| Search engine | Index | Business model | My verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| DuckDuckGo | Own + Bing | Contextual ads (not profiled) | My daily driver. Fast, clean, excellent !bang shortcuts. No tracking, no profile. |
| Startpage | Google results | Contextual ads | Google-quality results without Google's tracking. Uses Google as a proxy. Best for those attached to Google's result quality. |
| Brave Search | Independent | Contextual ads | Fully independent index — no Google, no Bing. Growing fast, results excellent for most queries. Best for maximum independence. |
| Kagi | Own + multiple | Paid subscription | No ads at all — you pay directly. Excellent result quality. Worth it if you search heavily and want zero compromise. |
| SearXNG | Aggregator | Self-hosted | Run your own search instance aggregating multiple engines. Maximum control, requires self-hosting. Covered in Part 3. |
| Bing | Own (Microsoft) | Advertising | Better than Google on privacy but still profiling. Not recommended as a primary engine. |
| Own | Advertising | Do not use if privacy matters to you. |
Reproduced verbatim from The Privacy Diet, Chapter 4 — “Search Engines: Breaking the Google Habit”. The book explains the reasoning behind each verdict.