Computer and Library Learning (Archived)

(Credit: Glitch Geeks – YouTube – 5 Search Engine Alternatives for Privacy – Published on May 19, 2013 – 9:29)

(Credit: Amit Kumar – YouTube – DuckDuckGo – Anonymous Search Engine – Published on March 7, 2014 – 7:12)

(Credit: Films4You – YouTube – Extra private searching Startpage. Stop the spies – Published on April 28, 2014 – 9:33)

(Credit: Bwana McCall – YouTube – DuckDuckGo Gets a Major Facelift – Published on May 5, 2014 – 5:50)

(Credit – SERoundtable.com – YouTube – Google & Bing Algorithm Shifts, DuckDuckGo ReDesign & Matt Cutts On Links – Published on May 9, 2014 – 9:45)

(Credit: Ignite Network Solutions – YouTube – DuckDuckGo Review – Published on June 7, 2014 – 11:00)

(Credit: Startpage Search – YouTube – GOOGLE NOW – Daily Video from StartPage Private Search Engine – Published on June 12, 2014 – 1:18)

When people use a search engine to find information, they might be concerned about someone tracking what they searched for, arguably an invasion of privacy especially in the vast majority of cases where someone has done nothing wrong. Many people have expressed concern about how some search engines track search preferences such as Google. Yes, it is true that one does not need a Google account nor needs to log into that account to use the Google search engine. The same is true for Bing, Yahoo, Ask.com and other search engines. In fact, Megan Carpentier, writing on Huffngtonpost.com on October 31, 2013, offered Google, Microsoft/Bing, and Yahoo account holders the advice to log out of their accounts before using the accompanying search engine to look for information on the World Wide Web. Google updated its privacy policy earlier in 2014 (the latest version as of this blog post is March 31, 2014 – the privacy policy is also available in PDF (Portable Document Format)). Google provides links to additional information such as how Google uses tracking cookies as well as pattern recognition (to interpret images and support Voice Search), and types of location data. As for its main competitors, Microsoft’s Bing Privacy Statement was last updated in June 2014, while Yahoo’s Privacy Policy was last updated on January 7, 2013. Ask.com’s current privacy policy is in effect as of December 18, 2013 but the AskEraser feature was discontinued as of January 15, 2014. However, Ask.com’s privacy policy provides links to information on how to block or disable tracking cookie settings in Microsoft Internet Explorer 5, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari 5.1 (OS X Lion) web, and Apple iOS. It is important to review these privacy policies to determine what type of information is collected and how and why it is used.

The search engine companies have a mixed record on the issue of “Do Not Track”. Yahoo announced on April 30, 2014 that after being “the first major tech company to implement Do Not Track”, “web browser Do Not Track settings will no longer be enabled on Yahoo” in the absence of a single technology industry standard, while emphasizing the ability of Yahoo users to manage their own privacy as well as “benefiting from a personalized web experience.” Google, for its part, announced on its updated October 2012 Do Not Track page that “…most web services, including Google’s, do not alter their behavior or change their services upon receiving Do Not Track requests”  but released an update for its Google Chrome browser in November 2012 that supported a Do Not Track option. Google Chrome’s privacy policy page links to choices that Google Chrome users can enable such as the incognito mode (to avoid recording website visits or downloads that are otherwise noted in the browsing and downloading histories), privacy preferences, clearing browsing data, customizing privacy preferences on a website basis, and opting-out of advertisement personalization by installing the “Keep My Opt-Outs” Chrome extension. It is interesting to note that the major search engine companies have not endorsed the Do Not Track: Universal Web Tracking Opt Out initiative but social networking sites Pinterest and Twitter both have.

Adam Tanner, in a February 10, 2014 article on Forbes entitled “Why Traffic To These Google Alternatives Is Soaring”, reported that Ixquick and its sister website Startpage.com had less than one million visitors a day in January 2012 when Google changed and consolidated its privacy policies from a variety of its services into one privacy policy. Traffic to Ixquick and Startpage.com increased following Google’s privacy policy change in 2012 with some 2.5 million visitors a day by spring 2013. Startpage.com and Ixquick search queries hit an all-time high on March 24, 2014 with 5,599,771 queries on the heels of the Edward Snowden spying allegations towards the National Security Agency (NSA) in the United States.

The search engine DuckDuckGo (which underwent a re-design in May 2014) prides itself on supporting privacy for the web searcher as evidenced by its own Don’t Track Us website that compares Google’s collecting information to DuckDuckGo not collecting nor storing any personal information. Check out DuckDuckGo’s Don’t Bubble Us website that asserts that the popular search engines such as Bing and Google are influenced by the “filter bubble” that tailors search results based on one’s search history and what the search engine thinks is desired rather than highlighting information with different or opposing points of view, where applicable. Check out DuckDuckGo’s Features page to learn more about DuckDuckGo’s !Bangs commands that allow you to directly perform searches on other search engines. Access the full list of DuckDuckGo’s !bang commands here. An example search on DuckDuckGo of !gca T. C. Douglas (where !gca equals Google Canada) searches the Google Canada search engine for information on T.C. Douglas, former Premier of Saskatchewan and former leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada who was chosen by Canadians as the Greatest Canadian in a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) contest in 2004.

While the issues of privacy and the “filter bubble” give us something to think about, how do the search engines embracing privacy stack up against the ones that do not embrace privacy as firmly in terms of search quality? The answer is not necessarily straightforward and obvious in all cases but let us look at some different sources. Keath Wyszynski, Editor of Informer Technologies Inc. in 2013, described DuckDuckGo as “one of the most honest and even chivalrous projects on the Internet” of which he was aware as the search results are derived from crowd-funded sources like Wikipedia but downplay results from commercial websites which can be a mixed blessing. In addition to crowd-funded sources and its own web crawler DuckDuckBot, DuckDuckGo also draws on Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, and Wolfram Alpha in generating its search engine results.

The Dutch-based search engine Ixquick also emphasizes privacy by not logging your IP address and getting a fix on your location but it does place an anonymous cookie onto your computer or device to collect information about one’s search preferences which are NOT sent to the company’s servers. No identifiable information is collected and the anonymous cookie is deleted from one’s computer or device if Ixquick has not been used for 90 days. Keath Wyszynski does not offer an opinion on which search engine is better but acknowledges their differences which can'translate into preferences for people searching the Internet. Read Ixquick’s privacy policy here. Ixquick prides itself on “more comprehensive search results” as many search engines are searched confidentially and simultaneously as well as “more accurate search results” based on a 5 (five) star rating system with a 5 (five) star result indicating that 5 (five) search engines agreed on the result. Ixquick also offers users an advanced search similar to Google’s advanced search.

The company owning Ixquick also operates a companion search engine called Startpage.com that offers the user “web search results from Google in complete privacy” by removing identifying information from a search query and submitting said query to Google in an anonymous fashion. Startpage.com purchases search results from Google which are presented “…in a slightly less user friendly interface…”, according to Adam Tanner of Forbes, writing on February 10, 2014. Startpage.com does not record IP addresses, nor does it keep a record of one’s searches or use tracking cookies but it does use SSL (Secure Socket Layers) encryption. Read Startpage.com’s privacy page and privacy policy. Startpage.com’s advanced search is also enhanced by Google. Startpage.com offers advanced syntax search examples similar to those used on other search engines, including phrase searches, omitting words from a search, searching with paren'theses (example: adopt AND (beagle OR terrier)), and searching specific websites for information. Startpage.com and Ixquick also support searching 17 languages on the Internet – 18, if you count American English and British English as two separate languages.

The website LibreTechTips.com published an interesting article on May 27, 2014 comparing DuckDuckGo to Google, Bing, and Yandex (a Russian-based Internet search company operating the largest search engine in Russia). Example searches using all four of these search engines were grouped and evaluated under several weighted criteria: relevancy of results (50% weighting); instant answers (25% weighting); and, interface (25% weighting). Google placed first with 3.1 out of 4 with DuckDuckGo a close second at 2.7 out of 4. Bing came third with 1.8 out of 4 with Yandex placing fourth with 1.5 out of 4. Google and DuckDuckGo both scored 3 out of 4 each on the instant answers and interface criteria. The ten example searches used under the relevancy of results criterion demonstrated the various search engines placing well on answering some of the examples and poorly on the others.

The short answer is do not limit yourself to using just one search engine on the Internet. Use several search engines (and not just the big three – i.e. Google, Bing, and Yahoo) to assess search results quality. If privacy is of paramount importance, then you cannot discount using search engines such as DuckDuckGo and Ixquick. If privacy is important but you do not want to cut yourself off from what Google has to show on a particular search, then consider Startpage.com as balancing the need for privacy with what Google has to show, or use DuckDuckGo and the corresponding !bangs commands. Having said all of this, search engines will continue to evolve as Internet search tools and will require ongoing evaluation over time.

(See also: The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding from You )

(See also: DuckDuckGo: Privacy Matters on Search Engines )

(See also: Google and “Me on the Web” )