Brave Search Cuts Ties With Bing & Goes Independent via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Brave Search, the offspring of the privacy-focused browser Brave, has announced a significant leap forward in its evolution.

It now boasts complete independence from other search engines, a remarkable achievement in the world of search.

Brave Search: A Brief History

The journey towards independence for Brave Search began in 2021 following the acquisition of Tailcat’s search engine and development team.

To create a fully independent search engine, Brave set out on a path that culminated in the launch of Brave Search Beta in June 2021.

The search engine launched as a privacy-focused, transparent alternative to established search giants like Google.

Since its introduction, the Brave team has introduced numerous features to its search engine.

These include Discussions, allowing real-human conversations to appear in search results, Brave Search Goggles for customized results, and Brave Search Summarizer for AI-powered quick results.

Fast forward to today, Brave Search has reached a pivotal moment. The search engine now relies entirely on its index for all results.

Previously, about 7% of queries were sourced from Bing Search, but Brave has now cut all connections to the Bing API, cementing its independence.

The Web Discovery Project has been instrumental in reaching this milestone. The project has helped Brave Search’s index grow by allowing users to contribute browsing data anonymously.

Brave Search is handling 22 million daily queries, a testament to its rapidly expanding user base.

Why Independence Matters

The increasing costs and uncertainties around Bing’s API access were significant motivators for Brave in striving for independence.

But the advantages go beyond cost-saving.

Being independent means Brave has complete control over its search engine, and its index powers all the search results.

Looking towards the future, Brave plans to launch the Brave Search API, offering developers and companies access. However, the specifics regarding pricing and the availability of a free option are yet to be announced.

Brave intends to keep its search engine as the main search tool on its browser and keep it free for everyone.

The company is working on a version of its search engine with ads and considering a paid version without ads.

In Summary

Brave Search relying on its own index and not on the big search engine companies is a big deal.

What makes Brave Search different is that the company behind it puts users in control and is open about how it works, which isn’t common in an industry run by huge companies.

As Brave keeps coming up with new ideas, it could change how we find information online.

Source: Brave

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