Brave replaces Google and DuckDuckGo by default with its own search engine

Brave now uses its own search engine by default in five countries. It replaces Google in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, Qwant in France and DuckDuckGo in Germany

Brave Search will come to more countries as the default search engine in the browser in the coming months. Existing users keep their search engine settings and can manually choose Brave Search. In the five countries, Brave Search will appear as the preset search service from version 1.31 of Brave for the desktop, 1.31 of the Android app and 1.32 of the iOS app. They appeared on Wednesday.

Brave advertises Brave Search as a privacy and independence-oriented alternative to big tech. In the short term, Brave will show advertisements in Brave Search to generate revenue. In the near future, users should also be able to purchase a paid Premium subscription for an ad-free search service.

In June, Brave released its own search service as a public beta, after the project had been in closed beta for a long time. The search engine has its own search index, according to the company does not track, no IP addresses are collected and there is transparency about the underlying search algorithm, according to Brave. Website administrators do get certain insights into search traffic via the Brave search engine, including anonymized data from opt-in users.