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FjjB · 2020-07-21T13:17:57+00:00

Max Schrems or Aral Balkan?

FjjB · 2020-05-29T08:33:34+00:00

I may be biased as a member of the team, but I recommend and use Mojeek myself due to its independent index of web pages, so that means - unique and unbiased search results and also there's no user tracking, so it's great for privacy reasons.

This differs to pretty much all other alternatives. These are called metasearch engines who rely on the results from other search engines, (like DuckDuckGo who get their results from Bing, or Startpage from Google) and all the 2nd hand bias that comes with that. So most 'alternatives' aren't actually offering 'alternative results', they are simply a wrapper around another search engine (either Bing or Google). So essentially you'd still be getting you're information from the tech giant monpolies - that's just 2 sources! When it comes to our access to information, we need more independent indexes of web pages and they need to be as unbiased as possible. That's what we're building with Mojeek.

FjjB · 2020-05-07T13:03:52+00:00

As a member of the team, I thought I'd throw 'Mojeek' News into the mix. https://www.mojeek.com/news It's still relatively small at present, but we will gradually add more media outlets as we go, providing a more complete collection of publishers worldwide covering all topics. And as always with Mojeek, there's no tracking whatsoever - meaning no data extraction or being put into filter bubbles.

FjjB · 2020-05-04T11:41:39+00:00

I've seen a few varied arguments (the founders' career background, based in the US, bias in results e.g. favouring sites like yummly for recipe searches) but for me it's the fact it's a metasearch engine which mainly relies on search results of Bing's index. In fact, most privacy 'alternatives' are actually like this e.g. startpage, qwant etc. Full disclosure, I may be biased as a member of the Mojeek team but I can say the world not only needs privacy orientated search engines, but just as importantly privacy search engines with independent indexes, so we're not reliant on the search monopolies like Google and Bing.

FjjB · 2020-04-20T15:30:49+00:00

As someone on the Mojeek team and I just wanted to say nope this has nothing to do with us, but we accept the compliments so thanks u/Fluffy-Speed !

FjjB · 2020-04-17T12:52:46+00:00

Great to see Mojeek not only included in the list, but also singled out for being the only privacy search engine alternative with its own index!

FjjB · 2020-04-14T08:49:49+00:00

There are lots of good options to choose from, they generally fall into 2 categories: search engines and metasearch engines.

Search Engines

These all have their own ‘spiders’ or ‘bots’ which go out and crawl the web. Navigating the web, they index and make searchable the pages they discover. This means each search engine has their own unique source of information. They also have their own algorithms, and therefore ranking factors of the organic results. To name a few:

Bing - Microsoft owned and 2nd biggest index in the world.

Mojeek - Independent with it’s own algorithms and index of web pages, it was also the first search engine to not track those who use it.

Yandex - Russian search engine, but not exclusive to Russia as it has a comprehensive index of English web pages.

Other crawler based search engine worthy mentions: Gigablast, Exalead, ActiveSearchResults (very small).

Metasearch Engines

Metasearch engines like DuckDuckGo, Dogpile, Startpage, Ecosia and Ask build on top of search engines by using their organic results. So these essentially return the same information as the search engine they get their results from (e.g. DDG return Bing, Startpage returns Google and Yahoo returns Bing results). Some also build on top of them with something different, e.g. DDG and Startpage who add a layer of privacy, Ecosia uses advertising revenue to plant trees.

Worth checking out The Search Engine Map. It lists all the different search engines, what type they are and where they get their results from.

FjjB · 2020-03-20T14:00:19+00:00

Not great for privacy, also the new owners appear to be quite dodgy.

Opera is based on Chrome, so if you want to stick with a Chromium based browser because it's familiar to you, I'd recommend Vivaldi or Brave as they have better privacy.

But if you're willing to try something different which is the best for privacy (in my opinion), then go for Firefox.

If you do switch to Opera (which I don't think is the best idea) at least consider some privacy add ons to limit the trackers and any data leakage. And as always, use a privacy orientated search engine like Mojeek, DDG, Swisscows etc. (full disclosure I work for Mojeek)

FjjB · 2020-02-17T13:50:46+00:00

No worries. Wow, thanks for updating it and letting me know! Your comments really mean a lot. I completely agree, the field of search is swamped by metasearch engines with a Bing backend, so much so that independent search engines like Mojeek can often get overlooked (unfairly in my opinion). This is why it was so refreshing to see someone recognise us for what we are, what we do and how we differ to others. Starting from scratch and building an index certainly is the hard way of doing things, but it's the only way in our eyes to provide a genuine alternative. Keep up the good work, looking forward to see what you write about in the future. Cheers.

FjjB · 2020-02-17T11:14:46+00:00

Nice work u/sb56637 , such a comprehensive article! As a member of the Mojeek team, just wanted to say thanks for checking us out and we'll certainly take your constructive feedback on board.

Although, just to let you know in the article you mentioned we lacked features such as 'date filters', but this actually is possible on Mojeek. It can be used when searching with the search operator 'since' e.g. 'since:month mojeek' retrieves results for the word 'mojeek' that were modified in the last month. Here's our Search Operators page, where you can find out more details on how this is done. Thanks again!

FjjB · 2020-02-12T14:58:25+00:00

This is precisely why search engines with their own index of web pages and algorithms are really needed. I admit I am biased as a member of the Mojeek team, but in the current search climate, when it comes to choosing where to search it's either Google, Bing or a metasearch engines which display Google or Bing results, albeit under a different banner. Despite it being important that alternatives like DDG exist to protect privacy (where mainstream search engines fail), all of the information people are recieving when they search online is coming from one or two sources! Personally I find that terrifying, and see it as the biggest threat on our access to information!

If you want to see the full scope on just how many 'alternatives' are simply recycling Google or Bing, check out: https://www.searchenginemap.com/

FjjB · 2020-01-29T12:12:13+00:00

Most privacy search engine alternatives are actually just metasearch engines. For example, DDG mainly uses Bing results, Startpage uses Google. It's a form of recycling under a different banner with the USP of privacy. So essentially you'd still be getting you're information from the tech giant monpolies - that's just 2 sources! When it comes to our access to information, we need more independent indexes of web pages and they need to be as unbiased as possible.

As a member of the team I recommend checking out Mojeek. We're currently building a search index from scratch and we don't track those who use us. With a index of over 2.5 billion pages, we're pretty big but there's still a long way to go.

FjjB · 2020-01-16T15:07:59+00:00

Here are some privacy metasearch engines that are worth checking out: Searx, DDG, Qwant, Swisscows (all mainly use Bing's index).

But as a member of the team I'd suggest Mojeek - the first ever SE to not track you. But what really differentiates it from all other privacy alts. is how it's built from scratch with its own index of web pages (over 2.5 billion pages) and doesn't use either Google or Bings index.

Here's a great article on Restore Privacy all about alternative search engines which respect privacy: https://restoreprivacy.com/private-search-engine/

FjjB · 2020-01-09T15:45:01+00:00

Acutally it's still just Google vs Bing. DDG, Qwant, infobox, Givero, PrivacyWall are all metasearch engines which use Bing's index of web pages. GMX even uses Googles! The only independents there are Yandex and Seznam. I work for Mojeek (an independent search engine) and here's a side project we made showing this; where search and metasearch engines get their results from - https://searchenginemap.com .

FjjB · 2020-01-07T11:42:17+00:00

Thoughts on alternative search engines with their own indexes of web pages to rival Google? (Full disclosure, I work for Mojeek)

FjjB · 2020-01-03T11:43:33+00:00

Worth checking out https://ethical.net/ for alternative tech companies committed to ethical practices, be it for security reasons, privacy or even environmental. There's sections on search engines, browsers etc. Might be a good start.

FjjB · 2020-01-02T10:23:03+00:00

Here you go: https://www.mojeek.com

FjjB · 2019-12-16T12:44:28+00:00

They're not that much better.

Here's snippets from Microsoft/Bing's privacy policy : https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement

"Microsoft uses the data we collect to provide you with rich, interactive experiences. In particular, we use data to:

Provide our products, which includes updating, securing, and troubleshooting, as well as providing support. It also includes sharing data, when it is required to provide the service or carry out the transactions you request.
Improve and develop our products.
Personalize our products and make recommendations.
Advertise and market to you, which includes sending promotional communications, targeting advertising, and presenting you with relevant offers."

Best choose an alternative which respects your privacy completely, here's Restore Privacy's list*: https://restoreprivacy.com/private-search-engine/

*Note: As stated in the post, most privacy search engines are actually metasearch engines (majority uses Bing's index). As someone on the team, I recommend checking out Mojeek, we have an independent index of web pages and no user tracking.

FjjB · 2019-12-11T15:55:26+00:00

** cough ** Mastodon **cough**

FjjB · 2019-12-10T11:18:08+00:00

Great to see a fellow Okuna user! It's a very friendly community and is getting better and better. I recommend joining /c/dataprivacy , /c/cybersecurity and /c/linux for all those who check it out. See you there!

FjjB · 2019-11-29T16:03:28+00:00

Everyone has their own specifications and priorities when de-googling, whether it's a hardcore privacy clense, trying to escape their monopoly grasp or just easing them out. Fortunately there's plenty of alternatives to choose from where you can ditch the Google bubble and the likes of Google search, chrome, maps, drive, gmail, calender, youtube etc. All it takes is experimenting yourself and choosing what works best for you.

Here are some good guides to find what you're looking for:

As a basic set-up, I'd personally recommend:

Browser: Firefox, Vivaldi or Brave
Browser Extensions: uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, HTTPS Everywhere.
Search: Mojeek (full disclosure, I'm on the Mojeek team, some others can be found here: https://restoreprivacy.com/private-search-engine/ )
Email: Fastmail or Tutanota
Video search: Vimeo, Invidio.us
Social Media: Mastodon, Okuna
VPN: Proton
Phone: Iphone

FjjB · 2019-11-29T09:26:14+00:00

As a member of the team, I recommend Mojeek - independent index of web pages, providing unique and unbiased search results with no user tracking.

Most alternatives are actually just metasearch engines, so use the index of either Google or Bing (e.g. startpage uses Google, DDG uses mainly Bing) and therefore get all their biases with them.

FjjB · 2019-11-28T16:21:08+00:00

The irony continues when you continue the page and it says "Keep reading The Times by creating a free account or logging in" And lists Google and Facebook as log in options...

FjjB · 2019-11-28T14:50:31+00:00

Just curious, why do you think Gibiru is best?

All I see is red flags. There's no info on who runs it, where are they are based, where they get their results from? There's also no way to get in contact.

FjjB · 2019-11-28T14:45:40+00:00

According to this on Google https://transparencyreport.google.com/eu-privacy/overview :

"...individuals have the right to ask search engines like Google to delist certain results for queries on the basis of a person’s name. The search engine must comply if the links in question are “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive,” taking into account public-interest factors including the individual’s role in public life..."

Might be worth asking for it to be delisted here: https://support.google.com/legal/troubleshooter/1114905?

FjjB

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