A few months ago, I went through all those above mentioned search engines and, eventually, decided that I don't need them - for various reasons. Currently, I use DDG (with Firefox) and Brave's beta with Brave. When I really need something, I use Google. Nothing could match Google at this moment, but... I always use this/that VPN; therefore, I don't care what kind of information google is gathering on me.
I use Brave but also Startpage for better results. Startpage results are closer to Google's, which I believe was @JasonUK intended meaning. The symbol " ~ " means approximately equal. And Brave's adblocker blocks Startpage ads.
As ANY properly configured ad blocker should do, Brave browser or not, as ads are served through google adsense. Startpage KB & Blog pull quotes: "The ads we show are served through Google AdSense." "You get ads based on your search query, not your personal data." The AdGuard Firefox extension cuts 'em off. Prior to AdGuard, I used Palant's Adblock Plus and EasyList. I've never seen ads on the Startpage or on results pages. Startpage makes no connection to google itself. In my location, everything Startpage does is served through Hurricane Electric Internet Services. BTW: this is what a custom Startpage URL looks like: https://us.startpage.com/do/mypage.pl?prfe=ced171180...158 characters long. I've been using one since 2009 when I had to migrate it from the one I used in ixquick.
this is helpful, if you do not keep startpage cookies where that parameter is put, the token contains your settings, will not be shown in further searches, its a hidden parameter. problem - you need to start that link with that parameter otherwise you do not have your settings used. with a new search (click image upper left) the parameter is lost! for firefox you can add custom searches browser.urlbar.update2.engineAliasRefresh <-- true and insert that string (similar for custom search extensions, context search whatever) btw startpage is still nosy, although you filter ads or not.
WOW!!! This link is a gold mine of information about several excellent search engines. Many thanks @Sampei Nihira ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AT EVERYONE -- Try a search for "computer security forum" & see if you get hits for wilders & malwaretips & bleeping forums.
Understand, what about gibiru .com thoughts and/or opinions ? https:// www. ghacks.net/2022/04/14/a-quick-look-at-the-new-search-engine-you-com/
So summary privacy and search engine - choose one or choose for who you gonna work, where your data will fly USA gov = choose google - Rest pseudo search engines for sure also go to USA but on around by sending data to other services btw. RUS gov = choose Yandex So at last if you cant protect fully data at last chose side and limit it to minimum If you will try use VPN you fail same as with those pseudo privacy search engine. Your data will move to other unknown Vendor and this service still can share your traffic to same and more other vendors which you try bypass. Final result more services will know about you than before. And VPN dont warrant you 100% hide because there is other telemetry behind scene which can unhide you... IP is not only one thing which can be used to monitor your activity.
If you want to protect your privacy and data, you must not connect your PC to the Internet. Looking at Glasswire's logs of Internet traffic, any effort to control the flow of data reminds me of trying to scoop out the ocean with a sieve. I therefore use Google as a search engine, because in my experience it offers the greatest search success.
A VPN doesn't mean that Google cannot identify you by various fingerprinting methods. Unless you implement additional counter measures. That said, I'm currently using https://searx.tiekoetter.com/ from https://searx.space/ which works very well and includes Google search results.
I decided to give Start Page a chance. I added the search engine to Thunderbird and made it the default. Short-lived experiment. I will then decide whether to change DDG to Start page in the browser + search engine to default (but I'm almost certainly staying with DDG).
slightly ot but does anybody know how to stop google search from determining your location when you're logged out?
80% websites also use google thier scripts and other, so even after swap search engine most sites still watch you for google and not only..
For those that used Brave search and weren’t satisfied with the results, did you enabled the Google fallback mixing? https://search.brave.com/help/google-fallback
Is the location correct? Are you really in California? It would probably be better to disable geolocation. I don't use Google,but in my case it indicates "Lombardia",but my region is "Toscana". Over 400 km of error.
Agreed. And if you carry a smartphone it's even worse. Most search engines are google, bing, or have trackers from one of them attached to it. I was going to say if you want privacy go live with the Amish, but most of them carry smartphones these days. If I could build a time machine and go back 100 years that might be tempting.
No, I was unaware of this, thank you for sharing this. I will have to try it sometime. Honestly though, I'll stick with DDG for the meantime. The search engine. Not the browser.
hi, sam. the problem here is not whether it's determined correctly or not but it being "based on your past activites" even when you're logged out.
For any given topic, Google won't outshine anything the given combination of Qwant and Metager offers in terms of both quantity and quality of information. Sure, it may a bit of a pita juggling two tabs vs Google. On the other hand, I'll juggle the tabs as opposed to a query engine that knows every search you've made since day__ and will be hell bent on connecting the dots in algorithms determining your birthday, religious leanings or lack thereof, place of birth, and your sexual preference for the sake of selling you off-- bit by bit--- byte for byte in the name of a few dollars or less. Yeah, let's learn how to encrypt and defend ourselves against ransomware while surrendering to one of the most offensive privacy leaches of all time because it's convenient. Thanks but...I'll pass.
