Google alternatives - Search Google without worrying about privacy

[Gapo]

Some alternatives using SSL when searching:

https://duckduckgo.com/

https://ixquick.com/ (JavaScript required)

https://ssl.scroogle.org/

All of which are recommended. Plus, Ixquick let's you search images!

Non-SSL (HTTP) alternative:

Tin Foil Fedora (http://tinfoilfedora.com/)

[Renk]

Plus Ixquick let you access the searched site through ixquick's own proxy.

And thanks, duckduckgo and TinFoilFedora, I didn't know them.

There is the (more controversial) yauba.com too: No SSL access supported, but as with Ixquick you can access the searched site through yauba's proxy.


An other (structurally different) alteernative: Yacy (http://www.yacy.net/):

Yacy is fully decentralized, all users of the search engine network are equal, the network does not store user search requests and it is not possible for anyone to censor the content of the shared index. We want to achieve freedom of information through a free, distributed web search which is powered by the world's users.

More links about distributed search engine projects:
Distributed P2P search engine - Wikiversity (http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Distributed_P2P_search_engine)


Edit: Something I just learned about DuckDuckGo on the EFF site: It allows outbound https links:

One great trend for Internet users' privacy and security has been that search engines — among other popular sites — are making their services available in a secure HTTPS form.

But users can still run into a privacy problem when they click on search results: the destination page could be unencrypted, potentially revealing lots of information to eavesdroppers about a user's interests and activities. For instance, suppose you search for [coronary artery disease] on a search engine, and you click on the search engine's outbound result link to Wikipedia's page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronary_artery_disease. Even if your connection to the search engine was protected by HTTPS, your connection to Wikipedia won't be!

This week the developer of the search engine Duck Duck Go let us know that Duck Duck Go is doing exactly that, using EFF's HTTPS Everywhere rules to automatically generate secure outbound links where possible. (For example, Duck Duck Go is rewriting not only links to Wikipedia but also links to sites like Twitter and Facebook into HTTPS.)

SSL StartPage (https://www.startpage.com/) (which seems to be the same as Ixquick) has this ability, too:


We were also thrilled to discover that StartPage, a pioneer in search privacy, is also generating secure outbound Wikipedia links. Hopefully more search engines will adopt this practice soon!

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/10/search-engines-protect-privacy-outbound-https

[Resurrection]

I have one profile of FF where I've not logged into any of the Google services and blocked the Google cookies...

Really now,don't tell me Google logs your IPs too...

[anon]

Really now,don't tell me Google logs your IPs too...

Privacy FAQ ? Google Privacy Center (http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacy_faq.html#toc-terms-ip)

[Gapo]

I won't be using Scroogle anymore, especially now that I know who the owner is :gnoes:

[anon]

Care to elaborate?

[anon]

Another one not mentioned here is qrobe. They provide results from Google and Bing (which means good accuracy) without logging your IP or setting tracking cookies. SSL access available.

https://qrobe.it/

[Gapo]

DuckDuckGo now operates a Tor exit enclave (http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2010/08/duckduckgo-now-operates-a-tor-exit-enclave.html)

DuckDuckGo is operating a TOR version of its search engine, known as a "hidden service". To access the hidden service, you'll need to install TOR.