Search engines are the gateway to the Internet and a very important part of our privacy and security on the Internet. Search engines are constantly being updated every day with new websites and data, and we rely on them to find the information that we need on a daily basis. Even though Google is the most used search engine with about 3 times as much monthly traffic as Bing, new search engines are still being created.
As of 4/12/2020, these are the top 20 search engines:
- Bing
- Yahoo!
- Ask
- Baidu
- DuckDuckGo
- WolframAlpha
- Boardreader
- StartPage
- Ecosia
- Qwant
- Search Encrypt
- SearX
- Yandex
- Gibiru
- Disconnect Search
- Yippy
- Swisscows
- Lukol
- MetaGer
In this post that outlines the top 20 search engines, we all know Google so I’ll introduce you to the next 19 top search engines – many that you’ve heard of and some you probably haven’t. As an extra, I’ll also introduce you to 8 search engines that help out different causes.
Top 20 Search Engines
We all know and love Google. With over 1.1 billion users each month, they’re the king of search engines. Let’s move on to the others.
Bing
Microsoft-owned Bing is the second largest search engine after Google. It is very easy for use and has a great visual experience with stunning background photos. Bing has over 350 million users a month. Bing is well suited for video searches because it displays results as thumbnails that can be viewed with audio by hovering over them. Bing has many features, just like Google, such as translation, currency conversation, and flight tracking. What is interesting is that Bing has a reward scheme. When you buy/purchase a product through Bing, you will earn a certain number of points that you can later use to buy apps and movies.
Yahoo!
Yahoo has existed longer than Google. Although many people find them obsolete, it is the third most popular search engine in the world. On Firefox, it’s the default search engine. Yahoo has over 300 million users a month. Yahoo is much more than a simple search engine. It offers email, online shopping, news, games, and many more. Yahoo has a wealth of information and great image results on various topics.
Ask
Formerly known as “Ask Jeeves”, Ask has a customizable question and answer format for natural-language searches. It is especially suitable for users who are not very familiar with search engines. Ask has over 245 million users per month. In their search results, you will find frequently asked questions related to your search. In this way, Ask helps users to continue their search.
Baidu
Baidu is the top search engine in China, with a 70% share of the Chinese internet market. Although in Mandarin, it looks very similar to Google. However, Baidu is heavily censored, and many photos, as well as pro-democracy sites, are banned.
DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo is the perfect search engine for all those who care about privacy, and who do not want their query to be traced. The interface is very clean, with few commercials that provide a nice and streamlined user experience. DuckDuckGo has over 50 million users a month. Their search engine has an interestingly useful feature that allows you to search from another website directly through DuckDuckGo.
WolframAlpha
WolframAlpha is a private search engine that gives you the expert answers through its algorithm, has a huge knowledge base, and integrated AI technology. It’s developed to provide expert knowledge in Mathematics, Technology, Science, Society, Culture, and Everyday Life. It also has many subcategories and useful tools within these areas that will help you compute data, find expert answers and research statistics to your query. WolframAlpha also offers privacy without tracing your searches with just less than 2 million users per month.
Boardreader
Boardreader is a search engine focused on forums and message boards. It will help you in searching for forums and filtering results by language and date. It is a great search engine for anyone who’s doing content research. If you don’t have any knowledge of a particular niche, this is a great way to start your journey. Boardreader has over 10,000 users per month.
StartPage
StartPage is a bit like DuckDuckGo, with privacy as their main core. It does not track any information on your part, nor does placing ads based on your searches. On their start page, they say StartPage is “The world’s most private search engine.” During the search, you will get completely the same search results as you would get through a private Google search. StartPage has over 22 million users per month. In addition to being a search engine, it also offers a proxy service that improves your online security. All options are presented in a clean and smart interface with many themes and have Night Mode.
Ecosia
Ecosia is an interesting search engine that is focused on protecting the environment and reducing CO2 emissions. For each search performed (powered by Bing), a portion of the income is invested in tree planting. It is estimated that approximately 45 searches are necessary for planting one tree. Ecosia has over 5.5 million users per month.
Qwant
Located in France, they focus on the privacy of searches. Qwant will not use your personal information for advertising purposes, and will not track your searches. The interface is aligned for easy control, and search results are categorized into news, webs, and socials. It also has a music section to help you search for lyrics and music. Qwant is available in 13 languages and has over 50 million users a month.
Search Encrypt
Search Encrypt is another in a series of a privacy-based search engine, that uses special encryption to make the user’s data impossible for tracking. Search Encrypt gets results from its search partners, allowing you to get the results you are targeting, and that are unrelated to your search history. One really interesting feature is that the engine deletes your local browsing history after 15 minutes of inactivity. Search Encrypt has over 5 million users per month.
SearX
SearX offers objective results from several different sources. SearX provides a decentralized and free view of the Internet. Although they only have around 100,000 users per month, they offer numerous preferences and settings that you will not find in other search engines. SearX delivers fast and accurate results with support for over 20 languages.
Yandex
Yandex is the fifth search engine in the world by popularity. It is primarily used in Russia, where it originated. It provides services that closely resemble Google. With Yandex, you can search for images, websites, news, and videos. It also has many features like maps, mobile apps, translation services, cloud storage, etc. It has a clean interface and more than 42 million monthly visitors.
Gibiru
With the tagline “Unfiltered private search”, they offer you an AnonymoX Firefox add-on that will protect all your searches as they are sent via a proxy IP address. This way, no other computer can track your history. After your search, each record is deleted at the same second. Gibiru was founded in 2009 and has about 90,000 monthly users, mostly from the United States.
Disconnect Search
Disconnect Search allows you to surf through the web anonymously with the search engine of your choice. When you search through a disconnected server, a search is rerouted and anonymized by the search engine you want to use. This way, you can use your favorite search engine without the hassle of privacy. Disconnect Search has over 350 million users and offers a browser extension that allows you to block site tracking, load pages faster, and more when it comes to privacy protection.
Yippy
Yippy is also a great choice when it comes to privacy since it does not track your search or display customized adverts. Yippy offers search for sites, news, jobs, images, government data, and blogs. It does not, however, offer a huge amount of results to your query, but it filters the results using time, topics, and source categories. This search engine has over 100,000 users a month.
Swisscows
This search engine offers complete search encryption for the total protection of your privacy, security, and data. It does not save your IP address, private information, search queries, etc. It is located in Switzerland and is one of the most strict in terms of privacy policies. Swisscows is most popular among parents who want to ensure the safety of their children. Their filter for violence and pornography cannot be bypassed. It has a great algorithm for identifying information and giving you quick and precise answers to your query. It also shows other similar queries for more information. Swisscows was founded in 2014 and has over 200,000 users per month.
Lukol
Lukol is another anonymous search engine that displays results from Google but preserves your privacy by deleting all traceable elements. Without worrying about your privacy and security, you can use the power of Google to find whatever interests you. In terms of functionality, it is a very simple search engine to use. You can search for websites, news, images, videos, and more. The only downside is that there is no option for result filtration. Lukos is estimated to have around 2 million users a month.
MetaGer
MetaGer is a nonprofit organization and they offer a completely anonymous search. Metager uses up to 50 different external search engines to help you get depth and a variety of results. Additional features include route planning without tracking your location. MetaGer has about 90,000 monthly users.
8 Search Engines For Good
The next 8 search engines are focused on the environment and making the world a better place. While you’re doing your next searches, consider using one of these to make a difference.
Here’s something to think about: The internet and huge data centers consume a huge amount of energy, polluting the environment with CO2 emissions. The estimates are that Internet searches will have a 15% share of the carbon emission around 2040. It’s calculated that each search requires energy that is close to the amount consumed by a 60-watt bulb for 17 seconds.
GiveWater
GiveWater is focused on encouraging users to contribute to solving the problem of poor quality water. During the search, when you click on a paid ad, you contribute to charitable partners who work on improving the quality of water all around the world.
Ekoru
Ekoru is committed to preventing climate change by donating 60% of its income to charity partners. They use renewable energy to power their data centers in order to give a concrete example to the others. The only downside is that they are currently only available in the USA, Canada, France, Germany, Australia, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand, but are slowly becoming available in other countries.
Ecosia
Also mentioned above as one of the top search engines, Ecosia donates its profits for tree planting. Located in Germany, this company has planted over 75 million trees. This company also uses renewable energy to power its data centers and is building their own solar power system.
OceanHero
OceanHero offers you the opportunity to contribute to a cleaner Earth and her oceans. For every fifth search you do through OceanHero, they will remove one plastic bottle from the ocean. OceanHero also offers the privacy of your searches without following any trace. In this way, you can contribute to ocean cleanup, which is becoming an essential problem due to increasing pollution.
Everyclick
Founded in the UK in 2005, when you buy something through the Everyclick search engine, a percentage of the price goes to charity.
Elliot for Water
It’s similar to GiveWater we mentioned above. They aim to provide access to clean drinking water. The company donates 60% of its profits to charity. They aim to reduce the rate of death caused by polluted water.
Givero
Giving the user the ability to choose for themselves which area they want to contribute to, Givero gives 50% of its revenue to its charitable partners.
Lilo
Lilo has over 40 million searches, and has donated over $2.5 million to charity so far.
In Conclusion
Now that you are familiar with all the search engines, it is up to you to decide which one you will use. Many of the aforementioned search engines offer increased privacy and won’t track your searches. And others contribute to the common social good.
