Brave, a privacy-focused browser based on Chromium, on Tuesday announced that it has launched a new privacy-protecting beta search engine for online users that gives them unmatched privacy.
The newly released Brave Search beta puts users first and allows them to take complete of their online experience. It will be built into its browser and available to users of other browsers via a website.
According to the company, Brave Search is different from other search engines because it uses its own index and follows different principles:
- Privacy: no tracking or profiling of users.
- User-first: the user comes first, not the advertising and data industries.
- Independence: Brave has its own search index for answering common queries privately without reliance on other providers.
- Choice: soon, options for ad-free paid search and ad-supported search.
- Transparency: no secret methods or algorithms to bias results, and soon, community-curated open ranking models to ensure diversity and prevent algorithmic biases and outright censorship.
- Seamlessness: best-in-class integration between the browser and search without compromising privacy, from personalization to instant results as the user types.
- Openness: Brave Search will soon be available to power other search engines.
“Brave Search is the industry’s most private search engine, as well as the only independent search engine, giving users the control and confidence they seek in alternatives to big tech,” said Brendan Eich, CEO and co-founder of Brave.
“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,” he added.
“Brave Search fills a clear void in the market today as millions of people have lost trust in the surveillance economy and actively seek solutions to be in control of their data.”
For those unaware, Brave acquired the search engine Tailcat in March and promised to take on Google Search and Microsoft Bing by approaching online search with a greater focus on privacy.
Brave stated that the service has been testing with more than 100,000 users. The company recently passed 32 million monthly active users (up from 25 million last March).
Brave Search is built on top of a completely independent index and doesn’t track users, their searches, or their clicks. It is the latest product offered by the company in its suite of privacy-preserving tools as millions of users are turning to alternatives to big tech.
Brave already offers privacy-preserving Brave Ads, Brave News, and a Firewall+VPN service.
Brave Search is available in beta release globally on all Brave browsers (desktop, Android, and iOS). It is also available from any other browser at search.brave.com.
Brave Search will become the default search in the Brave browser later this year. The search engine will not display ads during the early part of the beta phase, but Brave will offer options for both ad-free paid search and ad-supported free search later.
