Comparison of search engines
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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
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 | Juha Nurmi | 2014 | Proprietary | ||||
| AOL | William von Meister | 1999 | Proprietary | |||||
| Ask.com | Garrett Gruener And David Warthen | IAC | 1996 | Proprietary | Unknown | Unknown | Yes | Yes |
| Baidu | Robin Li Yanhong | 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 | François Bourdoncle and Patrice Bertin | Exalead | 2000 | Proprietary | Unknown | Unknown | Yes | No |
| Fireball | Oli Kai Paulus, Helmut Hoffer von Ankershoffen, Nurhan Yildirim, and Benhui Chen[1] | Fireball Labs GmbH | 1996 | Proprietary | ||||
| Google Search | Larry Page, Sergey Brin & Scott Hassan | Alphabet Inc. | 1997 | Proprietary | hundreds of billions[2] | 9.022 billion[3] | Yes | Yes |
| Kagi | Vladimir Prelovac[4][5] | Kagi Inc.[4] | 2018[4] | Proprietary | No[4] | |||
| Kiddle | 2014 | Proprietary | ||||||
| KidRex | 2008 | Proprietary | ||||||
| Lycos | Michael Loren Mauldin | 1995 | Proprietary | |||||
| Microsoft Bing | Microsoft | 1998/2009 | Proprietary | Unknown | Unknown | Yes | Yes | |
| Million Short | 2012 | |||||||
| Mojeek | Marc Smith | Mojeek | 2004 | Proprietary | 5 billion[6] | Unknown | Yes | Yes[7] |
| Naver | Kim Sang-Hun | Naver Corp. | 1999 | Proprietary | Unknown | Unknown | No | Yes |
| Petal | Huawei | 2020 | Proprietary | Unknown | Unknown | Yes | Yes | |
| Qwant | Éric Léandri | Qwant | 2013 | Proprietary | 20 billion[8] | 10 million[citation needed] | No | Yes |
| Seznam.cz | Ivo Lukačovič | 1996 | Proprietary | |||||
| Sogou | Tencent | 2010 | Proprietary | Unknown | Unknown | Yes | Yes | |
| Startpage | Surfboard Holding BV | 1998 | ||||||
| Swisscows | Andreas Wiebe | Swisscows | 2014 | Proprietary | Unknown | Unknown | Yes | Yes |
| WebCrawler | Brian Pinkerton | 1994 | Proprietary | |||||
| Yahoo! Search | Jerry Yang & David Filo | Yahoo! | 1995 | Proprietary | Unknown | Yes | Yes | |
| Yandex Search | Arkady Volozh | Yandex | 1997 | Proprietary | >2 billion[9] | Unknown | Yes | Yes |
| Youdao | Feng Zhou | 2007 | Proprietary |
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[10] | USA | No | Verizon Internet Services | Amazon EC2 | Yes | Yes | |
| Ecosia | USA | No | Yes | No | |||
| Exalead | No | No | |||||
| Fireball | Yes | No | |||||
| Google Search | USA | Yes | Google data centers | Yes | No | Unknown | |
| Kagi | Multiple[11] | Google Cloud Platform| style="background:#9EFF9E;color:black;vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" class="table-yes"|Yes | Yes | ||||
| Kiddle | Yes | No | |||||
| KidRex | 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 | |||||
| Petal | France | Yes | No | Unknown | |||
| Qwant | France | Yes | Yes | Unknown | Unknown | ||
| Seznam.cz | Yes | No | |||||
| Sogou | China | Yes | No | Unknown | |||
| Startpage | Netherlands | Yes | Yes | ||||
| Swisscows | Yes | No | |||||
| WebCrawler | Yes | No | |||||
| Yahoo! Search | USA | Partial | Yes[12] | No | Unknown | ||
| Yandex Search | Russia | Yes | Yes[13] | No | Unknown | ||
| Youdao | Yes | No |
Tracking and surveillance
| 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[10][14] | No | No | No | No [15] | No[citation needed] |
| Ecosia | No[16] | No | No | No | Unknown |
| Exalead | No | ||||
| Fireball | Yes | ||||
| Google Search | Yes | Default[17] | Yes[18] | Yes[18] | 2013 and prior[18][19] |
| Kiddle | No | ||||
| KidRex | No | ||||
| Lycos | No | ||||
| Microsoft Bing | Yes | Yes | Yes[18] | Yes[18] | 2014 and prior[18][20][21] |
| Mojeek | No | No | No | No | Unknown |
| Naver | No | ||||
| 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[18] | Yes[18] | 2014 and prior[18][22] |
| Yandex Search | Yes | Yes[23] | Unknown | Limited[24] | Unknown |
| Youdao | Yes |
- 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.
- Cannot be verified independently, as the information is handled by servers not accessible by the public.
- Tracking the user has to be conducted in order to provide personalized search results.
See also
- Comparison of webmail providers – often merged with web search engines by companies that host both services
- List of search engines
- Search engine privacy