Brave launches search engine that doesn't track users and searches
Brave Software, the company behind the Brave browser, has launched today the first version of its eponymously named search engine, which the company claims it does not track users, their searches, or their clicks.
Brave Search, as the service is named, is currently available at search.brave.com, or as a search engine option inside the Brave browser's settings.
The search engine is currently still in beta development, but Brave said it plans to add it as the default search option inside its browser once the service officially launches later this year.
https://t.co/k2e5Ec1civ is in public beta, available to all and best in Brave, where you can pick it from alternative search engines in settings and make it default if you're game to help us get it ready to be promoted to default. Thanks.
— BrendanEich (@BrendanEich) June 22, 2021
Work on this new service has been going on for the past three months. Brave initially announced Brave Search in March, after the company acquired Tailcat, an open search engine developed by the team who previously developed the search engine for the now-defunct Cliqz web browser.
Brave CEO Brendan Eich called it "the industry's most private search engine."
"Unlike older search engines that track and profile users, and newer search engines that are mostly a skin on older engines and don't have their own indexes, Brave Search offers a new way to get relevant results with a community-powered index, while guaranteeing privacy," Eich said.
Brave said its new search engine has already been tested by more than 100,000 users via closed access trials, and the upcoming beta period will help put the final polish for the official launch later this year.
Future plans include showing ads, but they will be based on the company's privacy-preserving Brave Ads systems, and a paid option to hide all ads will also be available.
In addition, once the service launches later this year, Brave said it plans to make it available for other browsers as well.
Once launched, the service will be a direct competitor with DuckDuckGo, the only major privacy-preserving search engine on the market today.
Through Brave Search and other previously launched services like Brave Ads, Brave News, and VPN service, Brave Software is currently positioning itself as the most privacy-focused web browser today, together with the Tor Browser.
The company has also taken up the privacy flag on behalf of its users and has filed two GDPR complaints against Google in Europe, claiming that Google's ad-bidding system circumvents GDPR and that Google is collecting more data than it needs.
Catalin Cimpanu
is a cybersecurity reporter who previously worked at ZDNet and Bleeping Computer, where he became a well-known name in the industry for his constant scoops on new vulnerabilities, cyberattacks, and law enforcement actions against hackers.