Searching Safely With A Privacy Focused Search Engine
Having a private browser is not enough, you also need to use a private search engine. Fortunately for you it’s very easy to switch to a privacy focused search engine.
How Does A Search Engine Work?
1. Crawlers Scout the Web
Think of these bots as digital librarians, constantly scanning and cataloging websites.
2. Indexing the Internet
All crawled pages get stored in a massive database (the “index”), like a library’s card catalog for the web.
3. Matching Your Query
When you search, the engine scours its index for pages matching your keywords, then ranks them.
Search engines like Google show paid “Sponsored” websites at the top. These ads are bought by companies to appear first—they’re not organic results.
Why Bother?
Traditional search engines like Google or Bing:
- Track your queries to build a profile of your interests.
- Sell your data to advertisers or use it to personalize results.
Privacy-focused search engines, however:
- Don’t store your searches and tie them to your identity.
- Serve unbiased results without filtering based on your history.
How To Switch Your Search Engine
Chrome/Edge/Brave: Click the three-dot menu → Settings → Search Engine → Choose your new default.
Firefox: Click the three-dot menu → Settings → Search → Select from the dropdown.
Safari: Open Safari Settings → Search → Pick your engine.
