Following the growing privacy concerns over the use of Google’s search engine, the team at Brave browser have announced the acquisition of Tailcat, which would serve as the cornerstone of its search engine product. According to the Brave team, the new search engine will serve as an alternative to Google search, and users will be able to use it without concerns over the tracking of their search habits.
Tailcat is a non-dependent search index and, unlike Google search, it doesn’t make use of personal information or IP addresses to optimize search results. The team at Brave browser also mentioned that they will look into how blockchain–based solutions and technology can be adopted for use, especially in the area of e-commerce.
Google U-turn on its Privacy Policy
Coincidentally, Google announced on the same day of the Brave launch, that it will cease building and using tracking tools to increase targeted advertising. This, it announced, will kick off from next year, 2022. While privacy enthusiasts may have reasons to cheer following this announcement, it has been mooted that small businesses without proprietary first party database sources are bound to suffer as a result.
However, Brave CEO and Co-founder, as well as creator of the JavaScript programming language, Brendan Eich, has claimed that Google’s tracking of the web has been favoring their infrastructure. He has also claimed that the leading search engine is playing catch up with the industry and technological developments on the internet.
Growing Concerns Over Privacy
In recent times, there have been growing concerns over the privacy of users’ data across the web. This is aside from the introduction of the Brave browser’s search engine aiming to tackle web search privacy concerns. Following WhatsApp controversial update to its privacy policy, many users were believed to have switched to Signal, a rival messaging platform, as the platform experienced an over 60% increase in its number of users. Similarly, Telegram users reached over 500 million within the same period.
At present, Brave browser has over 25 million active monthly users. The browser incentivizes the usage of its services by offering users a Basic Attention Token (BAT) as rewards. This crypto token can later be converted into any digital currency of choice.
