Brave, a privacy-focused browser that is rapidly growing in popularity, has officially said goodbye to Google as its default engine. "Brave Search" will replace Google's search engine and be the new default search engine. The announcement was made in a blog post.
Brave Search is Brave’s answer to customers who want a privacy-preserving search engine. It's built using Brave’s "independent index" and does not track users, their searches or their clicks. Brave Search will be the default search engine for Brave users in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. Brave Search will also replace other default browsers such as Qwant (France) and DuckDuckGo (Germany).
Brave Desktop Browser Update (version 1.31), the Brave Android App (version 1.31)*, and the Brave iOS App (version 1.32) all offer Brave Search as default for users in these five countries. These apps also have fully localized versions in non English geographies. Brave users have the option to change their search engine settings to choose another search option. Brave Search can also be used in other browsers at search.brave.com.
Brave hopes that users in all countries will be able to change their default search engine to Google or DuckDuckGo. However, not everyone will be able to do so. Brave Search currently does not display ads, but the company announced this week that it plans to change that. Brave claims that its free search engine will soon be ad supported. The company plans to offer a premium, ad-free plan in the future. Brave Search was launched in beta by Brave earlier this summer.
