Ecosia is an interesting search engine that has been on a mission to plant trees with the revenue it makes. It claims to be a not-for-profit business.
While it was available as a search engine option for some, with a new partnership with Mozilla, you can select it as the default search engine from the URL address bar on Firefox or the settings in any region.
The official announcement by Mozilla mentioned:
Together, Mozilla, Firefox and Ecosia are contributing to a web that is more open and inclusive, but above all — one where you can make an informed choice about what tech you use and why. Your tech choices make a difference.
With Ecosia, the search feels just like Google or Bing, but for a good cause.
Ecosia + Mozilla: A Good Thing Happening
As we know, Mozilla's major revenue source is keeping Google as the default search engine out of the box.
While that has been a risk to the entire company for some time, the antitrust case on Google makes it even a bigger risk now.
So, it is good to see Mozilla partnering with search engine options like Ecosia, who promote a good cause, and also making sure that the company behind Firefox browser exists.
But, how does the search engine work?
Unfortunately, it is not open source, like most other options. And, it focuses on providing good quality search results, ensuring privacy protections. It does not collect your data like Google, and does not share any information with the advertisers.
Under-the-hood, it sources the search results from Google and Bing, but it claims to anonymize your data.
So, the search results are not independently indexed, like Brave Search, but it is good enough considering it makes a difference from your search queries.
💬 What do you think about this partnership? Do you like Ecosia as a search engine option? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
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