company all our data are lost many conveniences to which Google it has accustomed us to personalized searches and searches full of information thanks to the immense databases Google has managed to create over the years. This is also the compromise and this is why we will look for alternatives to Google Search. We no longer want to give away our data to the first person who comes by just because one thing is more convenient than the other, our privacy is a right.
If you want to learn more about what crawlers are and which search engines have one you can read this article called: A look at search engines with their own indexes. It's in English but you can translate it with DeepL or with the extension Mate Translate.
Try it yourself
If we haven't convinced you yet, let us introduce you some online games that they can help to understand, without going into boring technical explanations, what are the potential of Trackers and advertisements on the sites you visit:
- https://clickclickclick.click this site (in English) shows you how ironic and funny how many things can be learned about you while browsing a site. Try playing with it a bit!
- https://iknowwhatyoudownload.com download or have you ever downloaded Torrents? Pop over to this site, it's possible you've already been tracked!
- Privacy Chicken – Game This game from the Privacy Project explains in a simple way how privacy works. Winning at this game is really simple: just give away all your data.
Alternatives to Google Search
After the recent events that have seen us, despite ourselves, protagonists («I'll explain how Le Alternative was deindexed by Bing and – be careful – by DuckDuckGo») we decided to change this article a little. Attention: obviously it's not a spite, we try as much as possible to maintain a certain clarity and emotional detachment. However, it is inevitable to think that something has changed: it has become quite clear that some search engines function differently from what they say or let on.
For example the moment we were excluded from Bing we also disappeared from DuckDuckGo and Qwant at the same time. This means that their crawlers (the robots that go around indexing sites), if they exist, have a decidedly milder effect than boastful. Even second this important article Of Rohan Kumar the crawler effect of DuckDuckGo it is only valid for quick answers and also according to him the duck is not very transparent 1. The same goes for Qwant 2.
For this reason it seemed necessary to modify the article to better contextualize the role of some search engines. It is neither to scare you nor to tell you not to use certain search engines but to better explain how they work and therefore to decide in total autonomy which one you think is closest to your needs.
Brief summary of alternatives to Google Search
Given the vastness and complexity of the topic, we have meanwhile decided to create a mini-summary to better understand which Search engine use and to try to better direct you to the one best suited to you.
DuckDuckGo ➡️ seems to mainly use Bing results, its "unique" results are mainly related to quick replies.
Ecosia ➡️ uses Bing results but uses most of their earnings to plant trees. Their privacy policy is not totally focused on privacy (they keep search logs and IPs anonymized for a week).
Search for Planet ➡️ use a from time to time and casually Search engine ethical. However, all search engines use Bing results.
Presearch ➡️ it's one of the most interesting projects. They are creating their own index thanks to their decentralized node system.
Swisscows ➡️ they also depend on Bing, its results are censored specifically for a non-adult audience so it may be interesting for children to use it.
Lilo ➡️ use Bing and dedicate part of the proceeds to ethical actions or social projects (Lilo)
Startpage ➡️ uses Google results (but not only) but without tracking or profiling you. It is in fact focused on privacy.
Brave Search ➡️ Search engine developed by Brave. They are developing their own index and only some of the results depend on other search engines.
The search engines listed are not in order of our preference.
DuckDuckGo
servers in the United States
the results seem too dependent on Bing
It is undoubtedly the most famous duck on the web and is one of the alternatives to Google Search. DuckDuckGo was born from the idea of Gabriel Weinberg in September 2008. He has come a long way and in 2019 he beat all his previous records. This is definitely a good sign for digital privacy.
According to their FAQ 3 the research of DuckDuckGo they are the result of a combination of various sources including Wikipedia, Yahoo!, Bing And Yandex as well as one's own crawlers. However, as we have seen, in reality its results seem to depend mainly on Bing and only little else is independent.
DuckDuckGo it does not track or store none of the research done. There is no profiling, no IP is recorded and there are no ad hoc results. Not exist tracers hey Cookies they are saved only if you want to keep some default settings.
No censorship?
One of the most frequent statements about DuckDuckGo is that unlike Google Search, there is no censorship of any kind, which is why you can also find torrent and so on. Over the years, however, this thing has suffered some backlash and the dependence on other search engines is probably starting to make itself felt 4.
Additionally, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg explained in a tweet 5 that the score for sites that promote Russian propaganda will be automatically lowered. Although the initiative is still noble, this clashes a bit with what Weinberg himself has always declared, namely how dangerous and harmful the filter bubbles and the echo-chamber (echo chambers) even during searches 6. The choice was also criticized for the way it was arrived at: with a tweet. Without official explanations of how the algorithm would work, if there is a list of sites considered reliable and if this list is somehow viewable or otherwise. The sum of these factors has left many people dumbfounded and no longer able to fully trust DuckDuckGo.
Beyond all this, DuckDuckGo collects annually donations in favor of privacy projects such as Tor Project and many others. DuckDuckGo allows the use of !bangs. Explained in short, you can use some shortcuts, called bang, to search on other sites. For example !g hi he will search for the word HI directly on Google.
ANDROID both on the Play Store that above all on F-Droid you can find the Browsers Of DuckDuckGo (as you can imagine focused on privacy). Alternatively you can use your own Browsers favorite (here are our recommendations) and set as Search engine default DuckDuckGo.
APPLE STORE also on theApp Store you can find the Browsers Of DuckDuckGo or, alternatively, set it as Search engine default to yours Browsers favorite.
AGAINST
DuckDuckGo has servers only in the USA and with the Patriot Act we have already had the opportunity to discover that theNSA he can do almost whatever he wants. All that remains is to trust because these are just speculations without any basis or revelations behind them.
Brave Search
servers in the United States
uses its own independent index except for the images section
The Browsers Brave is determined to wage war on the Google monopoly. After trying to destroy the advertising market 7 now he thought of create your own Search engine. It exited the beta phase in June 2022 8.
Brave Search it doesn't want to be the same Search engine which is based on the others, they have in fact created their own index for the entire web part 9. They therefore seem really determined to revolutionize the market.
As far as the "images" and "video" parts are concerned, they currently use Bing 10 but, according to its CEO, it is only a matter of time before indexing of images and videos arrives soon so as not to depend on anyone anymore 9. To date (July 2022) nothing has yet been announced in this regard.
After leaving the beta they introduced a very interesting new service, in the beta phase, called Goggles, an innovative method (e Open source 11) to create custom search lists.
A part dedicated to using maps is also coming soon OpenStreetMap 12.
AGAINST
Its monetization model is, essentially, charging for searches. Nothing against it but it is certainly a risky choice. For 3$ per month you can sign up for their Premium version where you will no longer see the advertising banners otherwise present during searches. Advertising banners which, we would like to say, do not profile you but are anonymous and aimed only at your search.
Presearch
community-run decentralized servers
Open source (not yet entirely)
possibility of earning PRE cryptocurrency
they are creating their own independent index
Not long ago 13 this new one exists Search engine very interesting. Presearch And Open source 14 and its business model is the cryptocurrency created by them, called PRE.
It's a Search engine decentralized, means that they don't run their own server but they allow anyone to spin a knot. Unlike Searx 15 (which we talk about below) the software to manage a node it is not Open source 16.
Even users who use the Search engine can receive cryptocurrency (PRE) for their searches (it is not mandatory, you can very well use it ignoring the whole cryptomoment part). Presearch It doesn't have its own index but is creating its own thanks to the use of people. The index will be independent and decentralized on all servers around the world. It currently uses that of the other engines, plus allows you to completely customize the homepage creating quick bookmarks to search on multiple search engines in a very simple way.
We've been using it for a while and the searches often seem relevant.
AGAINST
Mainly the fact of not being completely Open source. For those interested in cryptocurrency, there is also the minimum to be reached in order to receive it it's too high and this does not give much confidence, risking sending the message that it is impossible to receive the accumulated proceeds.
Lately, according to many, it has been placing advertisements that are decidedly too cumbersome. Many of the results are often from partners and for several periods it also activated very invasive full-screen advertising on Chess.com, NordVPN and others.
Swisscows
the results depend on Bing
Swisscows it's a Search engine which was born in 2014 Swiss and its server is located in a bunker in Swiss Alps. It is precisely for these reasons one of the most promising search engines, at least on paper, as regards privacy and data tracking as the Swiss is out of jurisdiction EU and USA and has some important and serious laws on privacy protection.
Great alternative to Google Search for family
It totally is family-friendly therefore the censorship she reigns supreme. It could be useful if you have children or if you yourself want to be free from content violent and explicit. Unlike other search engines, and here we mention Wikipedia, Swisscows “it is based on the interpretation and recognition of the semantic data of the search string”. During the search you will see a series of 'tags' related to your search which the developers believe should help you refine it.
ANDROID there is an app on the Play Store. Unlike almost all other search engines, it is not possible to add it among the engines to be used as default on Browsers based on Chromium (example Brave). We asked for explanations and were told: “On Smarthone under Chrome app you can't set Swisscows as search engine. You can directly type swisscows.com in the Browsers or set it as the web home page.“
APPLE STORE there is aiOS app on the App Store.
AGAINST
There are no obvious contradictions in this Search engineUnfortunately, however, research is still a bit immature and doesn't always seem to work very well. As we have already said then Swisscows performs a heavy censorship results with which not everyone can agree.
Kagi
It is an interesting novelty on the search engine market with the results that arise from Google, Bing, Wikipedia, DeepL as well as their crawlers and an AI system for quick responses. Its main characteristic is being a Search engine paid with very good results, we tried it for a while in the free version and the quality of the results was really high. However, the cost is not entirely indifferent: 5$ per month for 300 searches or 10$ per month for infinite searches.
•Startpage
server in Holland
the results depend on Google and Bing
This Search engine is often nominated by those most interested in their own online privacy, as the Search engine par excellence, better even than DuckDuckGo. Without going into too much technical detail, thanks to this Search engine you can search on Google and Bing without being profiled by them. From their website we can read that: “You can't beat Google when it comes to online search. So we're paying them to use their brilliant search results in order to remove all trackers and logs“.
Google searches without Google
The research on Startpage therefore they are certainly at least as valid as those of Google. And they promise, how DuckDuckGo, zero tracking, zero Cookies And no profiling. Furthermore, for some time now they have not depended exclusively on Google but have also added Bing among their results 17.
ANDROID There doesn't seem to be an application for Android, you can set any Browsers with the default search for Startpage.
APPLE STORE You can always set Startpage as Search engine default to yours Browsers favorite.
AGAINST
Recently Startpage And involved in Privacy One Group, a branch focused on the privacy of a marketing company and this might make many people turn up their noses.
Other search engines
- Mojeek it is interesting because unlike all the others who for better or worse use i crawlers Of Google or Bing uses exclusively its own independent index. Unfortunately, searches don't always go well, especially in the Italian language.
- YaCy, Search engine P2P therefore without central server but totally decentralized.
Alternative search engines with ethical and/or environmental purposes 🌳
These search engines they are not focused on privacy if not in a very mild way. However, everyone uses the money earned for ethical and/or environmental purposes and therefore you may be interested in using it for this reason.
Ecosia
green servers
the proceeds are used for reforestation policies
the results are dependent on Bing
Ecosia it's a Search engine German which has existed since 2009 but has only recently had a boom, also thanks to the cultural and environmental change that the new generation is experiencing thanks also to the figure of Greta Thunberg. Ecosia it's not the Search engine perfect for privacy but it is certainly the best compromise for those who love the environment as the80% of its revenues are intended for WWF in projects for the protection of the tropical forest. To date, over 100 million trees have already been planted.
On Ecosia without uBlock!
If you decide to use Ecosia as Search engine default, remember to disable your ad blockers (like uBlock) and perhaps try to favor sponsored content (sometimes very little is enough, instead of going to amazon.it simply search Amazon and click on the sponsored link and purchase through that, for example).
Last thing, if you really can't find anything on Ecosia you can use at the end of your search #g to search directly on Google without making any further efforts and unnecessary clicks! In short, if you are looking for... alternatives to Google Search This Search engine It's really right for you.
ANDROID you can find the Browsers Of Ecosia on the Play Store does not exist on F-Droid. It's a Chromium little personalized with very few options for privacy. It's definitely better to use your own Browsers favorite (here are our recommendations) and import as Search engine default Ecosia.
APPLE STORE also on theApp Store exists Ecosia, we haven't tested it yet so we can't tell you if and how much it is recommended. You can always import it as Search engine on yours Browsers favorite.
AGAINST
While not selling data to third parties and not using tracking to advertisers Ecosia stores the searches made but makes them anonymous within a week. The Search engine Of Ecosia And Bing Of Microsoft to which some data is shared.
Search for Planet
Open source
Search for Planet it's a project Open source 18 (of which we have already talked about) which allows you to search, automatically and totally randomly, on various solidarity search engines. Enter your search, this will be immediately done on one of the many solidarity engines such as Ecosia, Lilo, Givero And giveWater.
This way you will no longer have to worry about choosing one ethical campaign over another, you will help them all without distinction!
Lilo
server in France
the results depend on Bing
This Search engine was born in France in 2015. Lilo promises to be a Search engine private using in turn the searches of Microsoft Bing. Lilo claims to act as a barrier between you and the results you receive and does not track any of your data. The interesting thing about this Search engine it is the possibility of financing with its use social projects and environmental. Unlike Qwant, where the projects are mostly French, on Lilo they are there many Italian projects. If you decide to use it, remember to disable ad blockerotherwise there is very little point in its use. Lilo promises to reserve the 50% of its earnings to social and environmental projects. Lilo.org
• • •PriEco
Open source
some results may also depend on other search engines but they are creating their own independent index
A new Search engine very interesting. First of all it is Open source 19, also focuses on ecology and privacy. The best of the results are shown Bing, Google, Brave Search And Mojeek but at the same time they are also developing their own search index and this is the thing that convinces us and interests us more than others 20. It tries to maintain itself through private and contextual advertising within searches
Last gem: they also have their own .onion address!
• •Alternatives to Google Search: metasearch engines
In addition to search engines classics self-hostable metasearch engines also exist. In essence, these search engines allow you to search (more or less anonymously, based on each one's settings) on different engines, also allowing you to select the various sources from which to draw.
They are an interesting method and often work very well, we point out the best known and most famous ones. Consider that all those listed are free projects and everyone can create their own server. We will try to link you, when possible, to the list of all the servers available for that type of project.
- 4get, very fast and completely anonymous. It allows you to search among many different sites and is constantly updated. The main server is This While this is the list of all other available servers.
- LibreY, an alternative that also allows you to search by torrent and on Tor. The results come mainly from Google and QWant and in the settings you can add results alternative frontends for some services. One of the most interesting features of LibreY it is the total absence of data saved on the server: there are no logs, caches or anything else. Exist different instances of LibreX we recommend you try the one managed by Devol at the address: librex.devol.it
- LibreX, is the project from which it derives LibreY. It is now dead and abandoned (which is why it was later created LibreY)
- SearXNG, Search engine with many settings. You can decide which search engines to use, whether to activate safe search and much more. Find it on searx.space a list of all available servers. We add, on advice arrived in our group Telegram 21, me too'Instance searx.neocities.org to search for random instances of Searx And searx.neocities.org/nojs.html to search on different instances with ease.
- SearX, an abandoned project from which it was later born SearXNG.
- Araa, another fairly recent project that allows good personalization of searches. It is perhaps the least known and in fact there are only two servers for now: the official one And another. Here is a complete list in case it is updated.
- Whoogle, a metasearch engine that allows you to search anonymously only on Google. Found here a list of servers hosting it. Unfortunately, many do not work and are very often limited by Google.
- metaGer, a Search engine of the German non-profit company SUMA-EV. However, this too, as you can imagine from the name, uses the results of other search engines.
- I don't think DuckDuckGo is transparent enough about the fact that their organic results are proxied – Archive link[↩]
- Qwant claims to also use its own crawler for results, but it's still mostly Bing in my experience – Archive link[↩]
- DuckDuckGo Sources[↩]
- What the CEO of DuckDuckGo said about the criticism of his Search engine[↩]
- Weinberg tweet, Nitter link[↩]
- Why you should change your default search engine[↩]
- Brave – Ads[↩]
- Brave Search passes 2.5 billion queries in its first year, and debuts Goggles feature that allows users to choose their own search rankings[↩]
- Tweet by Brendan Eich on Brave Search[↩][↩]
- Brave Search will fetch results from Microsoft Bing[↩]
- source code Goggles[↩]
- Tweet by Brendan Eich on OpenStreetMap[↩]
- Presearch – BitcoinWiki[↩]
- Presearch – source code[↩]
- Searx – Wikipedia[↩]
- Presearch – Run a Node[↩]
- Enhanced search results on Startpage[↩]
- source code by Search for Planet[↩]
- source code PriEco[↩]
- PriEco gets results from all of the independent search engines: Google, Brave and Bing.
We developed our own index so also privately using those search engines. You are also using our index and helping search engine concurrency to grow[↩] - Report on our Telegram group[↩]
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