Cliqz Search: The Independent Alternative to Google and Bing

If you really want to search the web independently and privately, you should try the beta version of our Cliqz Search Engine – either in the Cliqz Browser or now directly at cliqz.com (previously beta.cliqz.com). The Cliqz Search Engine is still in beta, so expect to find some rough edges, but it’s getting better every day. If you find a problem, please let us know.

Unlike most other search engines – including Ecosia and DuckDuckGo – Cliqz does not rely on the US search giants Google or Bing for its results but uses its own search index. Having more than two search indexes is crucial for diversity, fair competition and a healthy balance of power.

In this article, we’ll introduce the Cliqz Search Engine and its main features. In another blog post, we’ll talk about the settings to customize the Cliqz Search Engine to your needs.

You may already be familiar with the Cliqz Quick Search which shows you a short selection of clickable website suggestions as a drop-down menu in the Cliqz Browser. The Cliqz Search as introduced here is a more conventional form of a search engine which presents the results on a website (Search Engine Results Page or SERP) – as known from Google or Bing. Therefore, the new Cliqz Search works like a “normal” search engine but offers a few special features.

We at Cliqz believe that privacy is a fundamental human right, and the safest way to keep private information private is to not have it at all. Therefore, we built our Cliqz Search from scratch with privacy by design.

Every search query you enter remains completely private. It is sent without any metadata that could be used to link different search queries. We don’t collect any personal data such as IP addresses. And we never record your search history.

We only collect strictly anonymous interaction statistics. This helps us to improve our search results ranking, build new search features and create a better overall experience. Please see our privacy policy for more information.

Smart Cliqz Widgets provide you with instant answers to everyday questions. Whether it’s weather information, flight status, soccer results or exchange rates, the information is displayed in an info box right under the search bar. You can also add some Smart Cliqz Widgets to your Cliqz homepage by clicking on the blue “Follow” button.

Below the search bar on the results page you can toggle between safe and explicit results. By default, the “Safe Search” option is turned on. It automatically filters most of the offensive or adult content from the results.

For each search result a small circle with a number next to it indicates how many and what kind of data collectors (trackers) the linked website contains.

A click on the circle behind the green page link opens a pop-up with an overview of the seen tracker types (e.g., advertising, site analytics, essential or social media). Detailed tracker statistics from whotracks.me for the respective website can be accessed by clicking on “Statistical Report”.

If you use the Cliqz Browser, you’re protected from all these data collectors thanks to the built-in anti-tracking technology. The Cliqz Browser is available for free for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS.

By clicking the eye icon next to each search result, you can open a preview. In the desktop version, the icon only appears when you mouse-over a result. Currently, the preview often shows only the link, the page title and the page description.

For public Xing profiles, the preview offers additional information such as work experience or education. This way you can judge more quickly whether the site is really worth a visit. Soon the preview will provide much more useful information for various results.

To the right of the search results, the Cliqz Search will often display a knowledge box with additional information – for example about people, companies, brands, products, countries, animals or plants.

Below the knowledge box you can see what other users have also searched for in the context of your search query. This can be helpful for your further research.

If you scroll down to the news section on the Cliqz homepage or open the “News” tab on the search results page, you’ll see a selection of trending topics under “Trending Now”. For each trending event you’ll get articles from a variety of reputable sources.

In addition, you can also view news sorted by topics such as politics or sports. The topics currently appear on the “News” tab at the end of the results. But they’ll become way more prominent in the next updates.

Furthermore, you can follow your favorite news sources (e.g. bbc.com or nytimes.com). Just search for the desired news source once and click the blue “Follow” button below the first result. News from this source will then appear between the curated top news on your Cliqz homepage and enrich the news feed.

You can open the image search via the tab “Images” on the search results page. Like the whole Cliqz Search it’s still in development and getting better every day.

In case the Cliqz Search doesn’t provide the desired result, you can also try another search engine to find what you’re looking for. By default, you can choose between Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo. Note, however, that you’ll be redirected away from Cliqz’s private search engine!

By the way, you can actively help us to improve our search results by using the Cliqz Browser. For example, did you search for your company’s website and it doesn’t yet appear in our results? Then temporarily switch to another search engine like Google and select the appropriate result. Thanks to the Human Web technology built into the Cliqz Browser, your company’s website will be added to our index and soon be available in Cliqz Search. Of course, you’ll remain completely anonymous to us. Learn more about how this works in our Techblog.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions regarding Cliqz Search, please let us know. We’re looking forward to your feedback!