10 Reviews From Our Community
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I tested 15 best search engines by http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/search-engines. StartPage seems to me the best. Second place - Duckduckgo, I used before for several months. Google is good, but spy. Bing is even bigger spy.
One of advantages of StartPage is correct localization, it gave me first line results in Ukrainian, not in Russian as do all the rest search engines. For the rest I need every time to add in search line -ru and -russian, etc. It's very annoying.
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iXQUICK may be a secure site from something,( I have no idea what) but not what you may think. For example, type in "Macy's", search for an item or two, then go to Yahoo! mail and in a short time you'll see in the right hand part of the screen what you were looking at while in Ixquick on Macy's site. If Macy's can follow you through Ixquick, anybody can. Don't trust this site. Prove it to yourself. It's free, but worthless.
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(In fact, our privacy promises are 3rd-party certified. You can read more about this here: https://support.ixquick.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/8/0/how-can-your-privacy-policies-be-verified-can-users-trust-ixquick-to-do-what-it-says)
The ads you are seeing probably result from a cookie you picked up when you left Ixquick by clicking on a website result. Here's how it works:
Whenever you search with Ixquick, your search is not recorded, your IP address is not recorded, your identity is not recorded, no tracking cookies are placed on your browser, and our SSL Encryption ensures that your ISP, the NSA, and hackers can't eavesdrop. You are never seen by any of the search engines we query, including Google, even though you receive authentic Google results through Ixquick.
That protection applies 100% to your searches. However, when you click on a search result, whether you got it from us, Bing, Yahoo, or any other search engine, you leave the search engine that gave you the link and go somewhere else.
Wherever you go, once you leave Ixquick, you can be seen, recorded, and tracked by the website you are going to, plus by all of its advertising and marketing and tracking partners and affiliates.
Third-party websites can place cookies on your browser that record your visit and indicate your interest in the contents on their websites. Marketers can later use those cookies to determine your past browsing history and serve you ads about those topics.
To avoid this, you can use the Ixquick Proxy which allows you to visit third-party websites through Ixquick without anyone, including the website and its partners, seeing you. Our proxy service is unique, and the privacy protection it provides is not available through any other search engine.
To learn more about the Ixquick Proxy and how it works, please visit this link: https://www.ixquick.com/proxy/eng/help.html
If you have any other questions, please email our support team: Support@Ixquick.com
I was looking for a Google alternative, and Ixquick seemed like the best of all worlds - no tracking, privacy, and provides Google results anonymously - Wow! Well, like most things that seem too good to be true, it's very likely not true. And that's certainly the case with Ixquick, which is actually not Ixquick but Startpage.
The real problem here is that the returned search results are nothing compared to what you would get with Google. You can test it for yourself. The search results are surprisingly horrible, and in some cases unusable, e.g., getting zero results on a set of search terms with Ixquick (aka Startpage) while Google provides hundreds of matches.
Privacy on the internet, especially when doing searches, is something that cannot be overemphasized. I will not use Google because of their data mining practices. Nevertheless, a search engine must have some useful capacity comparatively speaking, and Ixquick (aka Startpage) just doesn't cut it.
I guess it's back to DuckDuckGo for me, which is not that great either but far far better than Ixquick. I'm growing more and more doubtful that it's even possible to come up with a true alternative to Google while providing the type of online privacy sorely needed today.
- Helpful? Yes 14
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You will notice some differences between Google and StartPage by Ixquick because we do not tailor results based on your past search history like Google does. In fact, we cannot tailor results because we don't log any personal information. No IP addresses logged. No fingerprinting. No tracking cookies. Nada. This means you get unbiased results based on your search terms alone, not what we think you might want to see. So yes, you may see results you might not see with Google--or those results may be in a very different order.
Note that StartPage by Ixquick typically returns a couple of pages of results initially, but if you scroll down, more results often load.
If you are getting zero results, it would be highly unusual. Please email our customer support team so we can help: Support@Ixquick.com
ixquick.de, or allso known as startpage.com offers this service as a private organisation. They say that they don't save your IP-Adress and don't use tracking-cookies. They suggest your surfing is sure.
Fact is:
- There are no trackingtools recognized of any tracking blocker
- They search with google, forwarding your question.
For everithing else we only have their word not to do things with your data you don't want to. There is no transparence how they finance this page, and no transparence what pupose they have to offer this service for free.
This could be a page of any secret service or private sniffing organisation as well as someone who offers it for a good ethik pupose. Nobody knows and every one can judge to themself what is more likely.
- Helpful? Yes 6
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Details on our companies background and strong privacy focus can be found at:
https://www.startpage.com/eng/company-background.html?
We were the world's first search engine to offer privacy - back in 2006 - way before it was "cool" and have tried to implement it in the smallest details of our products and practises. We made the change out of conviction it was the right thing to do. This was 7 years before Snowden. I agree trust is an important factor. We have been 3rd party certified by Europrise a certification authority with roots in the European Privacy Organizations: https://support.startpage.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/9/0/what-auditing-and-review-does-your-europrise-certification-process-involve We believe being a European company also helps in view of the revelations. (Prism)
Ixquick high credibility and fast and quick searches with high security level searches are relevant to my questions and then reduces, restricts data mining.
- Helpful? Yes 4
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I am looking for a 'Safe Search Engine and because I saw this in an article I was reading -->- > [So I Ixquicked " (Ixquick, that's my favorite search engine ("the world's most private search engine")), <-- I searched ixquick and @ this point I rated this Site JABBER Website 5 Star & want to tell the entire world!
I will come back to this Website and report my experience and pray my experience will confirm Ixquick, is the answers to my prayers. and I will tell the world. I read & like --> Read Review Guidelines. Thank you, Sincerely, for providing this safe search engine for Good people. The 'World' needs you. I will be back. I do get confused when a different name comes up from what I have searched. I will Register then tour this website.- Love. from me.
- Helpful? Yes 8
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A great site for privacy while using a search engine to browse.....
- Helpful? Yes 4
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I agree that this site is a wonderful search engine because it does not record one's IP address and that means I am able to protect myself online.
Here is the claim made by this search engine:
"Ixquick search results are more comprehensive and more accurate than other search engines. Ixquick's unique capabilities include an Advanced Search, a global search and power refinement."
I would have to agree with them personally and I intend to make them one of my regular search engines from now on.
- Helpful? Yes 7
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Ixquick is a new search engine that respects the privacy of its users. Their results are quite accurate and the best thing is that they claim that they keep absolutely no records of ip addresses and search strings. ( as you know Google maintains a detailed user profile for everyone that uses its services )
- Helpful? Yes 15
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Customer Questions & Answers
Votes Thanks for voting!
Hi Andrew. Currently, you can select one of several "themes" for Ixquick/Startpage. Here is a knowledgebase article about how to do this: https://support.startpage.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/1109/0/startpages-different-homepage-themes
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There is a recent article out that compares StartPage with DuckDuckGo that you might find helpful: http://securityspread.com/2016/10/24/duckduckgo-startpage-2016-update/ In addition, we just published an article thanking privactytools.io for naming StartPage a recommended search engine. This article lists some of the important features we offer: https://www.startpage.com/blog/our-latest-developments/privacytools-io-recommends-startpage-for-private-search/
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Hi Peter. The answer depends upon the browser you are using. Browsers like Firefox by Mozilla have "Add-ons" that can remove regular cookies, as well as persistent cookies. Most browsers have forums where you can get help with these kinds of tools. You might also visit the privacy-focused privacytools.io to see its list of recommended options. Ixquick never sets tracking cookies and does not log any user personal information, by the way. Thank you for your question. Hope this helps!
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Hi Gordon, whether your browser is saving or watching what you're doing online, depends on the browser you're using. Your browser may retain a history of your visits and terms entered into form fields. Unfortunately, StartPage is not in a position to give any guarantees on what browsers store. It may be helpful to visit their private browsing/ anonymous information pages, and see what exactly it is they store. It would also help to define what exactly it is you wish to protect, i.e., search history, what you type into a field, where you browse, etc. - this will help you research the best way to protect yourself using a given browser. Hope this helps!
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