Are you ready for web Fingerprinting ?

I tried it some years ago, but found it didn't return enough results, so tried startpage instead, which works well.
Personally I think it's worth trying a few different search engines - you can find different search engines by searching for 'search engines' in whichever search engine you're currently using!

 

Does that mean you can have different search engines at the same time ? How do you switch from one to another (remembering that I am the most computer illiterate person in the universe)

 

Yes indeed,

So, a browser is a piece of software that you use to visit webpages (like this one) - examples of this are Google Chrome, Firefox (my favourite), Safari (the default apple browser)

A search engine is a website which searches for website results within the browsers - examples include Bing, Duck Duck Go, Startpage, Google, Ecosia...

Web browser - Wikipedia
Search engine - Wikipedia

The browser Google Chrome has (confusingly) a search engine embedded within it - from a user point of view, google operates as both a browser and a search engine.

To try different search engines, simply go to their website and search from there, for example:
Startpage - Private Search Engine. No Tracking. No Search History.
https://www.ecosia.org/
DuckDuckGo - Your protection, our priority. (confusingly, also a browser)

 

...and if you find a search engine that you prefer, you can then set it as the default search engine in your browser, or set the webpage of your preferred search engine as the homepage in your browser.

 

DDG is good to use, but it seems a lot different, mainly because the first page of a Google search puts up lots of promoted sites rather than the most relevant ones to your search request.

When using those sites @Stephen Southwest mentioned, just Bookmark or Add to Favourites each site so you have a quick link to them.

Had not heard of Start Page that he also mentioned but have just tried it and again the results look different from googles, but the entries are 100% relevant.

Also re you point about Google reading your Welsh emails, they can translate almost any language in milli seconds !

 

@Stephen Southwest @ricky101 thank you, that information was all very helpful

 

I use Norton Safe Search as it’s part of my security package. Seems to be OK.

 

Well we all learn, we have got a good new search engine that Stephen mentioned.

If you are concerened about Googles prying and Emails then you can get one or more Private Emails services.
They are chargable ( and legal ) for their full multi account services but most do offer one free email address.

You can read about them here but when using them you or the recipent do not want to be accessing the mail via Chromes Browser or anything else connected to Google, just in case !
The Best Email Encryption Services for 2025