I’m stuck with what to choose. I prioritise speed and privacy
I guess i’m doing pros and cons for all of them now:
Startpage Pros - uses google’s search results and anonymous view, eu based Cons - Bought my an ad company
Qwant Pros - eu based Cons - lots of ads, sometimes a bug where it is in france
DDG pros - faster than the other two, Cons - https://techrights.org/o/2020/07/02/ddg-privacy-abuser-in-disguise/
Of the three mentioned, maybe Qwant? I’m wary of any search engine that implements “AI”, so DDG is out. Startpage — I can’t provide a source, but I seem to recall there were misgivings to them in the past.
Out of all of the three, I would say startpage is the cleanest. DDG has had a fair few controversies https://techrights.org/o/2020/07/02/ddg-privacy-abuser-in-disguise/ . So I think they are off the list atm, I may consider brave search but I’m not sure.
Startpage is owned by an adtech company, i don’t trust them.