When you search for something on the internet, you most likely turn to the Google search engine – but is that really the best option? As bloggers in particular, who mainly deal with the Android world, it should be clear to us that Google now stands for so much more than just a search engine.
Nevertheless, it is probably the most frequently used tool of the internet giant. In the US, Google accounts for around 80 percent of the search engine market, Bing accounts for 12 and Yahoo for 4.
Despite (or perhaps because of?) the top position, I think we can all agree that the Google search engine also has a few snags. For example, there is the mass of advertising that is played out as AdWords. Or the data collection that cannot be switched off, which Google operates on its users.
Sridhar Ramaswamy and Vivek Raghunathan used to work at Google and had a vision for a better search engine. That’s why they launched their Neeva service last year, but unfortunately, it’s only available to US customers at the moment. Price point: $4.95 a month.
Neeva launches free plan
A free plan that promises ad-free results has now been relaunched. However, if you are willing to dig into your pockets, you will receive a whole range of additional features. “Whoever pays for Neeva services gets all of this, a leading third-party VPN and password manager service, and advanced features like a monthly Q&A,” according to The Next Web.
A VPN alone can easily cost well over $5 a month, so it might be a solid offering for some users. If only five percent of the users of the free tariff switch to the paid one, according to the developers, this will be considered a success.
I also find the customization options for the results very exciting. For example, you can teach Neeva to show certain websites more or less in the results or to exclude e-commerce sites. You can also display recipes, for example, without having to visit the respective page – which shouldn’t make the operators happy. After all, they depend on the income from the advertisements on their sites.
Building a search engine is a huge task
As mentioned above, Neeva is currently only available in the US, but the company definitely has plans to expand into Western Europe and India. The mammoth task of the whole search engine thing becomes clear when Ramaswamy calls his 60-strong team “small”.
Incidentally, the creators don’t necessarily see the greatest competition from Google, but rather from niche services such as Brave or DuckDuckGo, which you’ve probably heard of before. The hardest part is probably getting new people to even try Neeva.
After all, around a third of those who install the Neeva ad tracker blocking extension in their browser would leave it installed. What do you think: Does any search engine have any serious chances in addition to the established solutions that already exist and would you test Neeva when it starts in Europe?