What are the best internet search engines?

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score 85 · Accepted Answer

DuckDuckGo

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Privacy is importantvxs

DuckDuckGo does not keimportantvxss zsizvvrx epp your search results, nor does it collect or share any personal information. Their [privacy page][1] has a great rundown on why privacy is important. The most important repercussion of this is that DDG doesn't use the data collected to tailor results, avoiding exposure to the "[Filter Bubble][2]". See More

Top Con

Based in US

So they have to follow the US laws like the Patriot Act, and even if they don't follow the law other companies like the data centers will do! See More

IngrownMink4's Experience

Much better than Google. See More

Specs

Platforms:Android, iOS

Top Pro

Ads are non-obstructive and don't track you

The ads are clearly labelled as ads and are non-obstructive. The ads are based on the searched keywords and there's no tracking involved on their visibility. You just need to remember that the site the ad links to might track you. See More

Top Con

No date information in search results

In search results, there are no dates when the pages were published, which doesn't allow you to immediately know if the page is outdated. See More

Lokman Afandy's Experience

Useful information above the links, More Privacy, Instant answers, !bangs & settings, and remove sites with just ads. See More

Top Pro

Has a wide spectrum of instant answers

For select queries DDG pops up a box that supplies the exact answer. For example, searching "stopwatch" will pop up a stopwatch, asking for "words like..." will show a list of related words, typing "password" will generate a password, etc. See More

Top Con

Slower than top search engines

It's slower than Google search. See More

ModestIusaaset's Experience

DDG has established itself as a new member of a long line of iconic internet pioneers. DDG is part of the group of technology companies placing internet community and ethical values above corporate goals. so far so good. See More

Top Pro

Can disable advertisements

The search engine allows freely disabling ads. See More

Top Con

Does not allow to limit the search result to the past year

Only past month supported. See More

Bustr Blu's Experience

It's slowly getting even better. The instant answers are usually helpful, and bangs are an interesting feature. The option to use a dark theme is also good. See More

Top Pro

Many customization options for appearance

DDG allows customizing almost any aspect of the search engine's appearance including fonts, page width, alignment, header behavior, site icons, etc and has a selection of premade themes available as well. See More

Top Con

Not good for precise research

ModestGlaucus's Experience

DuckDuckGo works great, out of the box, has reliable and exhaustive search results and doesn't pollute the results with adds. On top of that... privacy is important! See More

Top Pro

Allows searching from specific sites using bangs

Bangs are commands that allow searching via a different website's local search engine, using keywords or abbreviations with an exclamation mark (!). For example searching "world war ii !wiki" will automatically redirect to Wikipedia.org and show results for the query "world war ii" there, instead of DuckDuckGo, using Wikipedia's search engine. The more common sites have shortened alternatives for these commands. Such as !g for Google, !i for images and !yt Youtube. The whole list of bangs can be found by typing "!bang" in DuckDuckGo. See More

Top Con

Shows too few images

When searching for images only, it shows too few of them and only a handful are related to the search terms. See More

Slanter's Experience

1.Accurate search results .2.Privacy See More

Top Pro

Can function without JavaScript

Of course, it's nicer when enabled, but it's not required. Some browsers are too limited (mobile, terminal) or turn it off for security reasons (tor, etc.), and DDG still works. See More

Top Con

Bangs do not protect user privacy and can be misleading

Redirecting to a third-party website and thus exposing to the risk of tracking and data collection. DuckDuckGo bangs, being submitted by users, do not follow a specific naming scheme. See More

Tom Lawrence's Experience

Big Data effortlessly receives personal information about our daily lives an online habits. Other search engines use the marketing approach and ad revenue to continue the data collection cycle. DuckDuckGo is the first step to stop the cycle. See More

Top Pro

Good for Linux users

DuckDuckGo has an API with some websites. With the help of this API, if you search for a fix of a problem in Linux, you can easily find an answer to the problem. For example, if you search for "How to update linux", you will get a message like this: How to install updates via command line Try this: sudo apt-get update # Fetches the list of available updates sudo apt-get upgrade # Strictly upgrades the current packages sudo apt-get dist-upgrade # Installs updates (new ones) --SirCharlo See More

Top Con

Form over function (overall search experience is poor)

It's nice to adjust the settings and all but after a couple of days you will want to go back to a more functional search engine. Sure DDG looks shiny and !bangs are great but many wouldn't consider it as a viable alternative. Better results for search queries is more important than fancy looking CSS. See More

mcastillon's Experience

Poor search results See More

Top Pro

Has a .onion site

Only accessible from Tor. See More

Top Con

Time limit only a month

You can only limit the date of the search result up to a month old. Many need a year or a more flexible solution. See More

Top Pro

Pulls information from multiple search engines

DDG searches through not only its own database but pulls search results from multiple other search engines, including Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc for a total of 30+ search engines as well. See More

Top Con

No advanced search page

Top Pro

Infinite scroll of search results

DuckDuckGo results page is an infinite scrolling page, so you don't need to be clicking through pages. But if you prefer clicking through pages, you can turn scrolling off in the settings. See More

Top Con

DuckDuckGo has many 'Owners'

DuckDuckGo is owned by Gabriel Weinberg who is is the founder, current CEO and controlling shareholder. Investors/shareholders include Union Square Ventures and several others(https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/duck-duck-go-series-unknown--5d9c6644). DuckDuckGo generates it’s income from advertising (Bing Ads) and collects affiliate revenue (Amazon, eBay). See More

Top Pro

Ads can be disabled

Advertisements are enabled by default but may be easily turned off in the settings panel. See More

Top Con

Cloud saving still needs work

Cloud save and the ability to pull up your settings on any device is a nice idea but the implementation needs work. See More

Top Pro

Keyboard shortcuts

DuckDuckGo has many useful keyboard shortcuts to navigate the search results. See More

Top Con

Hosted on Amazon servers (EC2)

Top Con

Referrers

A referrer is an HTTP header field that identifies the address of the webpage (i.e. the URI or IRI) that linked to the resource being requested. By checking the referrer, the new webpage can see where the request originated.” Basically it tells a website where you came from. DDG does give this out. See More

Top Con

DuckDuckGo and Yahoo Partnership

https://web.archive.org/web/20161003060630/https://duck.co/help/company/yahoo-partnership https://duck.co/blog/blog/post/311/yahoo-partnership See More

Top Con

Owner would compromise his service/customer privacy

In a question to Weinberg, “if you were served an NSL or were commanded to compromise your service/customer privacy in any way, would you and could you just pull the plug like Lavabit did or would you run into opposition from shareholders/investors that would prevent you from doing so?” Gabriel Weinberg said: “No one is preventing me from doing that.” See More

Top Con

DuckDuckGo has no 3rd party certifications

Top Con

Search using language other than English is not so great

Korean would never use it. See More

Top Con

Focus on English

The search engine is too focussed on English and US results. Search results are not as satisfying as with alternatives. See More

Top Con

Bing = DuckDuckGo

It uses Bing for the query. See More

Top Con

Based in US, so they cannot guarantee there is no backdoor

Top Con

Doesn't do personalized searches

Since they don't track you the results are not tailored to your interests. See More

Top Con

Horrible search results

They store no information about you (theoretically a pro) but this results in absolutely awful search results, and having to modify your search terms 4-5 times to get what you are looking for. See More

Top Con

Search accesses your personal data

Quickly finding the answer to a question is only possible because of the data collected and used to personalize the results. Unfortunately to get this we must submit ourselves to endless personal online data collection and with this data anything is possible See More

See All

The Best 1 of 14 OptionsWhy?

My Recommendation for DuckDuckGo

My Recommendation for DuckDuckGo

Privacy is importantvxs

Based in US

Ads are non-obstructive and don't track you

No date information in search results

Has a wide spectrum of instant answers

Slower than top search engines

Can disable advertisements

Does not allow to limit the search result to the past year

Many customization options for appearance

Not good for precise research

Allows searching from specific sites using bangs

Shows too few images

Can function without JavaScript

Bangs do not protect user privacy and can be misleading

Good for Linux users

Form over function (overall search experience is poor)

Has a .onion site

Time limit only a month

Pulls information from multiple search engines

No advanced search page

Infinite scroll of search results

DuckDuckGo has many 'Owners'

Ads can be disabled

Cloud saving still needs work

Keyboard shortcuts

Hosted on Amazon servers (EC2)

Referrers

DuckDuckGo and Yahoo Partnership

Owner would compromise his service/customer privacy

DuckDuckGo has no 3rd party certifications

Search using language other than English is not so great

Focus on English

Bing = DuckDuckGo

Based in US, so they cannot guarantee there is no backdoor

Doesn't do personalized searches

Horrible search results

Search accesses your personal data

13 Other Options Considered

My Recommendation for Qwant

My Recommendation for Qwant

Based in Europe

Does not allow to limit search result to last year

Offers full (links, news, etc.) and light interface

Requiers JavaScript

Respects privacy

Includes searching for: Images, News, Videos, Shopping, Social

Includes a time filter (past 24H, past week, past month)

Cookie-free

Fast

Modern and intuitive design

Relevant results

My Recommendation for Searx

My Recommendation for Searx

Meta engine

My Recommendation for Start Page

My Recommendation for Start Page

Allows to limit the search result to the last year (instead of only month)

Uses only Google Results

Anonymized web search results from Google

StartPage does not collect or share any personal information

Proxy

My Recommendation for Ecosia

My Recommendation for Ecosia

A noble cause

My Recommendation for Metager

My Recommendation for Metager

Tor network service

Allows to visit search results anonymously

Run by a non profit organisation dedicated to privacy and data protection

Supports easy search in open-street-map

My Recommendation for Wiby

My Recommendation for Wiby

My Recommendation for Million Short

My Recommendation for Million Short

My Recommendation for Google Search

My Recommendation for Google Search

Potentially invasive of your privacy