Brave Search Passes 2.5 Billion Queries in First Year

Brave Search, the private, independent search engine competing with giants such as Google, has announced on its first anniversary that 2.5 billion queries have now been completed by the search engine.

Brave recently announced that its search engine, Brave Search, has passed 2.5 billion queries completed on its one-year anniversary. Brave Search defined its goals for its search engine, writing that it wanted to be “a privacy-protecting, unbiased alternative to Google and Bing, and a truly independent alternative to providers—such as DuckDuckGo or Startpage—that rely on Big Tech to run.”

Brave is the default search engine for users of the privacy-focused Brave Browser but can be used by anyone by visiting the Brave Search Page. The search engine has seen rapid growth and has released a number of new features. The company has aimed to do so while sticking to its original core principles:

Independence: We serve results from our own built-from-scratch index of the Web
Privacy: We don’t track you, your searches, or your clicks
User-first: We put you first, not the advertising or data industries
Transparency: We don’t censor, bias, filter, or downrank results (unless legally required to)
Seamlessness: Brave can offer a best-in-class integration between the browser and search—from personalization to instant results as you type—without compromising privacy

The company listed the following metrics for the search engine over the past year:

2.5 billion queries in the past 365 days
A high of 14.1 million queries per day
5 billion queries annualized (projection based on current monthly totals)

In comparison, it took Google over a year to reach 2.5 billion queries and DuckDuckGo more than 4 years. As a result of this impressive growth, Brave Search is now leaving its “beta” phase.

Josep M. Pujol, Chief of Search at Brave, commented:

Since launching one year ago, Brave Search has prioritized independence and innovation in order to give users the privacy they deserve. The Web is changing, and our incredible growth shows that there is demand for a new player that puts users first.

Today we’re releasing Goggles to alter the way search has traditionally been done and to put users in charge at last. The world is too diverse for a single ranking, so Goggles opens search ranking and filtering transparently for everyone to use, share, and improve.

Prior to Brave Search, DuckDuckGo was viewed as a privacy-friendly alternative to Google, which holds a monopoly stranglehold over the search industry. However, DuckDuckGo has made a series of decisions that have diminished its usefulness to conservatives and others who value privacy and free speech. The company announced that it would “down-rank” what it considers “misinformation.” It was then revealed that the company, which prides itself on privacy, was allowing Microsoft trackers as part of its agreement to use Bing search results.

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