Would you be willing to shell out money for a search engine that promises a private, ad-free browsing experience? That's precisely what the creators of the new search engine Neeva are betting on.
Created by former Google executives, Neeva promises a customized browsing experience while blocking trackers and keeping your data safe—all for the price of two black coffees. Let's look at the Neeva search engine and whether it's a worthy alternative to Google.
What Is Neeva?
Why would anyone spend their hard-earned money on a search engine? Neeva's co-founder Sridhar Ramaswamy explained the logic behind charging users a fee to use Neeva this way:
...what we have learned over the past ten years is that if a product is free, then you are the product.
So, what is Neeva? Neeva is a search engine much like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. However, unlike other search engines, when you use Neeva, you know they're not selling your profile to advertisers for a profit.
Neeva does track your searches, but only to customize and improve your search results. Neeva also has an incognito mode, or you can permanently turn off all tracking in settings if you prefer not to be tracked at all.
For $4.95 a month, you get access to Neeva's search engine, including its Search + Protect browser extension. You won't have to start paying immediately. Neeva allows you to access its service free for three months if you complete a series of quests, which involve completing Neeva's introductory tour, connecting an app, and creating your first space.
A credit card isn't required to register for the three-month trial period. So you can test the service with no strings attached to determine if it's right for you.
An Ad-Free Search Experience
Neeva's main selling point is its ad-free experience. Indeed, one of the first things you notice while using Neeva is the lack of ads at the top of your search results.
In contrast, when you conduct a search using Google, ads are the first things you see. In fact, it's hard to distinguish ads from search results when using Google.
It's not only in Neeva's search results where you'll notice a difference. When you open a news story using Neeva, there are no targeted ads following you around. The Neeva interface is clean, giving you an unobstructed browsing experience.
How Private and Secure Is Neeva?
Neeva outlines its stance on internet security in the Digital Bill of Rights on its website. The search engine operates based on these principles to bring private and secure browsing to its users. For example, Neeva's Search + Protect browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or other browsers keep trackers from following you as you surf the web.
For more privacy, you can use Neeva's incognito mode. Although Neeva blocks trackers and doesn't sell your data to advertisers, it does collect some of your data. By default, Neeva retains your search history and interactions for 90 days.
Neeva says it collects this information to improve your experience and give you the most relevant search results. You can opt out of Neeva's data collection in settings. You can also erase your search history at any time.
Although Neeva promises to protect your privacy, the search engine does collect a lot of data, including:
• Information from connected accounts
• Information about contacts you connect to your account
• IP address, location data, cookies
• How you use their services
You can control a large part of the data Neeva collects about you but not everything. While Neeva says it won't profit from your personal information, the platform shares it with service providers who work on their behalf.
When it comes to security, you can enable two-step verification to help prevent unauthorized access to your account. Neeva also encrypts all your data, and its employees are not allowed to view your personal information.
Customized Search Results
Neeva offers users many ways to customize their search experience. For example, you can connect your Gmail account and other apps to Neeva, allowing you to combine search results from various sources.
You can find search results from your connected apps under the Personal tab. Neeva currently supports the following third-party apps: Google, Office 365, Slack, Github, Notion, and Dropbox.
You can customize the news shown on your home page by choosing the news sources you'd like Neeva to display. However, one limitation is that you can only add news sources from Neeva's predetermined list.
There's no way for users to add their own news sources. If your favorite news source isn't listed, you can suggest it and wait for them to add it.
You can create Neeva spaces to organize topics of interest into bookmarks to help keep you organized. You can also follow topics of interest such as stocks, and they will show up on your home page.
Information From Multiple Sources
Although the company has indexed billions of pages, Neeva's search results pull information from multiple sources, including Bing, Yelp, Apple, and others. Besides giving you the option to link your Google account, you'll find Neeva also integrates Google Maps into its search results.
In some ways, the Neeva experience mirrors the Google experience, only without ads. For example, if you're shopping, Neeva will help you make an informed decision by displaying search results from reputable websites and with reviews by verified customers.
If you're a foodie, Neeva also offers you a convenient way to quickly find the recipes you want. You can use Neeva's filters to arrange recipe search results by rating, number of ingredients, and cooking time.
Is Neeva Worth Paying For?
If you place a premium on privacy and want to support efforts to stop big tech from tracking people across the internet, Neeva is well worth the cost. For your money, you get a clean search engine with lots of customization options that provide a very Google-like experience minus the ads and trackers.