I’ve recently read several articles on Google’s current lackluster search results, most recently Cory Doctorow’s take on the issue: Too Big to Care. Doctorow suggests switching to a subscription-based platform called Kagi. As I don’t relish another subscription-based anything, this prompted me to explore what free alternatives exist beyond Google.

Not all internet search engines are created equal:

That search bar beckoning from your internet browser window is either a “search engine” or a “metasearch engine.” The search engine crawls the web and indexes websites for relevance. Google, Bing, Yandex, & Yep are search engines. Metasearch engines pull information from one or more web crawlers and organize the results differently. Many metasearch engines tout their product as a more anonymous way to search the internet.

Alternative Search Engines:

I tested several alternatives to Google, and found not all were truly free – or free from Google, some were owned by entities that made me go hmmm, and some search engines performed noticeably better than others. In an attempt to get a measurable or comparable result, I utilized the same search terms on all platforms during my test. Below, I’ll discuss the options that stood out and merit further exploration.

Brave Search:

  • Ownership: San Francisco-based Brave Software.
  • Key Features: Utilizes its own web index, offers anonymous searching.
  • Interface: Search results can be narrowed to news, images, videos, and something called “Goggles” that lets you customize rankings. There is also an AI search option which provides a list of links to the websites used to generate the answer.
  • Performance: Image searches were semi-relevant; news tends to be ranked by popularity and slightly dated.
  • Overall Impression: I thought the overall performance was good and the innovative features like Goggles and the AI was fun to play with.
The image is a screenshot of the Brave web browser's search engine page. The page displays the Brave logo at the top, with a stylized lion's head in orange against a white background. Below the logo is a search bar inviting users to "Search the web privately...". Underneath, there's a tagline, "Enjoying private search? Try the browser that puts you first." There is a prominent button labeled "Get Brave browser" that suggests the user can download the browser. The overall design is minimalistic, with a focus on privacy and a simple color scheme dominated by white and hints of orange from the Brave logo.

Dogpile:

  • Ownership: This blast from the past is owned by California internet advertising company, System1.
  • Key Features: Aggregates search results from Google, Yahoo!, Yandex, and others.
  • Interface: Allows targeting of search results to ‘web’, images, videos, or news.
  • Performance: Image results more relevant than some of the others I tried; I had to make adjustments to filter out Pinterest results. News is ranked with today’s items at the top.
  • Overall Impression: Effective for current news and decent image searches, though customization may be necessary.
The image is a screenshot of the Dogpile search engine's homepage. At the top center, the Dogpile logo is displayed, featuring a whimsical blue and green wordmark with a dog's paw print substituting for the 'o' in 'dogpile'. Below the logo, there are tabs for different search types: web, images, videos, and news. Next to the tabs is a blue search button with "Go Fetch!" written on it. In the center, there is a search bar, and below that, a section titled "Favorite Fetches" lists popular search terms like 'iPhone 15 pro max' and 'worldle', among others. To the left, icons for Amazon, Walmart, Lowe's, and Coupons are displayed, presumably for quick access to these sites. At the bottom right, there's an illustration of a happy cartoon dog with a multicolored ball in its mouth, sitting next to a doghouse. The background depicts a clear sky above a green horizon.

DuckDuckGo:

  • Ownership: Owned by American software company DuckDuckGo.
  • Key Features: Does not track search history, filters out low-quality content, includes an AI chat feature.
  • Interface: Search can be targeted to ‘all’, images, videos, news, maps, and shopping.
  • Performance: Good image results; requires adjustments to avoid Pinterest and YouTube. News results ranked with the most current items at the top.
  • Overall Impression: Strong privacy-focused alternative, providing clean and relevant results.
The image shows the search bar of the DuckDuckGo search engine. On the left, there's the DuckDuckGo logo featuring a stylized duck head in orange and green. Next to it is the text "DuckDuckGo" in a simple sans-serif font. The search bar itself has rounded corners with a magnifying glass icon on the right end, indicating the search function. Inside the bar, placeholder text reads "Search without being tracked," suggesting the search engine's privacy-focused feature. The overall design is clean and minimalistic, with a white background that emphasizes privacy and simplicity.

Perplexity.ai

  • Ownership: Owned by a privately held American tech startup based in San Francisco.
  • Key Features: Combines ChatGPT-like context with traditional search capabilities; offers both free and subscriber-based versions.
  • Interface: Resembles a chat interface, search results include images and a summary that contains links to the webpages used to compile the information.
  • Performance: News results were relevant but links often redirected to the main page of the news source rather than to the specific story.
  • Overall Impression: Offers a novel approach to search with useful context, though link navigation could improve.
The image displays the homepage of Perplexity.AI, a search engine. In the upper left corner is the Perplexity logo, a stylized abstract icon next to the name 'perplexity' in a modern typeface. Below this is a sidebar with options for 'New Thread', 'Home', 'Discover', 'Library', and 'Sign in', accompanied by corresponding icons. A 'Sign Up' button is highlighted in a teal color. The main area of the page states "Where knowledge begins" in large, bold text, and below is a search bar with "Ask anything..." as placeholder text. Additional options 'Focus' and 'Attach' appear near the search bar. At the bottom, example search queries are suggested, such as "What is the leaky bucket theory?" and "How do cacti survive in the desert?" The layout is clean and modern, with plenty of white space.

Swisscows:

  • Ownership: Owned by Swiss software tech company Hulbee AG.
  • Key Features: Uses Bing for searches and prioritizes privacy and family-friendly content by omitting explicit results.
  • Interface: Search can be targeted to web, images, videos, or music.
  • Performance: Image search results were semi-relevant; top web search results often included ads.
  • Overall Impression: Privacy-focused and family-friendly, but the relevance of search results and ad intrusion can be a downside.
This image shows the landing page for the search engine "Swisscows." It features a distinctive logo with a black silhouette of a cow with wings, positioned above the name "Swisscows" in large red font. The tagline "Anonymous search engine" is displayed under the name. The page emphasizes privacy with the phrases "No tracking," "Anonymous," and "Family-friendly" highlighted in red. The search bar is central on the page, inviting the user to enter their search query, with a red magnifying glass icon indicating where to submit the search. The overall theme of the page is privacy-focused, with a clean, uncluttered design that communicates a user-friendly experience.

Yep:

  • Ownership: Owned by Singapore software startup Ahrefs.
  • Key Features: Uses its own search index, does not track personal information, offers an AI chat option.
  • Interface: Allows targeting your search by ‘all’, images, and news.
  • Performance: Image results can be irrelevant, I had better luck when I simplified my search terms and utilized quotation marks. News is ranked by relevance, so newest stories may not be at the top.
  • Overall Impression: Promising but it’s still in beta mode; worth revisiting as it develops.
This image shows the landing page for the 'Yep' search engine. The background is predominantly white with a minimalistic design. The search engine's logo, consisting of a speech bubble with the word 'yep' in lowercase letters, is prominently displayed in the center, and a 'beta' label is affixed to the upper right corner of the bubble. At the top right corner of the page, there is a 'Chat' button with a star icon, suggesting interactive features. Below the logo, there is a search bar inviting users to 'Start searching'. Tabs labeled 'All', 'Images', and 'News' are positioned underneath the search bar, indicating the categories in which users can perform searches. The overall design is clean and user-friendly, with a focus on the search function.