April 18, 2023, 6:24 pm | Read time: 4 minutes
If you don’t want your data collected while surfing the internet, you’ll need to look for other search engines. They work well too–some even with artificial intelligence.
Most people search the internet using Google. According to the web traffic analysis service Statcounter, Google’s market share in Germany remains stable at over 90 percent. “Besides that, only Microsoft’s Bing has some relevance with around 5.5 percent, likely due to its integration with Windows,” says Jörg Geiger from the magazine “Chip.” However, both Google and Bing are search engines that actively collect and use their users’ data.
This is evident not only in targeted advertising but also in search results: “The search results for the same term can vary significantly depending on who is searching,” explains Wolfgang Stieler from “Technology Review.” This is because the algorithms of Google and Bing take into account the user’s browsing behavior when delivering search results.
Common Browsers Are Not Anonymous
In principle, all search engines work similarly. Small programs called crawlers scour the web, analyzing and indexing the content of websites. Search providers can then use this search index to display relevant results for search queries.
What matters is which results appear at the top. Let’s be honest, who still bothers to go through pages two to ten on Google for the desired answer? According to Stieler, Google’s ranking is primarily based on how often a website is linked by others, along with factors like keywords, location, or relevance. How long users stay on a website is also a signal of whether the content answers the search intent. Google’s large user base and the resulting network effect are part of its success. The more users click on a particular page for a topic, the more relevant it becomes for search results.
But there are alternatives to Google, such as Startpage. “The site essentially uses a trick by forwarding search queries anonymously to Google, so the search results themselves are very good,” explains Jörg Geiger. Similar good results were delivered in tests by the search engines DuckDuckGo and Qwant. The big advantage is: “Users are not tracked here.”
Meta Search Engines Deliver a Lot at Once
Then there are meta search engines as alternatives. They aggregate results from various search providers and list where the search hits come from. A well-known provider is Metager. It is backed by a nonprofit association from Germany with servers in Germany. “Privacy is a priority here, but familiar sources like Bing, Yandex, or Yahoo are used,” says Geiger. Another meta search engine with many sources is “Etools.ch.”
Technically savvy users can also turn to the offering from “Searx.info,” according to Geiger. “This is also a meta search engine, but you can set which search engines should be tapped.” The alternatives to Google are there, but they are used only sparingly. According to Wolfgang Stieler, this is also due to convenience: “Google is preset as the search engine in many browsers, and only a few users bother to select another provider in the menu.”
Microsoft’s New Bing Search with ChatGPT Comes to Smartphones
Google Unveils New AI Search Engine
Log Out First, Then Surf Anonymously
If you want to curb Google’s data appetite, you can change the search engine settings in your Google account. There, the “Web & App Activity” function can be deactivated, explains André Hesel from “Computer Bild”: “This prevents certain activities like searches and browsing history from being stored in the Google account at all.”
Even better: At least on notebooks or PCs, do not surf with a logged-in Google account. Before searching, check at the top right on “Google.de” to see if you are logged in and log out if necessary.
User search behavior could also change with new technologies. Artificial intelligence (AI) is currently a hot topic, especially language models with chatbots like “ChatGPT.” Not only has Microsoft turned this into an AI search for Bing, but the U.S. startup Neeva has also developed a search engine offering from “ChatGPT.”
AI Search Is Convenient but Far from Reliable
The Neeva offering searches pages via voice command and then creates short or long text documents for the user. This can be interesting for an overview of various book or film reviews. “The AI reads through ten reviews and creates a summary of how a book or film is rated,” explains Stieler.
Incidentally, Neeva also does without tracking and is ad-free. However, the search engine provider charges a subscription fee of nearly five euros per month from its users.
Jörg Geiger also sees AI chatbots as a breath of fresh air for the search engine market, but the technology is far from mature: “Somehow, sources need to be weighted and fact-checks conducted,” says Geiger. Because while AI searches provide individual answers, they sometimes also deliver completely fabricated information.