Verizon launches privacy-oriented search engine OneSearch

The internet has a brand new privacy-first search engine, this one courtesy of Verizon.

On Tuesday, Verizon Media launched a search engine called OneSearch, which works on both desktop and mobile. The draw over its competitors is that OneSearch keep users' privacy in mind in ways that other leaders in the search market do not.

OneSearch doesn’t engage in cookie tracking, retargeting, or personal profiling. Basically, companies can’t advertise to you based on what you’ve been looking at. Verizon says it also won’t share users’ personal data with advertisers.

In terms of how the search engine serves up content, OneSearch claims it will offer “unbiased, unfiltered search results.” The company says it won’t store users' search history, either. In addition, the search engine will encrypt searches and results so that what a user searches for and what links they click on can't be tracked.

Advanced Privacy Mode is an especially interesting feature. This provides search result links that will “self-destruct” in an hour. According to Verizon, this adds extra privacy protection if multiple people use the same device or if a search result link is shared with others.

Verizon's new search engine is ad supported, but the ads will be served up based on that specific search, not based on a user's cookies or browsing history.

OneSearch is the latest addition to Verizon Media’s portfolio, which includes popular online properties like HuffPost, TechCrunch, and Yahoo. According to Verizon Media, the company’s websites serve 900 million people each month.

Online privacy has never before been more in vogue. It feels like there are multiple stories breaking every other week about how tech companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon are mishandling users' private data. These companies also continue to seek out more information from users in order to drive up revenue. Consumers are more aware about data privacy than ever before.

Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo has skyrocketed in popularity in recent years for these exact reasons. It’s clearly the leader in the field and already offers much of what OneSearch is offering, plus it's not owned by a huge corporate media conglomerate. It’s a fairly small, trusted tech company. However, with Verizon’s many different audiences and niches, perhaps it can find an audience that hasn’t discovered DuckDuckGo yet.

Users can visit the site starting today at OneSearch.com.