Ex-Google Employees come up with their own privacy-focused search engine

Privacy enthusiasts have long wanted a search engine alternative for Google that is privacy-focused. Now, the dream is all set to become a reality. As per a report, Neeva – a search engine built by ex-Google employees, wants its users to see search results that advertisers don’t get to dictate. “Ad-free, private search. The right results, no distractions. We find exactly what matters to you, whether it’s on the web or buried in your emails.”, the company says.

Neeva is founded by two former Google employees – Sridhar Ramaswamy and Vivek Raghunathan, who carry decades of experience. The platform ditches ads completely and will instead depend on a subscription basis, costing users between $5-10 per month.

However, Neeva will collect some information from the users, as stated by their official website. Here is what it aims to collect:

• Email address
• Phone number
• Location information
• Name
• User settings
• IP address
• Information you save in your ‘spaces.’
• Payment information
• The operating system or device
• Mailing address
• Cookie identifiers
• Information regarding your contacts
• The browser type and version you use
• Pages that you visit

The information collected by the search engine seems to be massive, but it’s reportedly extremely transparent about it. However, in the behemoth that Google is, and other rivaling engines such as Bing and Yahoo, could another search engine make its place? It looks likely since the report says that tens of thousands of people are signed up to Neeva’s waitlist. Neeva has also raised $40 million to accelerate the project, bringing the engine’s total funding to $77.5 million and valuation at $300 million.

Neeva is currently in a limited beta testing phase with plans to roll it out in 2021.

Source: Search Engine Journal

Read More: Google will face lawsuits over Incognito mode tracking.