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).

Defunct or acquired search engines are not listed here.

Search crawlers

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

Search engine Founder(s) Company Launched Software distribution license Pages indexed Daily direct queries Results count Advertisements
Ahmia Juha Nurmi 2014 Proprietary
AOL William von Meister 1999 Proprietary
Ask.com IAC 1996 Proprietary Un­known Un­known Yes Yes
Baidu Baidu, Inc 2000 Proprietary
Blackle 2007 Proprietary Un­known Un­known
Brave Search Brave Software, Inc. 2021 Proprietary Un­known Un­known No Yes
DuckDuckGo Duck Duck Go, Inc. 2008 Mixed
Ecosia Christian Kroll 2009 Proprietary No Yes
Exalead Exalead 2000 Proprietary Un­known Un­known Yes No
Fireball Fireball Labs GmbH 1996 Proprietary
Gigablast Independent 2000 Free >1 billion[1] Un­known Yes No
Google Search Larry Page, Sergey Brin & Scott Hassan Alphabet Inc. 1998 Proprietary hundreds of billions[2] 9.022 billion[3] Yes Yes
Kagi Search Vladimir Prelovac[4] Kagi Inc.[4] 2018[4] No[4]
Kiddle 2014 Proprietary
KidRex 2008 Proprietary
KidzSearch 2005 Proprietary
Lycos 1995 Proprietary
Microsoft Bing Microsoft 1998/2009 Proprietary Un­known Un­known Yes Yes
Million Short 2012
Mojeek Mojeek 2004 Proprietary 5 billion[5] Un­known Yes Yes[6]
Naver Naver Corp. 1999 Proprietary Un­known Un­known No Yes
Parsijoo 2010 Proprietary
Petal Huawei 2020 Proprietary Un­known Un­known Yes Yes
Qwant Qwant 2013 Proprietary 20 billion[7] 10 million[citation needed] No Yes
SAPO 1995 Proprietary
Seznam.cz 1996 Proprietary
Sogou Tencent 2010 Proprietary Un­known Un­known Yes Yes
Swisscows Swisscows 2014 Proprietary Un­known Un­known Yes Yes
WebCrawler 1994 Proprietary
Yahoo! Search Yahoo! 1995 Proprietary Un­known Yes Yes
Yandex Search Yandex 1997 Proprietary >2 billion[8] Un­known Yes Yes
Youdao 2007 Proprietary

Digital rights

See also: Comparison of webmail providers § Digital rights, PRISM, MUSCULAR, Internet privacy, and digital rights
Search engine Server's location(s) Dedicated servers Data center Cloud computing HTTPS available Tor gateway available Proxy gateway search links available
Ahmia Yes Yes
AOL Yes No
Ask.com Yes No
Baidu China Yes No Un­known
Blackle No No
Brave Search Yes Yes
DuckDuckGo[9] USA No Verizon Internet Services Amazon EC2 Yes Yes No
Ecosia Yes No
Exalead No No
Fireball Yes No
Gigablast USA Yes[10] Yes[10] No
Google Search USA Yes Google data centers Yes[11] No Un­known
Kagi Search USA Yes[4]
Kiddle Yes No
KidRex Yes No
KidzSearch Yes No
Lycos Yes No
Microsoft Bing USA / China Yes Yes No Un­known
Mojeek UK Yes Custodian Data Centres Yes No Un­known
Naver Yes No
Parsijoo Yes No
Petal France Yes No Un­known
Qwant France Yes Yes Un­known Un­known
SAPO Yes No
Seznam.cz Yes No
Sogou China Yes No Un­known
Swisscows Yes No
WebCrawler Yes No
Yahoo! Search USA Partial Yes[12] No Un­known
Yandex Search Russia Yes Yes[13] No Un­known
Youdao Yes No

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 Yes Un­known Un­known Un­known Un­known
Blackle No
Brave Search No
DuckDuckGo[9][14] No No No No [15] No[citation needed]
Ecosia No[16] No No No Un­known
Exalead No
Fireball Yes
Gigablast No No No[10] No[10] No[10]
Google Search Yes Default[17] Yes[18] Yes[18] 2013 and prior[18][19]
Kagi Search No[20] No[20] No[20]
Kiddle No
KidRex No
KidzSearch No
Lycos No
Microsoft Bing Yes Yes Yes[18] Yes[18] 2014 and prior[18][21][22]
Mojeek No No No No Un­known
Naver No
Parsijoo ?
Petal Yes Un­known Un­known Un­known Un­known
Qwant No No No No No[citation needed]
SAPO No
Seznam.cz No
Sogou Yes Un­known Un­known Un­known Un­known
Swisscows No
WebCrawler Yes
Yahoo! Search Yes Un­known Yes[18] Yes[18] 2014 and prior[18][23]
Yandex Search Yes Yes[24] Un­known Limited[25] 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. ^ a b c d 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

External links

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. ^ a b c d e "About". Kagi Search. Retrieved 11 September 2023.
  5. ^ "Mojeek Surpasses 5 Billion Pages". Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  6. ^ "Ads on Mojeek".
  7. ^ Qwant (2018-11-20). "Web indexation: where does Qwant's independence stand?". Medium. Retrieved 2019-02-13.
  8. ^ "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.
  9. ^ a b Holwerda, Thom (June 21, 2011), "DuckDuckGo: The Privacy-centric Alternative to Google", OSNews, retrieved March 30, 2012
  10. ^ a b c d e "Gigablast - The Private Search Engine". 2013. Archived from the original on 2018-10-15. Retrieved 2017-04-29.
  11. ^ "Google Makes HTTPS Encryption Default for Search". eWeek. Retrieved 2014-03-31.[permanent dead link]
  12. ^ Danny Sullivan (22 January 2014). "Yahoo Search Goes Secure". Search Engine Land. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
  13. ^ "Yandex.Direct switches to HTTPS". Yandex. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
  14. ^ "DuckDuckGo Privacy". 2012-04-11. Retrieved 2017-04-29.
  15. ^ 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.
  16. ^ "Learn more about our privacy policy and the data that we do collect". Retrieved July 18, 2019.
  17. ^ "Turn off search history personalization". Retrieved July 11, 2013.
  18. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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.
  19. ^ Gallagher, Sean (2013-11-06). "Googlers say "F*** you" to NSA, company encrypts internal network". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2017-04-29.
  20. ^ a b c "Kagi Search Privacy". Kagi Search. Retrieved 11 September 2023.
  21. ^ Danny Yadron (2013-12-05). "Microsoft Compares NSA to 'Advanced Persistent Threat' - Digits - WSJ". Blogs.wsj.com. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
  22. ^ 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.
  23. ^ 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.
  24. ^ "Компания Яндекс — Персональный поиск". Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  25. ^ "Privacy Policy – Legal Documents". Yandex.Company. 3.3.1.: LLC Yandex. 15 November 2011. Retrieved 21 April 2012.((cite web)): CS1 maint: location (link)
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