Short description: None


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 Company Launched Software distribution license Network Pages indexed Daily direct queries Results count Advertisements
Ahmia IAC 1996 Proprietary Darknet
AOL
Ask.com IAC 1996 Proprietary Clearnet Unknown Unknown Yes Yes
Baidu Baidu 2000 Proprietary Clearnet Unknown Unknown Yes Yes
Blackle
Brave Search Brave Software, Inc. 2021 Proprietary Clearnet Unknown Unknown No No
DuckDuckGo Free Clearnet
Ecosia Clearnet
Fireball
Exalead Exalead 2000 Proprietary Clearnet Unknown Unknown Yes No
Gigablast Independent 2000 Free Clearnet >1 billion[1] Unknown Yes No
Google Search Alphabet Inc. 1998 Proprietary Clearnet hundreds of billions[2] 9.022 billion[3] Yes Yes
Kiddle
KidRex
KidzSearch
Lycos
Microsoft Bing Microsoft 1998/2009 Proprietary Clearnet Unknown Unknown Yes Yes
Mojeek Mojeek 2004 Proprietary Clearnet 5 billion[4] Unknown Yes No
Naver Naver Corp. 1999 Proprietary Clearnet Unknown Unknown No Yes
Parsijoo
Petal Huawei 2020 Proprietary Clearnet Unknown Unknown Yes Yes
Qwant Qwant 2013 Proprietary Clearnet 20 billion[5] 10 million[6] No Yes
SAPO
Seznam.cz
Sogou Tencent 2010 Proprietary Clearnet Unknown Unknown Yes Yes
Swisscows
WebCrawler
YaCy 2005 Free Clearnet 1.4 billion[7] 0.13 million [7] Yes No
Yahoo! Search Yahoo! 1995 Proprietary Clearnet Unknown Yes Yes
Yandex Search Yandex 1997 Proprietary Clearnet >2 billion[8] Unknown Yes Yes
Youdao

Digital rights

Search engine Server's location(s) Dedicated servers Data center Cloud computing HTTPS available Tor gateway available Proxy gateway search links available Internet censorship (countries)
Ahmia
AOL
Ask.com
Baidu China Yes No Unknown China
Blackle
Brave Search
DuckDuckGo[9] USA No Verizon Internet Services Amazon EC2 Yes Yes [10] No Yes
Ecosia
Exalead
Fireball
Gigablast USA Yes[11] Yes[11] No Unknown
Google Search USA Yes Google data centers Yes[12] No Unknown Yes
Kiddle
KidRex
KidzSearch
Lycos
Microsoft Bing USA / China Yes Yes No Unknown Yes
Mojeek UK Yes Custodian Data Centres Yes No Unknown Unknown
Naver
Parsijoo
Petal France Yes No Unknown China
Qwant France Yes Yes Unknown Unknown Yes
SAPO
Seznam.cz
Sogou China Yes No Unknown China
Swisscows
WebCrawler
YaCy Distributed,
Peer-to-peer
Yahoo! Search USA Partial Yes[13] No Unknown Yes
Yandex Search Russia Yes Yes[14] No Unknown Unknown
Youdao

Tracking and surveillance

Search engine HTTP tracking cookies Personalized results[lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 2] IP address tracking[lower-alpha 3][lower-alpha 2] Information sharing[lower-alpha 2][clarification needed] Warrantless wiretapping of unencrypted backend traffic[lower-alpha 2]
Ahmia
AOL
Ask.com
Baidu Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
Blackle
Brave Search
DuckDuckGo[9][15] No No No No
Ecosia No[16] No No No Unknown
Exalead
Fireball
Gigablast Unknown No No[11] No[11] No[11]
Google Search Yes Default[17] Yes[18] Yes[18] 2013 and prior[18][19]
Kiddle
KidRex
KidzSearch
Lycos
Microsoft Bing Yes Yes Yes[18] Yes[18] 2014 and prior[18][20][21]
Mojeek No No No No Unknown
Naver
Parsijoo
Petal Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
Qwant No No No No
SAPO
Seznam.cz
Sogou Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
Swisscows
WebCrawler
YaCy
Yahoo! Search Yes Unknown Yes[18] Yes[18] 2014 and prior[18][22]
Yandex Search Unknown Yes[23] Unknown Limited[24] Unknown
Youdao
  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. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 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

References

  1. "about". http://www.gigablast.com/about.html. 
  2. "How search works, organizing information". https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/how-search-works/organizing-information/. 
  3. "Google Annual Search Statistics". http://www.statisticbrain.com/Google-searches/. 
  4. "Mojeek Surpasses 5 Billion Pages". https://blog.mojeek.com/2022/03/five-billion-pages.html. 
  5. Qwant (2018-11-20). "Web indexation: where does Qwant’s independence stand?". https://medium.com/qwant-blog/web-indexation-where-does-qwants-independence-stand-8eab4f7856f8. 
  6. en:Qwant, oldid 882470394
  7. 7.0 7.1 "YaCy - The Peer to Peer Search Engine: Home". http://www.yacy.net/en/. 
  8. "SEC Filing 2011". Form 20-F. "Our search index includes billions of webpages..": Yandex N.V.. 31 December 2011. p. 45. http://company.yandex.com/i/filings/YandexNV_12312011_20F.pdf. 
  9. 9.0 9.1 Holwerda, Thom (June 21, 2011), "DuckDuckGo: The Privacy-centric Alternative to Google", OSNews, http://www.osnews.com/story/24867/DuckDuckGo_The_Privacy-centric_Alternative_to_Google, retrieved March 30, 2012 
  10. Weinberg, Gabriel (2010-08-10). "DuckDuckGo now operates a Tor exit enclave". http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2010/08/duckduckgo-now-operates-a-tor-exit-enclave.html. 
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 "Gigablast - The Private Search Engine". 2013. http://www.gigablast.com/privacy.html. 
  12. "Google Makes HTTPS Encryption Default for Search". eWeek. http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Google-Makes-HTTPS-Encryption-Default-for-Search-371629/. 
  13. Danny Sullivan (22 January 2014). "Yahoo Search Goes Secure". Search Engine Land. http://searchengineland.com/yahoo-search-goes-secure-182343. 
  14. "Yandex.Direct switches to HTTPS". Yandex. https://help.yandex.com/direct-news/n-2012-07-17.xml. 
  15. "DuckDuckGo Privacy". 2012-04-11. https://duckduckgo.com/privacy. 
  16. "Learn more about our privacy policy and the data that we do collect". https://info.ecosia.org/privacy. 
  17. "Turn off search history personalization". https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/54048?hl=en. 
  18. 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 18.5 18.6 18.7 18.8 Johnson, Kevin; Martin, Scott; O'Donnell, Jayne; Winter, Michael (June 15, 2013). "Reports: NSA Siphons Data from 9 Major Net Firms". USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/06/06/nsa-surveillance-internet-companies/2398345/. 
  19. Gallagher, Sean (2013-11-06). "Googlers say "F*** you" to NSA, company encrypts internal network". Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/11/googlers-say-f-you-to-nsa-company-encrypts-internal-network/. 
  20. Danny Yadron (2013-12-05). "Microsoft Compares NSA to ‘Advanced Persistent Threat’ - Digits - WSJ". Blogs.wsj.com. https://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/12/05/microsoft-compares-nsa-to-advanced-persistent-threat/. 
  21. Tom Warren (2013-12-05). "Microsoft labels US government a ‘persistent threat' in plan to cut off NSA spying". The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2013/12/5/5177554/microsoft-plans-server-encryption-against-nsa-snooping. 
  22. Brandom, Russell (2013-11-18). "Yahoo plans to encrypt all internal data by early 2014 to keep the NSA out". The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2013/11/18/5118150/yahoo-ceo-marissa-mayer-plans-to-encrypt-data-against-nsa-by-2014. 
  23. "Компания Яндекс — Персональный поиск". http://company.yandex.ru/technologies/personalised_search/index.xml. 
  24. "Privacy Policy – Legal Documents". Yandex.Company. 3.3.1.: LLC Yandex. 15 November 2011. http://legal.yandex.com/confidential/. 



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