Brave Software, the company behind the privacy-focused browser Brave, has announced that it has acquired the open search engine Tailcat which it will soon use to enter the search market.
Tailcat was developed by the team formerly responsible for privacy search and browser products at Cliqz and the search engine will become the foundation of Brave Search.
While nearly all of today’s search engines are either built by or rely on results from big tech companies, Tailcat is built on top of a completely independent index which is capable of delivering the quality results users expect without compromising their privacy. In fact, Tailcat does not collect users’ IP addresses or use personally identifiable information to improve its search results.
Through its browser and upcoming search product, Brave aims to take on Google Chrome and Google Search, which have a 70 percent and 92 percent market share respectively, by offering users more privacy-preserving alternatives. While we’re only a few months into 2021, the Brave browser has already seen unprecedented growth this year, reaching over 25m monthly active users.
Brave Search
In a press release announcing Brave Search, the company explained that its new search product will be private, user-first, independent, transparent, seamless, open and will offer users a choice.
Brave Search will not track or profile users and unlike other search engines, it will put its users first as opposed to catering to the advertising and data industries. In terms of choice, it will provide options for both ad-free paid search and ad-supported search and the company is currently working on bringing private ads to search just as its done for Brave user ads.
As Brave Software does not believe in walled gardens, the company will offer Brave Search as a means to power other search engines. Brave Search will also be transparent and the search engine will not use secret methods or algorithms to bias its results. The company even plans to explore blockchain-based options and other new developments such as e-commerce.
CEO and co-founder of Brave Software Brendan Eich provided further insight on the company’s recent growth, saying:
“Brave has grown significantly over the past year, from 11 million monthly active users to over 25 million. We expect to see even greater demand for Brave in 2021 as more and more users demand real privacy solutions to escape Big Tech’s invasive practices. Brave’s mission is to put the user first, and integrating privacy-preserving search into our platform is a necessary step to ensure that user privacy is not plundered to fuel the surveillance economy.”
