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Brave, the company known for its eponymous privacy browser, has launched a new search engine. Aptly named Brave Search, the new tool is now available to users around the world in a public beta. The new search engine will use technology developed by Tailcat, an open search engine that Brave acquired earlier this year.
The company promotes “unparalleled privacy” with Brave Search. It puts users first by giving them full control over their online activities. The advertising and data industries do not take precedence. Also, unlike most other search engines, it doesn’t track users or create a profile to track their searches or clicks.
“Brave Search is the most private search engine in the industry, as well as the only independent search engine, giving users the control and confidence they seek in alternatives to great technology,” said Brendan Eich, CEO of Brave. .
Brave Search will use a completely independent index to answer common questions. However, for some queries and areas like image search, the company says its search engine isn’t mature enough to deliver relevant results. In such cases, it will use the APIs to retrieve results from other services such as Microsoft Bing. This will not compromise privacy or result in any user tracking. However, it will reduce the independence metric Brave hopes to achieve someday.
The company also claims transparency of search results with Brave Search. There are no secret methods or algorithms to influence the results. The new tool will also soon receive “community-curated open ranking templates”. This “will ensure diversity and prevent algorithmic bias and outright censorship,” the company says.
Brave Search does not show any ads during the current beta version. However, the company plans to show ads in the future. It will also offer a paid, ad-free version of the new search engine. Additionally, Brave Search will be available to power other search engines in the future as well.
Brave Search will become the default search engine later in the Brave browser
Brave has been testing Brave Search for several months. In March of this year, the company launched the new tool to users for early access and testing. More than 100,000 users have signed up for early access, the company said. It has now launched Brave Search worldwide in public beta, taking on several established names in the industry, including Google Search and Microsoft Bing.
Brave Search will be integrated with the Brave browser and will become its default search engine later this year, likely after the new tool is out of beta. Users of other browsers can also access Brave Search at search.brave.com. It’s unclear whether the company plans to launch its search engine as a standalone app. We will keep you updated as / when further information emerges.
In the meantime, you can see a side-by-side comparison of Brave Search versus other search engines here.
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