Neeva pulls the plug on ad-free search engine on June 2

The privacy-friendly and ad-free search engine Neeva will stop on June 2, 2023. The founders state that it was a challenge to get users to try out a different search engine.

The founders of Neeva say that it is difficult to ‘convince users of the need to switch to a better choice’. In combination with ‘different economic circumstances’, the company has decided to discontinue the search engine. Users with a Premium subscription will be refunded the unused portion of their subscription.

Neeva was founded in 2019 by former Google employees Sridhar Ramaswamy and Vivek Raghunathan. Neeva’s search engine was intended to be a privacy-friendly alternative that was ad-free. Since 2022, the company has also been working on generative AI and integrating Large Language Models into the search engine.

Users can use Neeva’s search engine until June 2. The founders say they are exploring how the company can apply its expertise in LLM in other ways. What this means concretely is not yet clear.

Image: Neeva