In July 2018, the European Union hit Google with a nearly five-billion-euro fine and ordered it to “separate” its search engine and browser from Android. In March last year, Mountain View confirmed that European users will be able to choose their primary search engine, but the available options vary by country. In Spain, one of them will be Qwant, a French engine that prioritizes user privacy and is the only one with its own index on the continent. How about a closer look?
A Turbulent Relationship Between Google and the EU
The relationship between Google and the European Union is… complicated. The peak of conflict arose in mid-2018, when the Commission ordered the Mountain View giant to pay a fine of 4.3 billion euros for breaking antitrust laws and to put a stop to its maneuvers. Google’s response was to request a payment from mobile device manufacturers in European territory for the use of the Play Store and other company services, but in March 2019 it confirmed it would take an additional step: Android users in Europe (especially those activating new devices) will be able to set another search engine as the default.
Four Slots, One Auction
The official selection menu has room for only four entries (one of them being Google), while the other three will be assigned through an auction system based on the “fourth offer” mechanic (the three companies willing to pay the most to Google win their spots, but the chosen engine pays an identical amount to the fourth-best offer, repeating the cycle every four months).
Spain’s First Round: DuckDuckGo, Info.com, and Qwant
Beyond the protests among competitors (justified, in my opinion), the auctions have given rise to not-so-common search engines in some countries. What about Spain? The choices for the first round were DuckDuckGo, Info.com, and the French engine Qwant. Does the name sound a bit familiar? That’s because Qwant offers a whole platform of online services, including Qwant Maps, which we talked about in mid-2019.
Privacy-First, Scroll to Your Heart’s Content
On a philosophical level, Qwant has certain similarities with DuckDuckGo, guaranteeing the privacy of its users without compromising the integrity of results. Its structure takes a bit of distance compared to Google, as it doesn’t divide results into multiple pages (it’s pure scrolling down) and focuses on the most relevant results.
Qoz: Donate While You Search
On the right side of the interface, Qwant presents news related to what you’ve searched, and on the desktop version, Qoz also appears, also called Qwant Causes, an option that increases advertising to accumulate points and use them as donations to an assigned cause.
The Final Decision Is Yours
Of course, the final decision is up to each user. The “offer” of browsers will start on March 1st, and if you feel ready for a change, give Qwant a try. Personally, I think I’d stick with DuckDuckGo because its results are a step above, but nothing is set in stone.
Visit Qwant: Click here
https://old.neoteo.com/startpage-buscador-privacidad/
