Frank B.

The problem with StartPage (formerly Ixquick) is that their 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 StartPage while Google provides hundreds of matches... still happening a year later after my Ixquick review. Privacy is essential, but a search engine must have some useful capacity comparatively speaking, and StartPage just doesn't cut it.

Update (5/20/17): In response to the reply from StartPage S. -- I'm on a dynamic IP (it changes regularly), never logged in to Google, have no Google software installed on my computer, and my browser cache is always cleared, etc. So Google has no search history or profile or any other means to track me or my searches.

Besides, I don't use Google and haven't for several years now. I've only used Google to comparatively test results among other search engines. I've done a number of tests over the past several years, all of which were conducted under new/different IP addresses, and some of which were at different geographical locations. Bottom line, the "tracking variable" in my tests is effectively controlled.

And as I've already mentioned, the issue here is in the quality of search results as well as the quantity, e.g., zero results with StartPage while Google provides hundreds in some cases. Moreover, I'm also comparing StartPage results with other non-tracking search engines. Sorry, but the technical glitch is not on my end.

For those interested, I've opted to use DuckDuckGo. It has its problems as well, but comparatively it remains the best out of the non-tracking alternatives out there, all of which still fall behind Google in terms of their search results, but from my testing and experience the best alternative to Google for privacy.