- The Brave browser claims to be a “super app.”
- It pledges to let users have total control over their online browsing activities.
- The search engine will be adaptive and will get better with increased usage.
CEO Brenden Eich co-founded the browser, Firefox Mozilla. It was focused on the user’s privacy and is ready to launch its own search engine for desktop and mobile users. Today, it declared the acquisition of Cliqz’s open-source search engine which is an anti-tracking combination of search-browser platforms. This open-source search engine is now obsolete. The Brave search engine will pitch a million of the users on a completely “big tech”-free search and browsing experience.
Statement from the Brave:
“Under the hood, nearly all of today’s search engines are either built by results from Big Tech companies. In contrast, the Tailcat search engine is built on top of a completely independent index. It is capable of delivering the quality people expect but without compromising their privacy.” Brave writes in a press release announcing the acquisition.
“Tailcat does not collect IP addresses or use personally identifiable information to improve search results.”
Cliqz was a privacy-focused branch of Firefox Mozilla’s browser that was shut down last year in the month of May. This happened as a consequence of Hubert Burda Media calling off the investment for years of effort to gain traction as an alternative to Google. The investor blames pandemic for uncertainty and tough conditions and that is why they pulled the plug sooner.
Cliqz Team:
The team that worked with Cliqz is working on the Tailcat and has moved to Brave as a consequence of acquisition. Dr. Josep M Pujol leads the engineering team. A PR quoted Dr. Josep that, “excited to be working on the only real private search/browser alternative to Big Tech”.
“Tailcat is a fully independent search engine with its own search index built from scratch,” according to Eich. “Tailcat as Brave Search will offer the same privacy guarantees that Brave has in its browser.
“Brave will provide the first private browser+search alternative to the Big Tech platforms and will make it seamless for users to browse and search with guaranteed privacy. Also, owing to its transparent nature, Brave Search will address algorithmic biases and prevent outright censorship.”
As per Eich, privacy has become the greatest concern. Brave is stepping into the world of search engines reflects its confidence around handling this concern. He pointed out an “unprecedented” growth of usage of the browser where the number of users in the past year, scaled from 11M monthly active users to 26M+. Signal also saw such a sharp surge concerning privacy, after Facebook declared the updates in their privacy policy which stated that it will allow increased data sharing.
“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,” he added in a statement. “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.”
Google vs. Brave:
Brave Search plans to offer a choice to users along with the already established list of third parties which they can choose from, as their browser default. As per Eich, Brave will be the default search engine, if the user does not consciously make a selection.
“We will continue to support ‘open search’ with multiple alternative engines,” he confirmed. “User choice is a permanent principle at Brave. Brave will continue to offer multiple alternative choices for the user’s default search engine. We think our users will seek unmatched privacy with Brave Search. When ready, we hope to make Brave Search the default engine in Brave.”
“Google’s ‘long tail’ is hard for any engine to beat. But we have a plan to compete on that front too, once integrated into the Brave browser,” he told us in an email interview, arguing that Google’s massive size does offer some competitive opportunities for a search rival. “There are aspects where Google is falling behind. It is difficult for them to innovate in search when that’s the main source of their revenue.
“They are risk-averse against experimenting with new techniques and transparency. While under pressure from shareholders to tie their own businesses into scarce search engine results page (SERP) area, and pressure from search engine optimization (SEO).”
“On questions such as censorship, community feedback, and algorithmic transparency, we think we can do better from the get-go. We believe that the only way to make big improvements is to build afresh. With the know-how that comes from building,” he added. “The option of using Bing (as other search offerings do) instead of building the index exists. But it will get you only as far as Bing in terms of quality (and you’ll be wholly dependent on Bing).”
By the time it is summer or late springtime, Brave aims to provide availability for Brave Search, as per Eich. Users who are interested in testing the earlier versions of the search engine can sign up here.
The name “Tailcat” won’t be widely familiar as it was a part of an internal project that Cliqz did not implement in its browser before it was shut down.
Eich says development had been continuing at Burda — “in order to develop a full-fledged search engine”.
“Cliqz offered the SERP-based search engine but had not implemented Tailcat in its browser yet,” said Eich. “After Cliqz shut down last April, a development team at Burda continued to work on the search technology under the new project name Tailcat in order to develop a full-fledged search engine. The team hoped to find a long-term home for their work to continue, and are thrilled to be part of Brave.”
More about the acquisition:
The Brave team has not disclosed any detail around the financial terms of the acquisition. But sources confirmed that Burda is a Brave shareholder in the deal.
We are very happy that our technology is being used at Brave. As a result, a genuine, privacy-friendly alternative to Google is being created in the core web functions of browsing and searching,” said Paul-Bernhard Kallen, CEO of Hubert Burda Media, in a supporting statement. “As a Brave stakeholder, we will continue to be involved in this exciting project.”
Brave started as a company that focuses on the development of an alternative browser. With a redeveloped approach of the predominance of advertisement-funded Internet business model. By bringing in cryptocurrency rewards that will generate payments for the content creators. It calls itself a pro-privacy “super app”.
Currently, Brave offers Brave Browser bundles with a privacy-preservation advertising platform (Brave Ads), news reader (Brave Today); It also provides Firewall+VPN services. They will add these services to the forthcoming search engine (Brave Search). It will also have a privacy-preservation video-conference service (Brave Together) which is in the pipeline.
This proposition of being a “super app” pledges to provide users with total and genuine control over their online browsing experience compared to mainstream alternatives.
