Comparison of search engines

Last updated

Web search engines are listed in tables below for comparison purposes. The first table lists the company behind the engine, volume and ad support and identifies the nature of the software being used as free software or proprietary software. The second and third table lists internet privacy aspects along with other technical parameters, such as whether the engine provides personalization (alternatively viewed as a filter bubble).

Contents

Defunct or acquired search engines are not listed here.

Search crawlers

Current search engines with independent crawlers, as of December 2018.

Search engineFounder(s)CompanyLaunchedSoftware distribution licensePages indexedDaily direct queriesResults countAdvertisements
Ahmia Juha Nurmi2014 Proprietary
AOL William von Meister 1999 Proprietary
Ask.com IAC 1996 Proprietary Un­knownUn­knownYesYes
Baidu Baidu, Inc 2000 Proprietary
Brave Search Brendan Eich and Brian BondyBrave Software, Inc.2021 Proprietary Un­knownUn­knownNoYes
DuckDuckGo Gabriel WeinbergDuck Duck Go, Inc.2008Mixed
Ecosia Christian Kroll2009 Proprietary NoYes
Exalead Exalead 2000 Proprietary Un­knownUn­knownYesNo
Fireball Fireball Labs GmbH1996 Proprietary
Gigablast Independent2000Free>1 billion [1] Un­knownYesYes
Google Search Larry Page, Sergey Brin & Scott Hassan Alphabet Inc. 1998 Proprietary hundreds of billions [2] 9.022 billion [3] YesYes
Kiddle 2014 Proprietary
KidRex 2008 Proprietary
KidzSearch 2005 Proprietary
Lycos 1995 Proprietary
Microsoft Bing Microsoft 1998/2009 Proprietary Un­knownUn­knownYesYes
Million Short 2012
Mojeek Mojeek 2004 Proprietary 5 billion [4] Un­knownYesYes [5]
Naver Naver Corp.1999 Proprietary Un­knownUn­knownNoYes
Parsijoo 2010 Proprietary
Petal Huawei 2020 Proprietary Un­knownUn­knownYesYes
Qwant Qwant 2013 Proprietary 20 billion [6] 10 million[ citation needed ]NoYes
Seznam.cz 1996 Proprietary
Sogou Tencent 2010 Proprietary Un­knownUn­knownYesYes
Swisscows Andreas WiebeSwisscows2014 Proprietary Un­knownUn­knownYesYes
WebCrawler 1994 Proprietary
Yahoo! Search Yahoo! 1995 Proprietary Un­knownYesYes
Yandex Search Yandex 1997 Proprietary >2 billion [7] Un­knownYesYes
Youdao 2007 Proprietary

    Digital rights

    Search engineServer's location(s)Dedicated serversData centerCloud computing HTTPS available Tor gateway available Proxy gateway search links available
    Ahmia YesYes
    AOL YesNo
    Ask.com YesNo
    Baidu ChinaYesNoUn­known
    Blackle NoNo
    Brave Search YesYes
    DuckDuckGo [8] USANoVerizon Internet Services Amazon EC2 YesYesNo
    Ecosia USANoYesNo
    Exalead NoNo
    Fireball YesNo
    Gigablast USAYes [9] Yes [9] No
    Google Search USAYesGoogle data centersYesNoUn­known
    Kiddle YesNo
    KidRex YesNo
    KidzSearch YesNo
    Lycos YesNo
    Microsoft Bing USA / ChinaYesYesNoUn­known
    Mojeek UKYesCustodian Data CentresYesNoUn­known
    Naver YesNo
    Parsijoo YesNo
    Petal FranceYesNoUn­known
    Qwant FranceYesYesUn­knownUn­known
    Seznam.cz YesNo
    Sogou ChinaYesNoUn­known
    Swisscows YesNo
    WebCrawler YesNo
    Yahoo! Search USAPartialYes [10] NoUn­known
    Yandex Search RussiaYesYes [11] NoUn­known
    Youdao YesNo

      Tracking and surveillance

      Search engine HTTP tracking cookies Personalized results [a] [b] IP address tracking [c] [b] Information sharing [b] [ clarification needed ]Warrantless wiretapping of unencrypted backend traffic [b]
      Ahmia No
      AOL Yes
      Ask.com Yes
      Baidu YesUn­knownUn­knownUn­knownUn­known
      Blackle No
      Brave Search No
      DuckDuckGo [8] [12] NoNoNoNo [13] No[ citation needed ]
      Ecosia No [14] NoNoNoUn­known
      Exalead No
      Fireball Yes
      Gigablast NoNoNo [9] No [9] No [9]
      Google Search YesDefault [15] Yes [16] Yes [16] 2013 and prior [16] [17]
      Kiddle No
      KidRex No
      KidzSearch No
      Lycos No
      Microsoft Bing YesYesYes [16] Yes [16] 2014 and prior [16] [18] [19]
      Mojeek NoNoNoNoUn­known
      Naver No
      Parsijoo ?
      Petal YesUn­knownUn­knownUn­knownUn­known
      Qwant NoNoNoNoNo[ citation needed ]
      Seznam.cz No
      Sogou YesUn­knownUn­knownUn­knownUn­known
      Swisscows No
      WebCrawler Yes
      Yahoo! Search YesUn­knownYes [16] Yes [16] 2014 and prior [16] [20]
      Yandex Search YesYes [21] Un­knownLimited [22] Un­known
      Youdao Yes
      1. The results of the search are arranged for the user in accordance to their interests as determined from previous search queries or other information available to the search engine.
      2. 1 2 3 4 Cannot be verified independently, as the information is handled by servers not accessible by the public.
      3. Tracking the user has to be conducted in order to provide personalized search results.

      See also

      Related Research Articles

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      <span class="mw-page-title-main">MUSCULAR</span> Joint UK and USA surveillance program

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      <span class="mw-page-title-main">Yandex</span> Russian multinational technology company

      Yandex LLC is a Russian technology company that provides Internet-related products and services including a web browser, search engine, cloud computing, web mapping, online food ordering, streaming media, online shopping, and a ridesharing company.

      <span class="mw-page-title-main">Search engine</span> Software system for finding relevant information on the Web

      A search engine is a software system that provides hyperlinks to web pages and other relevant information on the Web in response to a user's query. The user inputs a query within a web browser or a mobile app, and the search results are often a list of hyperlinks, accompanied by textual summaries and images. Users also have the option of limiting the search to a specific type of results, such as images, videos, or news.

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      <span class="mw-page-title-main">Info.com</span>

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      <span class="mw-page-title-main">DuckDuckGo</span> American software company and Web search engine

      DuckDuckGo is an American software company company founded by Gabriel Weinberg in 2008. It's an independent internet company focused on online privacy. The flagship product is a search engine that has been praised by privacy advocates. Subsequent products include browser extensions and a custom DuckDuckGo web browser.

      <span class="mw-page-title-main">Evercookie</span> JavaScript application programming interface

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      <span class="mw-page-title-main">Yandex Browser</span> Web browser developed by Russian company Yandex

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      <span class="mw-page-title-main">Gigablast</span> Free and open-source web search engine

      Gigablast was an American free and open-source web search engine and directory. Founded in 2000, it was an independent engine and web crawler, developed and maintained by Matt Wells, a former Infoseek employee and New Mexico Tech graduate. During early April 2023, the website went offline without warning and without any official statement. A "Gigablast.org" later appeared, with the same branding.

      <span class="mw-page-title-main">Qwant</span> Search engine based in France

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      <span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of web search engines</span>

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      <span class="mw-page-title-main">Mojeek</span> Search engine

      Mojeek is a UK-based search engine known for its focus on privacy and independence from other major search indexes. Established with a commitment to user privacy, Mojeek operates its own crawler-based index, setting it apart from search engines that rely on third-party search results, such as those from Google or Bing. Unlike many mainstream search engines, Mojeek does not track, profile, or personalize search results, ensuring an unbiased and transparent search experience for its users. Founded by Marc Smith, Mojeek has grown steadily as an alternative for those seeking privacy-respecting search options. With its technology focused on privacy and transparency, Mojeek appeals to users who value data security and freedom from targeted advertising.

      Search engine privacy is a subset of internet privacy that deals with user data being collected by search engines. Both types of privacy fall under the umbrella of information privacy. Privacy concerns regarding search engines can take many forms, such as the ability for search engines to log individual search queries, browsing history, IP addresses, and cookies of users, and conducting user profiling in general. The collection of personally identifiable information (PII) of users by search engines is referred to as tracking.

      <span class="mw-page-title-main">Swisscows</span> Web search engine operated by Hulbee AG

      Swisscows is a web search engine launched in 2014, a project of Hulbee AG, a company based in Egnach, Switzerland. It uses semantic data recognition that gives faster answers to queries and claims to not store users' data. Swisscows also deems itself family-friendly, with explicit results entirely omitted. The engine's servers are based in underground data centers under the Swiss Alps, and geographically outside of EU and US.

      <span class="mw-page-title-main">Brave Search</span> Search engine

      Brave Search is a search engine developed by Brave Software, Inc., and is the default search engine for the Brave web browser in certain countries.

      References

      1. "about". gigablast.com. Archived from the original on 2018-10-01. Retrieved 2018-02-12.
      2. "How search works, organizing information". Google. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
      3. "Google Annual Search Statistics". 23 April 2017. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
      4. "Mojeek Surpasses 5 Billion Pages" . Retrieved 6 June 2022.
      5. "Ads on Mojeek".
      6. Qwant (2018-11-20). "Web indexation: where does Qwant's independence stand?". Medium. Retrieved 2019-02-13.
      7. "SEC Filing 2011" (PDF). Form 20-F. Our search index includes billions of webpages..: Yandex N.V. 31 December 2011. p. 45. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 June 2012. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
      8. 1 2 Holwerda, Thom (June 21, 2011), "DuckDuckGo: The Privacy-centric Alternative to Google", OSNews , retrieved March 30, 2012
      9. 1 2 3 4 5 "Gigablast - The Private Search Engine". 2013. Archived from the original on 2018-10-15. Retrieved 2017-04-29.
      10. Danny Sullivan (22 January 2014). "Yahoo Search Goes Secure". Search Engine Land . Retrieved 31 March 2014.
      11. "Yandex.Direct switches to HTTPS". Yandex. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
      12. "DuckDuckGo Privacy". 2012-04-11. Retrieved 2017-04-29.
      13. Weinberg, Gabriel (2010-08-10). "DuckDuckGo now operates a Tor exit enclave". gabrielweinberg.com. Archived from the original on 2014-07-26. Retrieved 2014-07-01.
      14. "Learn more about our privacy policy and the data that we do collect" . Retrieved July 18, 2019.
      15. "Turn off search history personalization" . Retrieved July 11, 2013.
      16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Johnson, Kevin; Martin, Scott; O'Donnell, Jayne; Winter, Michael (June 15, 2013). "Reports: NSA Siphons Data from 9 Major Net Firms". USA Today . Retrieved June 6, 2013.
      17. Gallagher, Sean (2013-11-06). "Googlers say "F*** you" to NSA, company encrypts internal network". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2017-04-29.
      18. Danny Yadron (2013-12-05). "Microsoft Compares NSA to 'Advanced Persistent Threat' - Digits - WSJ". Blogs.wsj.com. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
      19. Tom Warren (2013-12-05). "Microsoft labels US government a 'persistent threat' in plan to cut off NSA spying". The Verge. Retrieved 2017-04-29.
      20. Brandom, Russell (2013-11-18). "Yahoo plans to encrypt all internal data by early 2014 to keep the NSA out". The Verge. Retrieved 2017-04-29.
      21. "Компания Яндекс — Персональный поиск" . Retrieved May 22, 2013.
      22. "Privacy Policy – Legal Documents". Yandex.Company. 3.3.1.: LLC Yandex. 15 November 2011. Retrieved 21 April 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link)