ixquick - 'reduced big brother effect' (?) search engine

[vinny]

I was recently made aware of ixquick(dot)com which is a search-engine web site. actually it uses all the standard search indexes like google and the rest, and combines them into a single result. (A bit like an old piece of software I used to use called 'webferret' that did the same thing before google became popular, ie when there were a multitude of similar search engines to choose from)

but, rather than have google remember all your search terms history, attached to your ip etc, it becomes anonymous, as you are going through the ixquick engine first..

I'm all for making big brother work a bit harder for his spyware data...
but of course ixquick could be doing just the same thing(!), like a decoy. so, for me the jury is still out.

anyone used it? or know anything else about it?

 

[Cyre2067]

i use scroogle.org, they have a google scraper that they say doesn't log IPs, or save search terms etc.

Unfortunately this is the first time i heard of ixquick thou.

 

[salleles]

In terms of privacy, I would prefer Ixquick above Google, at least for this moment. After 48 hours, the searcher's IP address should have been removed from the database.

http://www.researchbuzz.org/wp/2006/06/27/ixquick-makes-privacy-promises

As a metasearch the engine functions fairly well. But the fact that Ixquick never had problems with other parties which it leans on, might raise a red flag. I don't use it often, mainly because Google's results are faster and more relevant imo.

Trying to avoid Google, you might also want to take a look at Exalead:

http://www.exalead.com

 

[Rich]

ixquick seemed good but it is difficult to verify their privacy claims. What about web based email? are any more private than others?