I’ve tested dozens of search engines including some of the newer ones which are powered by AI based on my tests I’ve come up with a top 10 list of these search engines that I like the best going over the pros and cons of each these won’t be in any particular order but as usual I’ll save the best overall for last let’s get started.
Google Search
Let’s get the big G out of the way first while Google search may be the most used search engine in the world with more than 80% market share depending on your needs it may not be the best choice for you on a positive note once you get past all of the sponsored results of which there could be many the results are somewhat decent one major downside are the privacy concerns and the massive amount of data collected by Google based on your web activity in addition it was revealed late last year in the ongoing US versus Google trial that Google pays Apple to be the default search engine in Safari according to the New York Times that specific number was around 18 billion in 2021 so in other words some would say Google pays to maintain its dominance.
Microsoft Bing
For a similar experience as Google when doing a search Microsoft Bing is one many people use but once again you’re dealing with a giant tech company collecting a ton of user data albeit not as much as Google Microsoft has their AI Search bot powered by chat GPT built into being at any time for example on the search page you can click on its icon to begin a conversation when doing an image search Bing is far superior to Google with better filters and search options Bing is also part of Microsoft rewards which lets you earn points when you search or shop on their search engine these points can be redeemed for gift cards and other stuff.
DuckDuckGo
Of the search engines that are known for privacy DuckDuckGo is the most well-known their privacy policy is simple it states we don’t collect or share any of your personal information the search interface is cleanly laid out without too much clutter to get the results DuckDuckGo primarily uses Microsoft Bing’s search API speaking of Microsoft I have to mention this DuckDuckGo found themselves embroiled in a controversy a couple years ago when it was discovered that they were allowing Microsoft trackers because of their search and ad partnership DuckDuckGo has since reversed that decision and now blocks trackers from Microsoft.
Perplexity AI
The first of two AI powered search engines is Perplexity AI this untraditional search engine uses a chatbot that directly answers questions based on the queries given to begin you enter your query just like you would with any other traditional search engine you’ll get the sources cited at the top that it used to formulate the answer when it’s done you’ll have the opportunity to ask a follow-up question or you could choose one of the related questions just a word of caution search engines using AI that are based on large language models like Perplexity AI will often have errors or what is termed hallucinations which may contain false or misleading information presented as facts.
Moik
Moik is a traditional search engine based in the UK that focuses on privacy they don’t use Google or Bing they use their own index with the results that can sometimes be in an unexpected order but more often than not are relevant to your query a unique feature is the ability to search by emotions which can be found here in the upper right enter your search term let’s go with monkeys then below select the icon of the emotion that you want to search for I’ll select the funny icon the results are based on deep machine learning to analyze the mood of a web page.
Quant
Quant is a French-based search engine that claims to respect the privacies of its users by not tracking them or collecting personal data as well as being unbiased in the display of results while it does have a nice looking layout in addition to using its own index it also uses APIs from Microsoft Bing YouTube iTunes and X formerly known as Twitter they also make it easy to change the look of the results page for example selecting settings in the upper right let you change the appearance the choices are light dark and automatic.
Startpage
Startpage is a search engine founded way back in 1998 the same year as Google that makes the bold claim of being the world’s most private search engine to get the results from Google search while protecting users privacy by not storing personal or search data and removing all trackers after doing a search if you click the anonymous view icon to the left of the web address it’ll open the page via a proxy server for increased anonymity because it’s using a proxy web pages will load slower than normal.
Swisscows
Swisscows based in Switzerland has various services including a VPN private email private messaging app and a privacy focused search engine for younger users this is a good kid-friendly choice because websites containing adult content are not included in these search results in addition to the tabs for the web images and video you can also search for music using the music option lets you play music for free that’s available from the SoundCloud service.
Yahoo Search
Yahoo search which was the dominant search engine prior to Google is still alive and kicking its main page with its search bar at the top is full of information including news weather Sports and all sorts of other stuff you’re not going to get any sort of privacy using Yahoo and it no longer uses its own web crawlers it now uses Bing which has improved its search results quite a bit also panels that sometimes appear to the right of the results giving additional details is still powered by its own technology.
Ecosia
Some of you may have heard about Ecosia in our useful website series 100% of their profits from ad revenue goes towards planting trees so far more than 200 million trees have been planted in more than 35 countries they partner with Bing for its search index and advertising regarding privacy it’s not one of the best but on the positive side they don’t create personal profiles on its users and anonymizes all searches within one week at the top with the other tabs there’s one here for AI chat in an earlier segment I talked about AI chat Bots sometimes being prone to errors or misleading information here’s a great example of that as you can see I did a prompt for electric cars are bad for roads the response is factually incorrect but it still starts out with in fact electric cars are generally lighter than traditional gasoline powered vehicles which can help reduce RAR and Terror on roads over time the truth is that can’t be disputed is that electric vehicles are on average 30% heavier than its gas counterparts due to its battery making them hundreds to more than a thousand pounds heavier than gas vehicles so it’s always best when using AI chat Bots to verify that the information is correct.
U.com
Speaking of AI U.com is an untraditional search engine like Perplexity AI that I mentioned earlier using an AI chatbot to directly answer questions on U.com simply entering your question then wait for it to finish when it’s done you’ll get your answer along with citations listed below you’ll see some related questions and you’ll have the opportunity to ask a follow-up question.
Brave Search
The best search engine overall is from the folks who make the Brave browser Brave search is the winner because it balances fantastic search results along with excellent privacy they don’t track you your searches or your clicks ever to be quite honest when it was first released in 2021 it wasn’t that good it has improved so much that it’s now my default search engine on all my PCs when you do a search their AI powered summarizer will produce a paragraph at the top summarizing an answer to your query with cited sources and below that will be the traditional search results the results are from its own web crawling index along with anonymous API calls to third parties at the top you’ll see the typical tabs for all images News videos and Brave search has a new feature called Goggles here you can alter the results with parameters in this example from Tech blogs Hacker News and many others if you click on discover more you can create your own goggles or select from one of the popular goggles listed.
