Brave browser has recently announced that it is now relying exclusively on its own index for its search engine. By doing so, Brave Search will no longer depend on third-party providers such as Bing, thereby enhancing user privacy and independence.
When Brave Search was launched in 2021, almost 13% of its queries relied on external providers. However, the company has now reduced this figure to just 7% after utilizing its Web Discovery Project, which allows anonymous data contributions from Brave’s web browser users to build its own index.
The move towards self-reliance was also prompted by concerns about the future of Bing API, especially after Microsoft strengthened its partnership with OpenAI and raised API pricing for Bing’s index.
Brave has assured its users that the Brave Index will preserve their privacy, as always. Additionally, users will still have access to Google Fallback Mix, which allows private queries to Google if Brave Search cannot provide the answer.
Moreover, Brave has announced its own search API, but details of this program will be released later.
By reducing its reliance on big tech companies’ solutions, Brave is differentiating itself from competitors such as DuckDuckGo and Neeva, who are still using sources like Bing. However, Neeva plans to replace Bing in the next few years.
