HACKER Q&A
📣 skywal_l

What are the truly independent search engines out there?


As the Tank Man debacle showed, the critical key asset of the web: the search engine, could fail us is subtle or not so subtle way. It also made some of us realize that most of the search engines out there are actually just frontends for bing (Yahoo, Qwantz, Ecosia, ...).

Cliqz seemed promising but went bust a year ago.

What are the truly independent search engines out there?

Additional question: What are the inter dependencies between search engines. Do we have a clear view of where our search results are coming from?

Google -> DDG Bing -> DDG Yahoo -> DDG Wolfram Alpha -> DDG (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckDuckGo#Search_results)

Bing -> Yahoo (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Search)

Bing -> Qwantz (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qwant)

Bing -> Ecosia (source: https://ecosia.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/206153381-Where-do-Ecosia-s-search-results-come-from-)


  👤 ColinHayhurst Accepted Answer ✓
This illustrates interdependencies: https://www.searchenginemap.com/


👤 jqpabc123
Why is "independence" a significant attribute? I don't see it as a guarantee of anything that I really care about.

By their very nature, every search engine involves some level of discrimination, discretion and control. There is no alternative. Only one result can be ranked first.