SearchEngines.Net publishes information about search engines for reference. Everything on it is provided as-is, for general information, and should be checked against a primary source before it is relied upon for anything that matters. This page sets out the limits of what is published here and was last reviewed on 19 August 2026.
Information is provided for reference
The purpose of this site is to describe search engines accurately: who operates them, where their results come from, how they are funded, what they do with data, and what became of the ones that no longer exist. It is a description of a landscape, not an instruction manual and not a guarantee. Pages are written from sourced fact sheets and cite what they rely on, so that a reader who needs certainty can go to the source rather than take a summary on trust. That is the intended use of this site: as a map and a set of pointers, not as the final authority on any company's current behaviour.
Search engines change constantly, and figures are dated
This is the most important caveat on the site. Search is an unusually unstable subject. An engine can change the provider behind its results, start or stop running its own crawler, alter its privacy documentation, be acquired, change jurisdiction, launch or withdraw an AI answering layer, restructure its pricing, or close entirely — often with no announcement and sometimes with no public acknowledgement afterwards. Market share estimates vary widely between measurement firms depending on methodology, and index sizes are self-reported by operators who have every incentive to present them favourably and no obligation to publish them at all.
For that reason, figures on this site are dated at the time of writing and attributed to the source they came from. A market share percentage, an index size, a user count or a launch date should be read as “this is what this source said, on this date” — not as a current fact. Anything that can move gets a date for exactly this reason, and an undated number anywhere on this site is an error worth reporting.
Pricing is described structurally — advertising-funded, subscription, metered API — rather than by quoting current figures, because published prices change frequently and a stale price is more misleading than no price. Where a specific price appears in a historical account, it is a matter of record for that date, not a statement about what anything costs today.
Where sources disagree
Search engine history is patchily documented, and credible sources contradict each other regularly — particularly about launch dates, index sizes, acquisition terms and the precise moment an engine stopped crawling for itself. Where that happens, both accounts are printed with their attributions rather than being averaged or silently resolved. Where a claim is widely repeated but traces back to no primary source, it is hedged in the sentence or omitted. Readers should treat a hedge here as meaningful: it signals a genuine gap in the record rather than caution for its own sake.
No relationship with any engine named
This site is independent of every company it writes about. There is no affiliation, sponsorship, endorsement, partnership, agency or commercial relationship with any search engine, operator or organisation described on these pages, in either direction. No advertising is accepted from the engines covered, no payment is taken for inclusion or for placement, and no affiliate or referral arrangement lies behind any link. No engine reviews its own page before publication or has any right to alter it.
Nothing published here is an official statement from any company, and no page should be read as one. Where an engine's own claims about itself are quoted, they are identified as the engine's claims — not as verified fact.
Trademarks belong to their owners
All search engine names, product names, service marks, logos and trademarks referred to on this site remain the property of their respective owners. They appear here for identification and description only, which is unavoidable in a reference work about the companies concerned. Their appearance implies no ownership, no endorsement and no affiliation.
Nothing here is professional advice
The content of this site is general information. It is not legal, technical, security, privacy, financial or investment advice, and it is not a substitute for advice from a qualified professional who knows your circumstances. This applies with particular force in two areas.
- Privacy and security. Descriptions of an engine's data practices are drawn from its published policies, documentation, independent reporting and, where available, regulatory findings. They are not audits, and no page here can verify what a company does with data internally. No engine described on this site is presented as safe for a person facing a serious threat; anyone in that position needs advice built around their own threat model, not a general description of a product.
- Anything with a legal or compliance dimension. Statements about ownership, jurisdiction, corporate structure and regulatory action are summaries of the public record as it stood on the date cited, and public records are themselves sometimes incomplete or out of date.
This site also does not offer advice on how to make a website rank in search results. Explaining how crawling, indexing and ranking work is within its scope; telling anyone how to improve their own visibility is not, and no passage here should be read as guidance of that kind.
Errors, and how to report them
Mistakes get published despite the sourcing process, and engines change faster than any single reference can track. No liability is accepted for loss or damage arising from reliance on anything here, or from anything found on a site linked to from these pages — outbound links are citations, not endorsements, and their destinations are outside this site's control. If something here is wrong, out of date or unclear, the contact page explains what makes a correction quick to verify: the page, the claim as printed, and a source. Corrections are acted on, and unsupportable claims are hedged or removed rather than left standing.