Brave Search

In this article, we want to address the issue of Brave Search, which has gained great relevance in recent years. Brave Search is a topic that has aroused interest in both the scientific community and the general public, due to its impact on different aspects of society. Throughout this article, we will explore different aspects related to Brave Search, from its origin and evolution, to its influence today. We will delve into its implications both at an individual and collective level, analyzing its importance in areas as diverse as the economy, technology, health, culture and the environment. Through a multidisciplinary approach, we aim to offer a comprehensive perspective that allows us to understand the relevance and complexity of Brave Search today.

This article is about the search engine. For the web browser, see Brave (web browser).
Brave Search
Screenshot of Brave Search
FormerlyTailcat
Type of site
Web search engine
HeadquartersSan Francisco, California,
USA
Created byBrave Software, Inc.
URLsearch.brave.com Edit this at Wikidata
RegistrationOptional[1]
LaunchedJune 2022 (June 2022)
Current statusOnline

Brave Search is a search engine developed by Brave Software, Inc., and is the default search engine for the Brave web browser in certain countries.[2]

History

Brave Search was developed following the acquisition of Tailcat, a privacy-focused search engine from Cliqz, a subsidiary of Hubert Burda Media based in Germany.[3][4][5][6]

In October 2021, Brave Search was made the default search engine for Brave browser users in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom (replacing Google Search), France (replacing Qwant) and Germany (replacing DuckDuckGo).[7]

In June 2022, Brave Search ended its beta stage and was fully released along with an announcement that within its year-long beta testing period, it surpassed 2.5 billion total queries.[6][8][9][10]

Features

Brave Search uses its own web index to generate search results with the aid of the WDP project.[11]

However, the user can allow the Brave browser to anonymously check Google for the same query.[12]

Discussions

A feature that shows conversations related to the search query, such as comments on the website Reddit.[13]

When a user searches and scrolls down, if available a discussions section will be there, and it will contain various forums where and the user can click one to see an answer from a user from an online community.

Goggles

A feature that allows users to apply their own rules and filters to a search.[14]

Search API

In May of 2023, Brave announced that it had launched a Search API.[15] Brave Search API is an interface that allows developers to integrate search functionalities from the Brave Search engine into their applications.[16]

Answer with AI

A large language model that automatically responds to some search queries, aided by content from web pages in the search results.[17]

Brave Search Premium

Users can optionally create an account with Brave Search Premium to support Brave Search directly involving data-collection.[1]

As of January 2025, Brave Search is an ad-free website, but it will eventually switch to a new model that will include ads and premium users will get an ad-free experience.[1]

Data collection

User data including IP addresses won't be collected from its users by default.[18]

However, Brave Search implements some level of data collect when users opt in through the Web Discovery Project (WDP).[19] No account is required for this function.[20]

As of May 2022, it covered over 10 billion pages and was used to serve 92% of search results without relying on any third-parties, with the remainder being retrieved server-side from the Bing API or (on an opt-in basis) client-side from Google.[11]

Limitations

According to Brave, the index was kept "intentionally smaller than that of Google or Bing" in order to help avoid spam and other low-quality content, with the disadvantage that "Brave Search is not yet as good as Google in recovering long-tail queries."[11]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Brave. "What is Brave Search Premium?". Brave Browser. Retrieved 2022-06-24.
  2. ^ Porter, Jon (2021-10-20). "Brave browser replaces Google with its own search engine". The Verge. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
  3. ^ "Brave's privacy-focused search engine is available in beta". Engadget. 22 June 2021. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
  4. ^ "Brave's privacy-focused search engine is available in beta". Engadget. 22 June 2021. Archived from the original on 18 January 2022. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
  5. ^ "Brave acquires search engine". Brave website. Brave Software, Inc. 3 March 2021. Archived from the original on 23 March 2021. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
  6. ^ a b Shankland, Stephen. "Google gets a new rival as Brave Search opens to the public". CNET. Archived from the original on 22 August 2021. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  7. ^ Porter, Jon (2021-10-20). "Brave browser replaces Google with its own search engine". The Verge. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
  8. ^ "Brave is launching its own search engine with the help of ex-Cliqz devs and tech". TechCrunch. 3 March 2021. Archived from the original on 26 November 2021. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  9. ^ "Privacy-First Browser Brave Is Launching a Search Engine". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Archived from the original on 12 June 2021. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  10. ^ "Brave Search passes 2.5 billion queries in its first year, and debuts Goggles feature that allows users to choose their own search rankings". Brave Browser. 22 June 2022. Archived from the original on 5 July 2022. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  11. ^ a b c Brereton, Dmitri (2022-05-06). "Interview with Brave Search". dkb.blog. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  12. ^ "Google fallback mixing". search.brave.com.
  13. ^ "Web Discovery Project Overview". Brave. 20 April 2022. Retrieved 2022-06-24.
  14. ^ "Brave's privacy-focused Google alternative lets you customize your search rankings". Retrieved 2022-06-24.
  15. ^ https://brave.com/blog/search-api-launch/
  16. ^ https://brave.com/search/api/
  17. ^ Mehta, Ivan (2024-04-17). "Brave Search is adopting AI to answer your queries". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2024-05-03.
  18. ^ Burgess, Matt. "Privacy-First Browser Brave Is Launching a Search Engine". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2022-03-10.
  19. ^ "What is the Web Discovery Project?". GitHub. Retrieved 2022-06-24.
  20. ^ "What is the Web Discovery Project?". Brave. Retrieved 2022-06-24.