About 30 percent of web traffic is generated using internet search engines, the software that retrieves information in response to a spoken or written query. Your search results influence everything from what you think to what you buy.
About 30 percent of web traffic is generated using internet search engines, the software that retrieves information in response to a spoken or written query. Your search results influence everything from what you think to what you buy.
Most web-enabled devices like laptops and smartphones come with a default web browser, which comes with a default search engine. The most common default search engines—Google and Bing—are ad-based, meaning they prioritize ads over quality results and collect your data for advertising.
Changing your browser’s default search engine can improve your browsing experience by giving you more control over your search results, and can even help protect your data and privacy.
It’s the search engine used in the address bar of your web browser.
A web browser is a software program for displaying web pages and navigating the web, whereas a search engine is a website that finds web pages from other websites. Search engines can be accessed using a web browser by either visiting the search engine’s website or by typing a search term into a browser’s address bar.
When you type anything other than a web address (URL) into your browser’s address bar—like ‘Tokyo olympics’, for example—you’re taken to the search engine results page (SERP) of your browser’s default search engine. In a sense, your default search engine is your browser’s preferred way of finding particular sites on the web.
Most leading browsers, like Google Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, come ‘prepackaged’ with Google Search as the default search engine. Microsoft Edge comes with Bing. But you can always choose another option, either from a list of other search engines or by adding a new one yourself.
For twenty years Google has set the pace and written the rules for how online search works. With over 92 percent of global market share, Google Search is by far the world’s dominant search engine. (By comparison, Bing, the second-most popular search engine, has just over 2 percent of the market share.)
Google maintains its grip through its size and diverse portfolio of products and partnerships. Google benefits from being the default search engine for other Google products such as Android, the world’s most popular mobile operating system with over 72 percent of the market share, and Chrome, the leading browser on desktop computers and mobile devices by a wide margin. The more Google services you use, the more information Google collects about you. Every search request provides the company with more data, which in turn improves its search algorithm and helps further its market dominance.
Google also has a business relationship with Apple, which has allowed Google to be the default search engine on all of Apple’s products.
Google has faced considerable scrutiny in recent years over its anti-competitive behavior and monopolistic business practices which undermine privacy, openness, and competition on the internet. As a result, a variety of new alternatives to its products and services are emerging.
Your search engine is your compass, guiding you across the ocean of websites that is the internet. Getting around is a lot easier if it points you in the right direction. Unfortunately, mainstream search engines have some biases, thanks to their ad-based business model. Here are a few reasons to swap your default search engine for an alternative:
1. Mainstream search engines make their money through online ads, creating a conflict of interest. These allow advertisers to buy their way to the top of the results page from certain search terms, especially retail or product queries. And ads are increasingly indistinguishable from organic search results.
2. Mainstream search engines are biased towards engagement. Search engines want to show results that people will click on. When people click on a particular search result and spend time on the page, they send a signal to the search engine that that result was relevant and engaging. This signal makes the search engine more likely to surface that result again. But engagement doesn’t necessarily mean quality. For instance, high-engagement, ad-driven sites like WebMD often outrank credible sites like National Institutes of Health. You want real results, not a rabbit hole.
3. Ad-based search engines track your activity and sell your data to advertisers. By default, they keep a record of every search you make on their engine. They also collect personal data, like your IP address, and use it to serve you targeted ads. You have almost no control over how they use the data they gather about you, or how long they store it.
Private search engines like Neeva don’t sell or share your data. Changing your browser’s default search engine to a private option can give you more relevant search results while shielding your data from trackers and advertisers. Your searches, your business.
Major web browsers allow you to change your default search engine from a list of options in search settings. Most also allow you to add search engines of your choosing from the web. Here’s how, depending on your browser:
To add a search engine:
You can also:
You can’t add new search engines to Safari. However, certain Safari extensions, like Neeva For Safari, provide a way to set new default search engines. Find these by searching for extensions in the Apple App Store.
To add a search engine:
To add a search engine:
Note: If changing your search engine doesn’t work, your browser may be infected with malware. You may need to reset your browser settings before trying again.
Ready for a safer, more private search experience? Neeva is the world’s first private, ad-free search engine, committed to showing you the best results for every search. We will never sell or share your data with anyone, especially advertisers. Try Neeva for yourself, at neeva.com.