https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/20/22736142/brave-browser-search-engine-default-google-quant-duckduckgo-web-discovery-project
Good luck to them.
For a long while there creating a new web search engine was considered impossible and ridiculed. That isn't so true anymore. It ain't easy, but it is doable and not laughable anymore.
I really hope it gets some legs. Mozilla should have done the same thing 15 years ago.
Any alternative is a good thing IMO
If interested in some of the deeper workings of their own index:
https://brave.com/privacy/browser/
https://github.com/brave/web-discovery-project/blob/main/modules/web-discovery-project/sources/README.md
TLDR
QuoteThe Web Discovery Project is intended to make Brave Search more relevant and useful for everyone. If you opt in, you'll contribute some anonymous data about searches and web page visits made within the Brave Browser (including pages arrived at via some, but not all, other search engines). This data helps build the Brave Search independent index, and ensure we show relevant results to your search queries.
Part of that is what Cliqz/Tailcat used to do, look at your queries on other search engines and log which result you click on, i.e. G results.
Brave roasts DuckDuckGo over Bing privacy exception • The Register
https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/17/brave_duckduckgo/
1. When you are in the lead, everyone guns for you.
2. DDG made a bad deal with MS and then did not disclose the loophole. Of course disclosing it would have destroyed DDG browser as a privacy browser.
3. Shows how dangerous it is to be totally dependent on a third party in the search engine market.
4. Shows how dangerous a duopoly is.