Search Engine "Feels" Like Google

Hello, at your invitation I switched to the Brave Search Engine, within the Brave Browser. I DID NOT chose the Google Fallback option. None the less, my search results still look much like what I would expect from google. I am a Conservative and I frame my requests seeking Conservative information. More likely than not, my top returns wind up being from the liberal side. I expect this from google and the rest but you said you where different. Just how are you different?

I was planning to ask a similar question so I’ll add on to what bkarrer is asking.

While testing the search engine, I used specific terms that I knew would likely be censored by other search engines (in between legitimate searches) and one particular search made me ask some questions…

When I typed in “tank man” (something I know is definitely censored on some search engines, making it a perfect test term) and went to images, the page was completely blank in the same way it is on both Bing and DuckDuckGo. Just to check, I deleted from and added a letter to that search term and on both occasions, images appeared. This was the case at all levels of safe search.

What I would like to know is the following:

  • Is Brave using some of Bing’s code in Brave Search? Brave Search looks VERY close to DuckDuckGo too… again, how much code is shared?

  • Is Brave Search explicitly for private searches or is uncensored searching included?

  • If Brave Search does censor content, at what level is the filter? US Federal Law, company guidelines, something else?

Aside from my concerns above, the search engine does feel better than 2021 Google. I will note that this is not a direct attack on Brave or any of your employees - I just want to know what’s going on. My tester head is on at the moment.

Please see https://twitter.com/brendaneich/status/1400921087031103490?s=21 and also https://twitter.com/brendaneich/status/1400927141945090050?s=21.

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Thanks for this, Brendan. Glad someone else had already asked that question.

Great questions here. @brendan’s tweets above touch on how we plan on addressing this type of issue.

In short, we are implementing a feature in Brave Search called “Goggles”. I will link to to the full write up below, but in essence:
Goggles would allow user-defined specifications and modify search results/ranking, such that the user’s explicit preferences take precedence over the ranking of the search engine itself.

I would highly recommend thumbing through the write up to understand more about the aim of such technology and how it functions:

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What an interesting feature… I’ll look through the paper tomorrow. :grinning:

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WOW!! Never expected such quick, and high level, responses. I read the proposal and await a launch of this feature. Thanks!

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I tested it yesterday and it was quite interesting, especially the results, at least in English. Not sure in other languages.
I personally have problems with Duckduckgo because it doesn’t offer good results for me if I don’t use English. They should know not everyone speaks this language.

I tested the recent brave search and it looks fine. But, it will be better if we can sort our news selection sorted by date like this one. Is it possible?

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