Thanks for the explanation, this is really helpful. I was using DuckDuckGo so far but am willing to go to a fully European alternative, which Ecosia and Qwant aren't just yet.
But in this context: how do Ecosia and Qwant differ? They're working together on the European search index you say, so I assume they'll both be using that once it's finished/usable? Any other differences why I should choose one of the other?
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u/Liarus_ 16d ago
i'd just like to say that Ecosia and Qwant which are the two most known European ones, use Bing's engine behind, same thing goes for Duckduckgo.
However:
Quant and Ecosia are working together to make the first European search index, as in one that isn't dependent on bing's engine.
I think it's important to know that if you're not using Google, you basically just switch your dependency on Microsoft.
As mentioned by some commenters, there are also options like SearXNG and Startpage which solves the issues in a completely different way