We have tested dozens of search engines including some of the newer ones which are powered by AI. Based on our tests we've come up with a list of the best search engines.
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| Best Search Engines in 2024 | List by Technobroz |
Best Search Engines in 2024
- Brave Search
- Google Search
- Microsoft Bing
- DuckDuckGo
- Perplexity.ai
- Mojeek
- Qwant
- Startpage
Brave Search
The best search engine overall is from the folks who make the Brave browser. Brave search is the best because it balances fantastic search results along with excellent privacy. They don't track your searches or your clicks ever to be quite honest when it was first released in 2021 it wasn't that good it has improved so much that it's now the default search engine on most people's PCSs. When you do a search their AI-powered summarizer will produce a paragraph at the top summarizing an answer to your query with cited sources and below that will be the traditional search results. The results are from its sown web crawling index along with anonymous API calls to third parties.
Google Search
Google search may be the most used search engine in the world with more than 80% market share depending on your needs it may not be the best choice for you. On a positive note once you get past all of the sponsored results of which there could be many the results are somewhat decent. One major downside is the privacy concerns and the massive amount of data collected by Google based on your web activity.
In addition, it was revealed late last year in the ongoing US versus Google trial that Google pays Apple to be the default search engine in Safari. According to the the New York Times that specific number was around 18 billion in 2021. So in other words some would say Google pays to maintain its dominance.
Microsoft Bing
For a similar experience as Google when doing a search Microsoft Bing is one many people use but once again you're dealing with a giant tech company collecting a ton of user data albeit not as much as Google. Microsoft has their AI Search bot powered by chat GPT built into Bing. At any time for example on the search page you can click on its icon to begin a conversation.
When doing an image search Bing is far superior to Google with better filters and search options. Bing is also part of Microsoft rewards which lets you earn points when you search or shop on their search engine. These points can be redeemed for gift cards and other stuff.
DuckDuckGo
Of the search engines that are known for privacy, DuckDuckGo is the most well-known. Their privacy policy is simple it states we don't collect or share any of your personal information. The search interface is cleanly laid out without too much clutter to get the results. DuckDuckGo primarily uses Microsoft Bings search API speaking of Microsoft. We have to mention this DuckDuckGo found themselves embroiled in a controversy a couple years ago when it was discovered that they were allowing Microsoft trackers because of their search and add partnership.DuckDuckGo has since reversed that decision and now blocks trackers from Microsoft.
Perplexity.ai
This untraditional search engine uses a chatbot that directly answers questions based on the queries given. To begin, you enter your query just like you would with any other traditional search engine. You'll get the sources cited at the top that it used to formulate the answer. When it's done you'll have the opportunity to ask a follow-up question or you could choose one of the related questions.
Just a word of caution search engines using AI that are based on large language models like Perplexity.ai will often have errors or what is termed hallucinations which may contain false or misleading information presented as facts.
Mojeek
Mojeek is a traditional search engine based in the UK that focuses on privacy. They don't use Google or Bing they use their own index with the results that can sometimes be in an unexpected order but more often than not are relevant to your query. A unique feature is the ability to search by emotions which can be found in the upper right. Enter your search term. The results are based on deep machine learning to analyze the mood of a web page.
Qwant
Qwant is a French-based search engine that claims to respect the privacies of its users by not tracking them or collecting personal data as well as being unbiased in the display of results. While it does have a nice-looking layout. In addition to using its own index, it also uses APIs from Microsoft Bing, YouTube, iTunes, and X formerly known as Twitter. They also make it easy to change the look of the results page. For example, selecting settings in the upper right lets you change the appearance the choices are light dark and automatic.
Startpage
Startpage is a search engine founded way back in 1998, the same year as Google that makes the bold claim of being the world's most private search engine. To get the results from Google search while protecting users' privacy by not storing personal or search data and removing all trackers. After doing a search if you click the anonymous view icon to the left of the web address it'll open the page via a proxy server for increased anonymity. Because it's using a proxy web pages will load slower than normal.
