Web browser company Brave has already positioned itself as the privacy-friendly alternative to Chrome. On Tuesday, it came for even more of Google's territory with the launch of its privacy-focused search engine.
The company said in March it was launching a search engine that doesn't track or profile its users. Now, the company is launching Brave Search in beta.
"Unlike older search engines that track and profile users, and newer search engines that are mostly a skin on older engines and don't have their own indexes, Brave Search offers a new way to get relevant results with a community-powered index, while guaranteeing privacy," Brave's CEO Brendan Eich said in a statement.
Brave's built its own search index for this product, rather than relying on Google or Bing. For some queries where the index doesn't have enough relevant results, Brave will use Bing as a backstop. But users will be able to see what percentage of results are coming from Brave's index, versus third parties.
"Brave Search fills a clear void in the market today as millions of people have lost trust in the surveillance economy and actively seek solutions to be in control of their data," Eich said.
As Brave leans into the search market, Google is, meanwhile, working on making its browser more privacy protective, in part, by killing off the third-party cookie. But critics argue that while third parties may have a harder time tracking people on Chrome, Google, which has a gigantic ad business of its own, will still be able to follow their every move.
Climate TRACE's data show emissions at the facility-level.Image: Climate TRACE