News > Software & Apps Brave Browser Taps Own Search Engine As Default A more privacy-centered way to search By Allison Murray Allison Murray Twitter Tech News Reporter Southern Illinois University Allison reports on all things tech. She's a news junky that keeps her eye on the latest trends. Allison is a writer working out of Chicago, IL, with her only coworker: her cat Norbert. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on October 20, 2021 11:38AM EDT Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email Software & Apps Mobile Phones Internet & Security Computers & Tablets Smart Life Home Theater & Entertainment Software & Apps Social Media Streaming Gaming Those who use the privacy-centered Brave browser can now have Brave Search as the default search engine over Google. In a blog post published on Wednesday, the company said that new Brave browser users would automatically have Brave Search functionality right in their browser’s address bar without going to the Brave Search website separately. These changes are available Wednesday in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. “As we know from experience in many browsers, the default setting is crucial for adoption, and Brave Search has reached the quality and critical mass needed to become our default search option, and to offer our users a seamless privacy-by-default online experience,” said Brendan Eich, CEO and co-founder of Brave, in the company’s announcement. The Brave desktop browser and iOS and Android apps will now automatically offer Brave Search as the default for new users. You can also default to Brave Search even if you use other popular browsers such as Google Chrome or if you are an existing Brave browser user. Eich added that Brave Search now gets about 80 million search queries a month since it announced its public beta availability back in June. Brave claims that its search engine won't collect your IP addresses or your search data. The search engine has its own search index without relying on other providers and does not track or profile users. Brave While Brave Search does have an independent search index, some results, such as image searches, aren't relevant enough yet, so it sometimes uses results from Microsoft Bing until it further expands its own index. The more popular search engines you are familiar with, such as Google and Bing, record your search queries like your IP address, location, device identifiers, and more. This makes you see more of those annoying targeted ads on social media, websites you browse, or even in your emails. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Email Address Sign up There was an error. Please try again. You're in! Thanks for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. Thank you for signing up! Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit