Comparison of web search engines

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.

## Contents

* 1 Search crawlers
* 2 Digital rights
* 2.1 Tracking and surveillance
* 3 See also
* 4 External links
* 5 References

## 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

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|
|
|
|
|
|
|

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
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[4] | Unknown  | Yes  | Yes[5]
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[6] | 10 million[citation needed] | No  | Yes
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[7] | Unknown  | Yes  | Yes
Youdao |  |  | 2007  | Proprietary |  |  |  |

## Digital rights

Search engine  | Server's location(s)  | Dedicated servers  | Data center  | Cloud computing  | HTTPS available  | Tor gateway available  | Proxy gateway search links available

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|
|
|
|
|
|

Ahmia |  |  |  |  | Yes  | Yes  |
AOL  |  |  |  |  | Yes  | No  |
Ask.com |  |  |  |  | Yes  | No  |
Baidu | China  |  |  |  | Yes  | No  | Unknown
Blackle |  |  |  |  | No  | No  |
Brave Search |  |  |  |  | Yes  | Yes  |
DuckDuckGo[8] | USA  | No  | Verizon Internet Services  | Amazon EC2 | Yes  | Yes  | No
Ecosia |  |  |  |  | Yes  | No  |
Exalead |  |  |  |  | No  | No  |
Fireball |  |  |  |  | Yes  | No  |
Gigablast | USA  |  |  |  | Yes[9] | Yes[9] | No
Google Search | USA  | Yes  | Google data centers  |  | Yes[10] | No  | Unknown
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
Seznam.cz |  |  |  |  | Yes  | No  |
Sogou | China  |  |  |  | Yes  | No  | Unknown
Swisscows |  |  |  |  | Yes  | No  |
WebCrawler |  |  |  |  | Yes  | No  |
Yahoo! Search | USA  | Partial  |  |  | Yes[11] | No  | Unknown
Yandex Search | Russia  | Yes  |  |  | Yes[12] | No  | Unknown
Youdao |  |  |  |  | Yes  | No

### 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 | No  |  |  |  |
AOL  | Yes  |  |  |  |
Ask.com | Yes  |  |  |  |
Baidu | Yes  | Unknown  | Unknown  | Unknown  | Unknown
Blackle | No  |  |  |  |
Brave Search | No  |  |  |  |
DuckDuckGo[8][13] | No  | No  | No  | No [14]
Ecosia | No[15] | No  | No  | No  | Unknown
Exalead | No  |  |  |  |
Fireball | Yes  |  |  |  |
Gigablast | No  | No  | No[9] | No[9] | No[9]
Google Search | Yes  | Default[16] | Yes[17] | Yes[17] | 2013 and prior[17][18]
Kiddle | No  |  |  |  |
KidRex | No  |  |  |  |
KidzSearch | No  |  |  |  |
Lycos | No  |  |  |  |
Microsoft Bing | Yes  | Yes  | Yes[17] | Yes[17] | 2014 and prior[17][19][20]
Mojeek | No  | No  | No  | No  | Unknown
Naver | No  |  |  |  |
Parsijoo | ? |  |  |  |
Petal | Yes  | Unknown  | Unknown  | Unknown  | Unknown
Qwant | No  | No  | No  | No
Seznam.cz | No  |  |  |  |
Sogou | Yes  | Unknown  | Unknown  | Unknown  | Unknown
Swisscows | No  |  |  |  |
WebCrawler | Yes  |  |  |  |
Yahoo! Search | Yes  | Unknown  | Yes[17] | Yes[17] | 2014 and prior[17][21]
Yandex Search | Yes  | Yes[22] | Unknown  | Limited[23] | 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. ↑ 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

* Comparison of webmail providers – often merged with web search engines by companies that host both services
* List of search engines
* Search engine privacy

## External links

* Gnod Search - A tool to compare results across many search engines

## 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". 23 April 2017. http://www.statisticbrain.com/Google-searches/.
4. ↑ "Mojeek Surpasses 5 Billion Pages". https://blog.mojeek.com/2022/03/five-billion-pages.html.
5. ↑ "Ads on Mojeek". https://www.mojeek.com/support/ads/.
6. ↑ 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.
7. ↑ "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.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 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
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 "Gigablast - The Private Search Engine". 2013. http://www.gigablast.com/privacy.html.
10. ↑ "Google Makes HTTPS Encryption Default for Search". eWeek. http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Google-Makes-HTTPS-Encryption-Default-for-Search-371629/.
11. ↑ Danny Sullivan (22 January 2014). "Yahoo Search Goes Secure". Search Engine Land. http://searchengineland.com/yahoo-search-goes-secure-182343.
12. ↑ "Yandex.Direct switches to HTTPS". Yandex. https://help.yandex.com/direct-news/n-2012-07-17.xml.
13. ↑ "DuckDuckGo Privacy". 2012-04-11. https://duckduckgo.com/privacy.
14. ↑ 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.
15. ↑ "Learn more about our privacy policy and the data that we do collect". https://info.ecosia.org/privacy.
16. ↑ "Turn off search history personalization". https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/54048?hl=en.
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 17.5 17.6 17.7 17.8 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/.
18. ↑ 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/.
19. ↑ 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/.
20. ↑ 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.
21. ↑ 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.
22. ↑ "Компания Яндекс — Персональный поиск". http://company.yandex.ru/technologies/personalised_search/index.xml.
23. ↑ "Privacy Policy – Legal Documents". Yandex.Company. 3.3.1.: LLC Yandex. 15 November 2011. http://legal.yandex.com/confidential/.

* v
* t
* e

Web search engines

Active|

* AOL
* Ahmia
* Ask.com
* Baidu
* Bing
* Blackle
* Dogpile
* DuckDuckGo
* Ecosia
* Exalead
* Excite
* Fireball
* GenieKnows
* Gigablast
* Google
* HotBot
* Info.com
* Kiddle
* KidRex
* KidzSearch
* Lycos
* MetaGer
* Mojeek
* Naver
* Qwant
* Parsijoo
* SAPO
* Searx
* Seznam.cz
* Sogou
* Sputnik
* Startpage
* Swisscows
* WebCrawler
* YaCy
* Yahoo!
* Yandex
* Yippy
* Yooz
* Youdao

Inactive|

* 123people
* A9.com
* Aliweb
* AlltheWeb
* AltaVista
* Blekko
* Boogami
* Cuil
* Empas
* Forestle
* Go.com
* Infoseek
* Inktomi
* Ixquick
* JumpStation
* LeapFish
* Mugurdy
* Northern Light
* Powerset
* Scroogle
* SearchMe
* Soso
* Teoma
* Viewzi
* Vivisimo
* Volunia
* W3Catalog
* Wikiseek
* Yebol

* Comparison
* Complete list

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