New Search Engine "Brave Search" Beta Launches to Public

First new search engine in ages!

[engine]

Brave Browser has launched its search in beta using its own database.

Its principles include;-

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.com...]

Earlier story

Brave Search Coming to Privacy-Preserving Brave Browser [webmasterworld.com]

[yollo03]

Google has 92% global market share, duck has 0.59%, bing has 2.27%. I can't really see brave gaining any popularity unless it will be heavily marketed and even then it might only reach 1%. A new search engine needs to provide a whole new experience (ads-free is not enough), I don't think many users care about privacy (yet).

source: [gs.statcounter.com...]

[JS_Harris]

It's completely fair, if you promise a private Google alternative you should deliver a private Google alternative, not one based on Google code that falls back to Google results. The marketing department and design team need to work on their playbook a little.

[ronin]

if you promise a private Google alternative you should deliver a private Google alternative

I imagine that's what Google wants most of all - dissimilar competition like Firefox Browser and DuckDuckGo Search.

When Brave Browser first started up I was disappointed - it seemed all kinds of wrong to me that it was built on Chromium rather than Firefox.

After some time, I got it:

I have an emotional investment in Firefox, because that's what I've been using for years (read: decades).

But what if someone doesn't really care about browsers? What if they just want Google Chrome... but with privacy?

Then Brave Browser is a perfect choice.

It's the same with Brave Search - though not quite, since Brave's Results Set is substantially its own:

What if someone doesn't really care about search engines? What if they just want Google Search... but with privacy?

Then Brave Search might (let's see...) be a very good choice.

Google may well be more comfortable competing with products dissimilar to its own. These exist.

What Brave is doing - and no wonder it makes Google uncomfortable - is building competing products which are dramatically similar to Google's own products.

But with an emphasis on privacy - the one area where Google cannot compete.

[Pjman]

Honestly, users really don't understand Brave's key selling point and to be honest I ran 20 searches for things I was interested in on it over the last few days on it. It is was not helpful at all. The ads on google were better fits than what it offered me. Just a matter of time before we hear this name no more.

[robzilla]

What if someone doesn't really care about search engines? What if they just want Google Search... but with privacy?

Private Google-powered alternatives already exist, e.g. Startpage.com.

[ronin]

+1.

I'd not heard of Startpage before now, but this sounds like text search is in a much better place for the end-user in the early 2020s, if we now have:

1) Google results with privacy (Startpage)
2) Bing results with privacy (DuckDuckGo)
3) Brave results with privacy (Brave)

When privacy becomes normal and corporations like Amazon, Facebook and Google can only access personal data if they buy it from individuals on a mutually agreed basis, that sounds like a good thing.

After all, either personal data is valuable or its not.

If it's valuable they can pay for it. If it's not valuable enough to pay for, they don't need it.

[LeadBalloon]

Interesting. Do you think they'll monetize it with a subscription fee later on?

[engine]

FYI, this is the Tailcat announcement Brave Search Coming to Privacy-Preserving Brave Browser [webmasterworld.com]

[Brett_Tabke]

Where does it say Brave 'falls back' to using Google?

[brotherhood of LAN]

> Where does it say Brave 'falls back' to using Google?

They are crawling apparently.

Their backend tech is based on a browser plugin that observed clicks on search engines, what URLs they were and what queries were entered, mainly Google. That's what Cliqz was. That's what Brave bought.

Seems like a legal grey area but who knows. Bing were scolded for copying G's results 10 years back. The results look good but if they're just a re-jig of what Google already provided, not so great in that context perhaps.

They seem to rely entirely on G results if they lack the CTR data, but their other results are pretty much Google derived.

[mack]

I always welcome an alternative search engine. Brave does indeed show promise. It will be interesting to see how well it can scale. They are also in a position of being able to use their browser to direct searches. This is certainly worth following.

Mack.