Over the last 25-30 years Google has almost completely dominated the Internet, and the tools created by the Mountain View company are breaking popularity records. Google's flagship product is, of course, the search engine of the same name. According to StatCounter data, in October 2024, Google had 89.3 percent shares in the internet search engine market. For comparison, Bing, second in the ranking, boasts a share of only 4.2 percent.
Google domination
It is therefore not surprising that the Alphabet holding, which currently owns Google, from time to time faces accusations of monopolistic practices. In 2018 Committee European imposed a fine on Google of five billion dollars for violations of antitrust regulations relating to the system Android. In a justification, Brussels explained that the company took advantage of its dominant market position Androidby default placement of the Google search engine and Chrome browser in the system.
The giant also has serious problems in the US. – The court reached the following conclusion: Google is a monopoly and acted like a monopoly to maintain its dominance – ruled in August 2024 federal judge Amit Mehta. This decision ended a four-year-long dispute between the Mountain View giant and the American one Department of Justice.
Now the US prosecutor's office is moving from words to deeds. Representatives on Wednesday Department Justice filed a document with the court describing the countermeasures that should be taken to eliminate Google's monopoly. They demand, among others: breaking up the giant's business by selling the Google Chrome browser.
As the Department of Justice emphasizes, forcing Alphabet to sell Chrome will “permanently stop Google's control over this critical search access point and enable competing search engines to access the browser that is the gateway to the Internet for many users.” However, the demands do not end there. Prosecutors also want Google to stop paying companies such as Apple for putting Google as the default search engine on their operating systems.
Not just Google. Here are the best alternative search engines
Although it is not known how the clash between Google and the American justice system will ultimately end (the company has already announced an appeal against the case judgment federal court), each of us can now take up a private fight against the “Google monopoly” – on our computer and smartphone.
Google is there the most popularbut not the only search engine on the market. There is no shortage of other tools that stand out from the giant with interesting and often unique solutions. Perhaps none of them will 100% replace the search engine from the company from Mountain View and its – after all – hellishly good algorithms, but in many situations they may turn out to be an interesting alternative.
1) DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo is a search engine created in 2008 by Gabriel Weinberg, whose main goal is security and privacy protection. The creators of the tool boast that it does not collect any data about users. The search engine is built on open source software and uses Bing as a source of search results.
Advantages:
- Privacy – does not track users, does not store personal data and search history.
- Simplicity – fast, intuitive interface.
- Instant responses (so-called !bang) – allow you to quickly search other sites, e.g. “!wiki” for Wikipedia.
Defects:
- Less precise results – lack of personalization and advanced Google algorithms sometimes means less accurate answers.
- Limited database – results are often based on external sources (e.g. Bing), which may affect their quality.
2) Bing
Bing is Google's main rival developed by Microsoft, although there is a real gap between the two search engines in terms of market share. The Redmond company's tool offers extensive visual search and is supported by artificial intelligence (Copilot AI).
Advantages:
- Deals well with image and video search.
- AI integration – built-in chatbot based on LLM from OpenAI.
- Rewards program – search engine users receive points that can be exchanged for prizes.
Defects:
- User tracking – uses the collected data, among others: to personalize advertising content.
- Smaller database and worse algorithms searches compared to Google.
- Advertisements – advertising content may appear in search results.
3) Ecosia
This is quite a specific search engine that focuses on… ecology. Ecosia, based in Berlin, donates 80 percent. revenues for organizations involved in planting trees, among others in Brazil, Ethiopia and Tanzania. The company claims that since the search engine was founded in 2009, it has contributed to planting over 200 million trees (as of February 2024). The creators of Ecosia also boast about their care for the security and privacy of their users.
Advantages:
- Ecology – advertising revenues are used to plant trees.
- Privacy – does not track individual users.
- Clarity – regularly publishes financial reports.
Defects:
- Limited database – uses Bing as a data source.
- Weaker support for advanced search – offers fewer filters and commands compared to Google or Bing.
- Ad dependence – a business model based on advertising revenues, which theoretically may affect the quality of search results.
4) Brave Search
A project of the creators of the Brave browser, which has recently become more and more popular. Brave Search is committed to protecting your privacy and only collects information about you if you choose to join the Web Discovery Project (WDP). The search engine uses its own Internet index, which will cover over 10 billion web pages.
Advantages:
- Privacy – does not track users and does not share data with advertisers.
- Neutrality of results – are independent of Google and Bing indexing.
- No personalization – results are not matched to search history.
Defects:
- Limited database – much smaller page index compared to Google and Bing.
- Less advanced resultand – weaker algorithms may have trouble handling more complex queries.
- Advertisements – they can be removed, but only in the paid Premium version.
5) Homepage
A Dutch search engine that, on the one hand, offers users Google search results and, on the other hand, cares about their privacy. Startpage does not store personal or search data and removes all tracking scripts.
Advantages:
- Privacy – uses Google resources, but does not store user data.
- Anonymity – “Anonymous View” mode allows you to visit websites through a proxy server to protect your privacy.
- No personalization – results are not matched to search history.
Defects:
- Dependence on Google results – if Google excludes an address from search results, it will also disappear from Startpage results.
- Less convenient interface – compared to Google or DuckDuckGo.
- No advanced search features.
6) Quantum
A French search engine that boasts compliance with EU GDPR regulations. It protects user privacy and does not track or personalize results. It also has a “Qwant Junior” mode, which filters search results well for the youngest.
Advantages:
- Own index – Qwant has its own page index, which allows for greater control over the results and their neutrality.
- Privacy – does not store user data.
- Quant Junior – good content filtering for the youngest.
Defects:
- Less accuracy of results – search results may be less precise compared to Google, which has better algorithms.
- Limited database – its own page index is less extensive than that of giants such as Google or Bing.
- Partial dependency on Bing – uses Bing resources for less popular queries, which may limit its independence.