Google’s search engine has become a verb in the same way as ‘hoovering’ became a synonym for vacuuming and ‘Breville’ became the term for a toasted sandwich. But with the current tensions building between Google and news providers in Australia threatening the very availability of Google search in the country, folks are having to now consider what alternatives exist.
Here are a few.
DuckDuckGo
I’ve looked at DuckDuckGo before. Its big benefit over Google is that it is very privacy focussed.
Getting it to limit results to Australia is interesting – it does a poor job at that. But for the majority of searches, it works just fine. I tend to use the “site:” option a lot to find data at specific places as it works more effectively than the search tools on most web sites.
Bing
If nothing else, Microsoft’s Bing looks a lot prettier than Google and most of the others.
Although it’s not privacy focussed, you can tweak the preferences so the ads you see are better targeted and it also boasts its own mobile apps for iOS and Android. Additionally, Microsoft has openly stated they have no problem with the proposed news media bargaining code.
Search Encrypt
If privacy is what you want, then Search Encrypt is worth a look.
It takes online tracking prevention seriously by blocking online trackers and using local encryption to secure your searches. It uses AES-256 bit encryption with Secure Sockets Layer encryption so your searches and other web activities are secure as well as hiding them from other users who have access to your computer.
Wolfram Alpha
Back in the old days, search engines worked by having humans curate content rather than spidering the web and caching lots of content. Wolfram Alpha uses a combination of curation with a mathematical model that generates search results that are computational facts.
For example, if I look up “Australia”, rather than getting a list of websites about our country, I get a bunch of data about Australia; things like land mass, population and demographic information.
Start Page
While Google’s search results are often considered the best, people are concerned about being tracked by the search giant. Start Page pays Google to access its results but strips away all the trackers.
So, you get great search results without having your search history become a tool to track you and target you with ads. And, it also includes the “Anonymous View” feature. If you click on a search result you can visit the site in full privacy. The sire will never know you were there. You’ll find the feature next to every search result.
This article has been updated since its original publish date.
I alternate between Startpage and Search Encrypt. I don’t want one single company to know about everything I search for. This article (https://choosetoencrypt.com/search-engines/duckduckgos-biggest-privacy-flaw/) points out that DuckDuckGo has some privacy issues that it fails to address. While StartPage and Search Encrypt keep your searches private when you’ve finished searching, DuckDuckGo leaves your search term in your browser history and in your URL.
DuckDuckGo has poor options – the “Australia” option doesn’t work very well for example, can’t seem to search on a site-only basis, etc.
Oh I dunno, I use DDG exclusively every day and I’ve had very few issues with Australian content. Their !Bang system helps and I just ad AU or even Australia to the search to get tighter control.
DuckDuckGo also uses Amazon so not so private after all…
Anyone used Qwant? It’s pretty decent as well! European, more private version of DDG apparently…
Perhaps you could stop rehashing old stories.
If you can’t write new ones, find a new job.
I think I will start sending search requests to the ACCC and then sending them a bill for making recommendations.