Another search engine alternative to Google is available. From their press release:
Zeekly.com is a worldwide search engine that protects privacy. The site does not store metadata on it’s users, and the site is running on 2048-bit SSL encryption. By not storing metadata, there’s “nothing for the government to get” because historical data on Zeekly users doesn’t exist, and by using high grade SSL encryption, Zeekly has assured that your internet provider and/or cell phone company isn’t recording your metadata, either because communication between your computer/phone/tablet and Zeekly’s servers is encrypted (and it was disclosed by Edward Snowden that all major cell phone providers are under court order to give their metadata to the U.S. government, also).
So I gave them a test drive, using one of my regular Google News search terms: “surveillance” and using the U.S. mode for both search engines.
Here are the results from Google (click on the images to enlarge them):
And here are the results from Zeekly:
Not surprisingly, perhaps, Google’s search results were more useful. A news search for “NSA” also produced disappointing results on Zeekly.com, as the first result was from August 29. Unlike Google, Zeekly does not seem to have an option to sort in date order, most recent first.
Additionally, Abine’s DoNotTrackMe extension showed two trackers on Zeekly’s site: Facebook Connect and Google Adsense.
If you give test Zeekly a test run and would like to share your observations, use the Comments section below. I’d be happy to test it again after they address the two issues I’ve raised above.