New search engine from the makers of Brave

There are many different search engines you can use to find the information you are looking for on the internet. The lord and master of this is of course Google, which controls more than 95 percent of the search engine share, and not only in the Netherlands. But almost every country. So does a new search engine still have a chance to get on the map? Let's discuss this in this blog post.

Search engines are known to everyone, which first started as startup sites that everyone used. This has grown into a select number of search engines that work so that all the information you could ever want is just a simple search away. With an expansion of search results from links to web pages, to now snippets where your answer is already in there. There are fewer click-throughs to the final website that provides the information. And so less traffic is diverted to the ultimate owner of the content. Something many webmasters don't appreciate.

Brave is working on a privacy friendly alternative, with the unique point that they will use their own algorithms to do this. A point that most other search engine alternatives cannot provide. The Brave browser has been available for some time now and has been a huge success. With their default blocking of ads and trackers and also a system to reward publishers or webmasters.

Simply blocking all ads is of course a tactic that many users use. However, in my opinion, this is not the most ethical choice in the long run. If you find a website host 's content useful or entertaining and you just consume it without giving anything back. Then that's not sustainable. You can choose to support a website directly. Of course, you are free to do so through a donation service, for example. Or show support in some other way. But the reality is that most people don't do this. As a website owner myself and an employee of MijnHostingPartner.nl, I can see both sides of the coin. And nothing is free.

The monopoly that Google has on advertising that does not take into account your privacy, search engine results in a strong grip, and actually in every area a user can keep in an environment of choice. It's also not the healthiest choice in the long run. Many webmasters will have experienced a Google update that caused organic traffic to plummet. You can argue that black hat techniques were used, but that's not always the case. Google traffic can make the difference between success and failure.

Brave search and the Brave browser, how do they work?

We've discussed the Brave browser several times in our blog posts, and you can read more about it at the links below:

https://www.mijnhostingpartner.nl/blog/tips/brave-browser-voor-privacy-en-veiligheid/

Basically, Brave is set up as a browser that doesn't follow you around a website at every turn. Just like the big boys like Facebook and Google follow you wherever you go. Many users are just tired of seeing ads for a vacuum cleaner everywhere after turning on their phone with Google Voice Search. Ads and trackers are blocked, and in return you can choose to automatically endorse a site, make a donation or tip, or otherwise support a site you actually find useful. It's not a perfect system in many eyes, of course, but it's a step forward in making the internet a little freer again.

Brave Search or Brave's new search engine stands for the same thing, privacy friendly search. A nice user experience, a simple layout that gives you everything you want, and no ads. (For now) And there are plans to show ads in the future. But privacy friendly ones that don't hunt you down. Same as now with the Brave browser. There are also plans for a paid version where the search experience is completely ad-free. Which could be a good alternative, of course.

But isn't there already a privacy search engine? DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo is starting to make a name for itself among the various search engines. However, searches performed with DuckDuckGo are still associated with Bing. Microsoft's search engine. And therefore do not use their own algorithms to index and rank websites. So Brave is trying to use its own algorithms for this, with the option of including Google results. But then with a mixture. So there is a combination of searches from the Brave algorithm and Google. With the protection of their privacy interwoven into it. Google is obviously good at its search results, that's a common complaint users have from other search engines. They can't find the right information they are looking for. The first impression users and testers have of Brave Search is that the results are good and as expected. However, the search engine is still in alpha phase and will go through many changes before it is finally ready for use.

So, in most cases, when a new search engine is launched, it is something to be excited about. More players in the market make for healthy competition and break up existing monopolies. This ultimately provides healthy competition and also some choice that users can have. Certainly with the internet the intention was that this was free for all and most importantly there was more choice. Now with the latest search engine, this may cause some upheaval again. Especially from a player like Brave who has managed to gain a large following in a short time. We will wait and see what Brave makes of this. What are your thoughts on the matter? Let us know via social media!