Brave is developing its own privacy-focused search engine
It bought open-source engine Tailcat to power Brave Search.
Privacy-focused browser Brave is working on its own search engine. It has bought Tailcat, an open-source engine created by a team who worked on the defunct anti-tracking browser and search engine Cliqz, to power Brave Search. The company will allow others to use Brave Search tech to build their own search engines.
Brave says the search engine will provide an alternative to Google Search and Chrome. It's developing Brave Search using the same principles as its browser, which now has more than 25 million monthly active users.
The company says it's putting users first and it won’t track or profile them. Along with an ad-supported model, there will be a paid, ad-free option. Brave is working on bringing its own ad network to Search. Fellow privacy-centric search engine DuckDuckGo uses ads powered by Microsoft, albeit in a way that protects users' data.
Brave is committing to transparency with Search. It says it won't "use secret methods or algorithms" to deliver biased results. It plans to look into several open ranking models curated by the community to ensure a diversity of results and to prevent censorship.
Tailcat is built on an independent index. According to Brave, that allows users to have a quality search experience without impacting their privacy. Brave Search will also work with the company's browser to provide features such as personalization and instant search results, all without compromising user privacy, the company claims. Of course, you'll be able to set Brave Search as the default search engine in the Brave browser.
The news of Brave Search comes on the same that day Google announced plans to stop displaying ads based on your web browsing history. It will also no longer build tools to track user data across its various services.
You can sign up for a waitlist if you're interested in testing Brave Search.
