Googling makes yourself transparent about the Internet Company. More and more people are therefore looking for a different search engine. There are many alternatives to Google.
Search profile trading is really big business. If you want to prevent your data traces from being systematically collected and resold when searching for books, pictures, recipes or tips for certain diseases, you have to use search engines that do not create profiles.
The best protection for privacy is offered by search engines that allow searchers to access the hits anonymously. If you then click on a link from the hit list, its Internet protocol address and other identification features will not be passed on to the accessed website.
Metager: Search and surf anonymously
This is what Metager does, for example. It has been run by Suma, the Association for Free Knowledge Access eV in Hanover, since 2012. Metager was created 25 years ago at the University of Hanover.
It was developed as a so-called Meta search engine that forwards search queries to the indices of other machines and collects their results. At Metager, up to 30 other search engines are used for specific inquiries. These also include smaller and relatively unknown machines such as Yacy or Exalead.
The index makes the difference
Google is missing here as a forwarding address. Pages that only Google evaluates and knows are therefore not found here. For this, the Russian search engine Yandex is used, which often delivers pages that Google doesn’t even have on it. Metager now also operates its own index, which is being expanded rapidly.
The search engine from Hanover saves neither the Internet protocol addresses of the searchers nor detailed information about their browser and does not use any trackers. Search queries remain really private here.
Startpage anonymizes search queries to Google
Startpage is a Dutch company and is subject to the European General Data Protection Regulation. The search results include Google’s machines. Before that, however, the search queries sent to Google are anonymized.
With Ixquick, the company had a second search engine up until 2016, which operated as a pure Meta search engine. It was merged with Startpage in March 2016 and finally discontinued in 2018.
Other alternatives, not completely anonymous
Fireball, Metacrawler, Metaspinner, Etools and Qwant offer search results without creating a profile, but without guaranteeing that a page will be viewed from the hit list completely anonymously. Etools even finds pages that not even Google knows and throws out as search results. Qwant has its own search index and taps into the search index of Microsoft’s search engine Bing.
There are also search engines on the Darknet
DuckDuckGo does not collect any personal data for profiling either, but the search engine operator is based in the USA. It is therefore subject to the relevant security laws, which have an adverse effect on data protection.
To avoid this, DuckDuckGo offers access via the Tor browser, i.e. a gateway in the so-called Darknet. But the Tor browser must be installed for this.
Xayn is working on browser access
If this is the case, the Darknet search engine Torch, for example, provides good guidance. Without a Tor browser, with a normal browser such as Chrome or Firefox, Google can be searched anonymously and privately with the Trooia search routine.
Xayn, based in Berlin, offers a search engine that can currently only be used via apps on Android and iOS. However, a browser access is being worked on.
