Comparison of web search engines

For the market share of the most popular search engines, see Most popular Internet search engines. For search proxies and multi-engine searches, see List of metasearch engines.

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

[edit]

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

|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|

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 |  |  |  |
Brave Search | Brendan Eich and Brian Bondy  | Brave Software, Inc.  | 2021  | Proprietary | Un­known  | Un­known  | No  | Yes
DuckDuckGo | Gabriel Weinberg  | 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

[edit]

See also: Comparison of webmail providers § Digital rights, PRISM, MUSCULAR, Internet privacy, and digital rights

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

|
|
|
|
|
|
|

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 | USA  | No  |  |  | 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

[edit]

Search engine  | HTTP tracking cookies | Personalized results[a][b] | IP address tracking[c][b] | Information sharing[b][clarification needed] | Warrantless wiretapping of unencrypted backend traffic[b]

|
|
|
|
|

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] | No[citation needed]
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  | No[citation needed]
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. ^ a b c d 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

[edit]

* 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

[edit]

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

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "about". gigablast.com. Archived from the original on 2018-10-01. Retrieved 2018-02-12.
2. ^ "How search works, organizing information". Google. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
3. ^ "Google Annual Search Statistics". 23 April 2017. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
4. ^ "Mojeek Surpasses 5 Billion Pages". Retrieved 6 June 2022.
5. ^ "Ads on Mojeek".
6. ^ Qwant (2018-11-20). "Web indexation: where does Qwant's independence stand?". Medium. Retrieved 2019-02-13.
7. ^ "SEC Filing 2011" (PDF). Form 20-F. Our search index includes billions of webpages..: Yandex N.V. 31 December 2011. p. 45\. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 June 2012. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
8. ^ a b Holwerda, Thom (June 21, 2011), "DuckDuckGo: The Privacy-centric Alternative to Google", OSNews, retrieved March 30, 2012
9. ^ a b c d e "Gigablast - The Private Search Engine". 2013. Archived from the original on 2018-10-15. Retrieved 2017-04-29.
10. ^ "Google Makes HTTPS Encryption Default for Search". eWeek. Retrieved 2014-03-31.[permanent dead link]
11. ^ Danny Sullivan (22 January 2014). "Yahoo Search Goes Secure". Search Engine Land. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
12. ^ "Yandex.Direct switches to HTTPS". Yandex. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
13. ^ "DuckDuckGo Privacy". 2012-04-11. Retrieved 2017-04-29.
14. ^ Weinberg, Gabriel (2010-08-10). "DuckDuckGo now operates a Tor exit enclave". gabrielweinberg.com. Archived from the original on 2014-07-26. Retrieved 2014-07-01.
15. ^ "Learn more about our privacy policy and the data that we do collect". Retrieved July 18, 2019.
16. ^ "Turn off search history personalization". Retrieved July 11, 2013.
17. ^ a b c d e f g h i Johnson, Kevin; Martin, Scott; O'Donnell, Jayne; Winter, Michael (June 15, 2013). "Reports: NSA Siphons Data from 9 Major Net Firms". USA Today. Retrieved June 6, 2013.
18. ^ Gallagher, Sean (2013-11-06). "Googlers say "F*** you" to NSA, company encrypts internal network". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2017-04-29.
19. ^ Danny Yadron (2013-12-05). "Microsoft Compares NSA to 'Advanced Persistent Threat' - Digits - WSJ". Blogs.wsj.com. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
20. ^ Tom Warren (2013-12-05). "Microsoft labels US government a 'persistent threat' in plan to cut off NSA spying". The Verge. Retrieved 2017-04-29.
21. ^ Brandom, Russell (2013-11-18). "Yahoo plans to encrypt all internal data by early 2014 to keep the NSA out". The Verge. Retrieved 2017-04-29.
22. ^ "Компания Яндекс — Персональный поиск". Retrieved May 22, 2013.
23. ^ "Privacy Policy – Legal Documents". Yandex.Company. 3.3.1.: LLC Yandex. 15 November 2011. Retrieved 21 April 2012.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: location (link)

* v
* t
* e

Web search engines

Active|

| Dedicated|

* AOL
* Ahmia
* Ask.com
* Baidu
* Bing
* Blackle
* Brave
* DuckDuckGo
* Ecosia
* Fireball
* Google
* Kiddle
* KidRex
* KidzSearch
* Lycos
* Mojeek
* Naver
* Parsijoo
* Perplexity.ai
* Petal
* Seznam.cz
* Sogou
* Swisscows
* WebCrawler
* Yahoo!
* Yandex
* Youdao

|

Metasearch engines|

* Dogpile
* Excite
* Info.com
* Kagi
* MetaCrawler
* MetaGer
* Mullvad Leta
* SearXNG
* Startpage
* Qwant

Inactive|

* 123people
* A9.com
* Aliweb
* AlltheWeb
* AltaVista
* Blekko
* Boogami
* Cuil
* Empas
* Forestle
* GenieKnows
* Gigablast
* Go.com
* HotBot
* Infoseek
* Inktomi
* Ixquick
* JumpStation
* LeapFish
* Neeva
* Northern Light
* Pipilika
* Powerset
* Scroogle
* SearchMe
* Searx
* Soso
* Sputnik
* Teoma
* Viewzi
* Vivisimo
* Volunia
* W3Catalog
* Wikiseek
* Yebol
* Yippy
* Yooz

* Comparison
* Complete list

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