When most people think of search engines, the same names usually come to mind, like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. However, people are very concerned with their privacy on the Internet, especially with recent news of leaks indicating that the National Security Agency (NSA) is spying on data from big name search engines. Users who do not want their information given out to third-party businesses for profiling and might want to protect themselves by using a private search engine.

Private search engines are different from other search engines as they do not track their users' information. Here are some private search engines that I recommended, in no particular order.


In the company's own words, Hide and Search does not track or store any information about their users or their searches. A search on anything will not only reveal relevant related terms and images, but a handy Wikipedia entry as well. Hide and Search also has an "Optimize" button that creates suggestions that are not only relevant, but is usually and exactly what the user is looking for.

2. Ixquick/Startpage

The same company that does Ixquick also does Startpage, and both sites bill themselves as "the world's most private search engine". A search for the same subject on Ixquick and Smartpage reveal similar results, and there is no tracking or storing of the IP. Also, both Ixquick and Smartpage offer video and image searches. About the only difference between Ixquick and Startpage is that Startpage states on their homepage that they are "enhanced by Google", which means that all identifying information from a query is removed and then submitted to Google. Startpage is very similar to Scroogle, another private search engine that was taken down in early 2012.

3. DuckDuckGo

If you go to Don't Track Us, you will see DuckDuckGo's view of Google as a search engine that allows third parties to build profiles of its users for profit, and that information on Google can be used against users in a court of law. DuckDuckGo promises that it does not collect or share personal information to any other sites, and promises "search anonymously, find instantly". DuckDuckGo provides the user other sites to find more information about their topic, but the search parameters need to be very specific (often in quotes). To this writing, DuckDuckGo does not provide image or video searches.

4. Privatelee/Qrobe.it

Privatelee and Qrobe are both owned by Striquent LLC, and searches of the same topic revealed exactly the same results. Both Privatelee and Qrobe promise "the best results from the best search engines", and does not "track, analyze or profile our users". Privatelee and Qrobe have Images and Popular searches, but not Video searches or related topics.

5. Yippy

Yippy prides itself as being a "family friendly" search site, as searches for "racier" topics do not reveal the same results as those found on other search engines. Yippy states that they do not track your activity on their platform, store user history in their browser, monitor or record user searches, store copies of email, or collect any more personal information than the user volunteers. They also do not sell personal information for profit.