As Privacy Concerns Grow, So Do Search Alternatives
February 23, 2022
Google is sure to remain king of the online search hill for the foreseeable future, but Spark takes a look at a couple burgeoning alternatives in the post, “Search Engines Try to Rival Google by Offering Fewer Ads, More Privacy.” Writer Jonathan Ore begins with Neeva, founded by ex-Googler Sridhar Ramaswamy.
“[Ramaswamy] bills Neeva as an ad-free, private search engine. Results won’t include advertisements, and the company says any information it does collect from users isn’t shared with third parties. That ad-free experience does come with a cost, however: a subscription fee of $5 US per month, after a three-month trial period. Ramaswamy argues that no search engine is truly free, as users end up paying with all the advertisements and affiliate links clogging up search results, making it harder to find the things they actually want.”
That is one way to look at it. We would add that Neeva does have a free version, but naturally hopes users will be enticed to upgrade. Ore notes that, though Neeva emphasizes privacy, it does collect certain user data—like one’s email address, IP address, location data, browser, and OS. The platform uses this information to improve function and performance, states its privacy policy, but promises not to share any of it with third parties.
Next, the write-up takes a look at You.com, a platform that seems tailored to younger audiences. We learn:
“Rather than a mostly-linear list of results sorted in order of relevance or accuracy, You.com displays search results in a grid-like format. It also lets users ‘upvote’ and ‘downvote’ individual results, directly affecting their rankings in future searches. That added flexibility comes at the cost of simplicity, though; The Verge’s Adi Robertson said its layout can appear ‘overwhelming and sort of cluttered’ to anyone used to Google’s linear approach. Co-founder Richard Socher said, however, that he found younger users used to other social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok, which display content in tiles both vertically and horizontally, were able to quickly acclimate themselves to You.com’s unique layout.”
Like Neeva, You.com also emphasizes privacy and refuses to sell user data to advertisers. Can such search platforms really take out Google? Don’t be silly—of course not. But the write-up cites DuckDuckGo as an example of success. That privacy-centric service, launched in 2008, now processes tens of millions of searches daily and employs over 140 workers. Is ad-addicted Google bothered? Probably not. It can well afford to lose such small slices of the search pie and remain decisively in the lead.
Cynthia Murrell, February 23, 2022
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