A side-by-side comparison
Brave Search vs Google
Google is the world’s most widely used search engine, but its privacy invasions and the declining quality of its search results are starting to send users elsewhere.
When it comes to the transparency of search results, and the privacy and security of the search engine itself, Google can’t match Brave Search. So which is right for you?
Let’s compare.
Is Brave Search more private than Google?
Google was one of the first search engines to index sites on the Internet. They even helped pioneer link analysis and other ways of ranking and reordering search results—helping to form the search algorithms we use today. But now, Google is just as much an ad platform as it is a search engine. Most of its billions in revenue comes from selling ads.
To power those ads, Google collects as much data about you as possible using invasive tracking methods and building your “profile” to better target you with ads. The more Google knows about you, the more money they make.
Brave Search, however, is built to deliver high-quality search results without profiling you:
Chart describes default settings
- Full protection
- Limited protection
- No protection, or off by default
Google is built for tracking. Its search engine allows creepy ads, trackers, cookies, and more to follow you across the Web, record everything you do, and link that activity directly with you. All without your knowledge or consent.
Brave Search, meanwhile, is private by default.
Are Brave Search results better quality than Google?
Both Brave Search and Google use their own independent index of the Web to deliver search results (meaning neither source results from a different search engine). But Google “personalizes” search results based on all the data they’ve collected about you, while Brave Search takes a different approach. Brave Search doesn’t personalize results, so the same query will produce the same results no matter who typed it into the search bar.
Brave Search also builds its index via the Web Discovery Project, which uses anonymous browsing data from real users to understand which pages people find most useful—meaning higher-quality results and less junk than Google. You can also customize your Brave Search experience with Goggles, which lets you alter your search results ranking according to your own preferences (which Brave would never do for you).
Check out the comparison based on results quality and transparency:
Chart describes default settings
- Full functionality
- Limited functionality
- No functionality, or off by default
With a community-driven, independent search index, and powerful customization options, Brave Search provides superior search results—without unwanted, behind-the-scenes manipulation.
FAQs
What is Brave Search?
Brave Search is the world’s most complete, independent, private search engine. By integrating Brave Search into its privacy-first Brave browser, Brave offers the first all-in-one browser/search alternative to Big Tech platforms. Brave Search is available as the default search engine in Brave or most other major browsers, or at search.brave.com.
How do I use Brave Search, or set it as default?
For some Brave users who downloaded the Brave browser on October 19, 2021 or later, Brave Search will be automatically set as the default search engine. Simply start a search in the address bar of any Brave browser tab. Learn more.
All other users can set Brave Search as the default search engine in Brave or most other major browsers, and then search from the address bar of any browser tab. To check the default search engine in the Brave Browser, open the settings page at brave://settings/search.
You can also use Brave Search by visiting search.brave.com from any browser.
Can I use Brave Search in Google Chrome?
Yes, Brave Search is accessible with any Web browser, including Google Chrome, Edge, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and more. To use Brave Search in Chrome, simply go to search.brave.com. You can even set Brave Search as the default search engine in Chrome.
Do I have to use Brave Search if I use the Brave browser?
No. You can still use other search engines in the Brave browser. Just visit the Web address of that search engine (like google.com), or set another engine as the default in the Brave browser.
Does the Brave browser use the Google search engine?
No. By default, the Brave browser uses the Brave Search engine, a private search experience powered by an independent index of the Web. However, users who want to use the Google search engine within the Brave browser are free to do so.
Can I use Chrome extensions in the Brave browser?
Yes, extensions available in the Chrome Web Store will also work in the Brave browser.
Can I use Brave Search in browsers other than Brave?
Yes, you can set Brave Search as the default search engine in most major browsers. (Note that Apple’s Safari browser still does not currently allow for Brave Search to be set as the default search engine.) Or visit search.brave.com. We also offer API access to Brave Search so developers and other companies can power their search engines with Brave’s search index.
How is Brave Search different? What does “independent” mean?
First, and most importantly, Brave Search adheres to core principles of privacy. We don’t profile you. Ever. This is far different from most other search engines, who collect every piece of data about your search behavior and tie it directly to you as a way to sell more targeted ads.
Second, Brave Search operates from a fully independent search index. An index is the list of billions of webpages, and some basic info about those pages, that search engines draw from to deliver search results. Google and Bing have their own indexes as well; most other “alternative” search engines—even supposedly “neutral” or “private” ones—do not. They’re just façades that rely exclusively on third-parties for their results. If Big Tech suddenly ceased to function, those other search operators would go offline. Brave Search, meanwhile, would stay fully operational.
Independence means choice—for users to be safer online, and not be beholden to the privacy invasions, censorship, biases, or economic interests of Big Tech.
Does Brave Search filter, downrank, or censor search results?
No, Brave Search does not filter, downrank, or censor search results. Nor will we change our search algorithm to increase or decrease the prominence of results in response to current events or anyone’s political, religious, ethical, or other beliefs. Brave Search—like Brave itself—is intended to be a user-first portal to the Web, free of Big Tech’s manipulation.
However, there is one exception to this rule—we do need to comply with laws governing search engines, including CSAM, copyright takedown (DMCA), right to be forgotten (GDPR), and nation-state orders.
Also note that, if you’ve chosen to enable it, Brave Search can anonymously retrieve Google search results for your query (a feature known as Google fallback mixing). This feature can be helpful for some unique or “long-tail” queries that Brave may not serve results for. If you’ve enabled fallback mixing, and a result is censored, filtered, or re-ranked in Google, those changes would pass through to our results. You can easily see how often a third-party result is mixed (via our independence score), and our aim is to gradually reduce this mixing over time.
What is Google fallback mixing in Brave Search? What happens when it’s enabled?
Brave Search is constantly refining and improving its index. For any query where we may not return enough results, you can allow the Brave browser to anonymously check Google for the same query. This feature—the Google fallback mixer—presents the results together for you, and sends the query results back to Brave Search so we can improve responses next time.
Note that if you do enable Google fallback mixing, you’re not interacting with Google in any way, and you won’t see Google Search Ads. Fallback mixing is simply an anonymous check of the Google search engine for the same query you entered into Brave Search.
What is the Goggles feature, and can it help limit search censorship?
Goggles is a beta feature of Brave Search. Goggles enable anyone, or any community of people, to create sets of rules and filters to constrain the searchable space and / or alter the ordering of results. Anyone could then choose to apply a Goggle—or extend it—to their view of Brave Search results. Essentially, Goggles will act as a re-ranking option on top of the Brave Search index.
This means that, instead of a single ranking, Brave Search can offer an almost limitless number of ranking options, enabling search use-cases that could be too specific for an all-purpose search engine. While Brave Search doesn’t have editorial biases, all search engines have some level of intrinsic bias. Goggles allows users to counter this intrinsic bias in the ranking algorithm.
To access Goggles, simply conduct a search at search.brave.com, and then click the Goggles tab on the results page. Or you can visit the Goggles landing page.
Want to learn more? Read the full white paper about Goggles, or visit the GitHub repo to learn how to make your own Goggles.
What's the Web Discovery Project, and how do I opt in?
The Web Discovery Project is a privacy-preserving way for you to contribute to the growth and independence of Brave Search. If you opt in, you’ll contribute some anonymous data about searches and webpage visits made within the Brave browser (including pages arrived at via some, but not all, other search engines). This data helps build the Brave Search independent index, and ensure we show results relevant to your search queries. By “data” we mean search queries, search result clicks, the URLs of pages visited in the browser, time spent on those pages, and some metadata about the pages themselves. Learn more.
The Web Discovery Project is a privacy-preserving way for us to build the index, allowing us to both remain independent and serve better quality, more real-time results than if we relied on simple Web crawlers the way Google does.
To opt in, open the Settings menu in the Brave browser. Select Search engine on the left panel, and then toggle on Web Discovery Project. You can opt out again at any time.
