Startpage.com is a Dutch

search engine A search engine is a software system that provides hyperlinks to web pages, and other relevant information on World Wide Web, the Web in response to a user's web query, query. The user enters a query in a web browser or a mobile app, and the sea ...

website that highlights privacy as its distinguishing feature.ExpressVPN.com
"Free Search Engines: What You're Looking For?"
19 January 2015, retrieved 5 April 2016. The website advertises that it allows users to obtain Bing Search and

Google Search Google Search (also known simply as Google or Google.com) is a search engine operated by Google. It allows users to search for information on the World Wide Web, Web by entering keywords or phrases. Google Search uses algorithms to analyze an ...

results while protecting users' privacy by not storing personal information or search data and removing all trackers. Startpage.com also includes an Anonymous View browsing feature that allows users the option to open search results via proxy for increased anonymity. Startpage is owned and operated by Surfboard Holding BV,

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

, the Netherlands. Startpage.com began as a sister company of Ixquick, a

metasearch engine A metasearch engine (or search aggregator) is an online information retrieval tool that uses the data of a web search engine to produce its own results. Metasearch engines take input from a user and immediately query search engines for results. ...

founded in 1998. The two websites were merged in 2016. In October 2019, Startpage received a significant investment from Privacy One Group, a subsidiary of System1.

History

Early history

Ixquick was created in 1998 by David Bodnick in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Initially, it provided metasearch for 14 different web and directory search engines as well as images, news, and

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount ...

engines. Results were sorted after evaluating how relevant each of the search tools found the query. Surfboard Holding BV, a company based in

Zeist Zeist () is the Capital city, capital and largest town of the Zeist (municipality), municipality of Zeist. The town is located in the Utrecht (province), Utrecht province of the Netherlands, east of the city of Utrecht. History The town of " ...

, Netherlands, and led by CEO Robert E. G. Beens, acquired Ixquick in 2000. Ixquick was re-launched on 23 March 2005 with new features including a redesigned metasearch algorithm. Startpage.com began as a

web directory A web directory or link directory is an online list or catalog of websites. That is, it is a directory on the World Wide Web of (all or part of) the World Wide Web. Historically, directories typically listed entries on people or businesses, and the ...

on January 28th, 1998 and started

mirroring Mirroring is the behavior in which one person subconsciously imitates the gesture, idiolect, speech pattern, or attitude of another. Mirroring often occurs in social situations, particularly in the company of close friends or family, often going ...

Ixquick in 2003. On 7 July 2009, the company re-launched Startpage.com to fetch results only from the Google search engine. Prior to the release of

Tor Browser Tor is a free overlay network for enabling anonymous communication. It is built on free and open-source software run by over seven thousand volunteer-operated relays worldwide, as well as by millions of users who route their Internet traffic ...

version 4.5 in April 2015, Startpage.com was its default search engine.

Merger and recent history

On 29 March 2016, Ixquick.com was merged into the Startpage.com search engine. However, Ixquick was still available at Ixquick.eu, Ixquick.info and the Ixquick Search App until 2nd of April 2018, when they were discontinued. As of 2017, Startpage fields an estimated 2 billion searches. The company was one of 200 European companies that opposed the F.C.C. implementation of policies ending

net neutrality Net neutrality, sometimes referred to as network neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering User (computing), users and online content providers consistent tra ...

. In October 2019, Privacy One Group, owned by adtech company System1, acquired a majority stake in Startpage. An initial lack of transparency surrounding the deal caused some concern among privacy researchers, leading to its removal from the PrivacyTools review website. After responding to questions from PrivacyTools team members, Startpage was able to clarify that the acquisition would not impact their privacy-focused mission, and its recommendation was ultimately restored. According to the company, its "founders may unilaterally reject any potential technical change that could negatively affect user privacy". By maintaining its headquarters and operations in the Netherlands, Startpage continues to be protected by Dutch and

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

(EU) privacy laws. In May 2020,

Vivaldi Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist, impresario of Baroque music and Roman Catholic priest. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lif ...

announced that its browser had added Startpage as an optional or default search engine.

Products

On 27 June 2006, following criticism of Google Shopping, the website began to delete private details of its users. Ixquick stated that it does not share the personal information of users with other search engines or with the provider of its sponsored results. According to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''' '' Wirecutter'', Startpage does not store user's personal information or search data. A May 2020 review of the website on ZDNet also states that Startpage "does not track, log, or share data or searching history". In 2011, Startpage received the European Privacy Seal, a European Union–sponsored initiative that indicates compliance with EU laws and regulations on data security and privacy through a series of design and technical audits. It was re-certified in 2013 and 2015.Ixquick.eu press release
"EuroPriSe: Privacy-friendly Internet search with Ixquick and Startpage reaffirmed"
, 20 July 2015, Surfboard Holding B.V., Bonn, Germany, on Ixquick.eu website, retrieved 5 April 2016. The company has also completely ended the recording of user IP addresses since January 2009. Because Startpage is based in the Netherlands, it is also "not subject to US laws like the Patriot Act, and cannot be forced to comply with US dragnet surveillance programs, like

PRISM PRISM is a code name for a program under which the United States National Security Agency (NSA) collects internet communications from various U.S. internet companies. The program is also known by the SIGAD . PRISM collects stored internet ...

." Startpage has also contributed €20,000 to NOYB, the non-profit organization founded by

Max Schrems Maximilian Schrems (born 1987) is an Austrian activist, lawyer, and author who became known for campaigns against Facebook for its privacy violations, including violations of European privacy laws and the alleged transfer of personal data to t ...

, which is committed to launching strategic court cases and media initiatives in support of the EU's

General Data Protection Regulation The General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679), abbreviated GDPR, is a European Union regulation on information privacy in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA). The GDPR is an important component of ...

. The company also provides a stand-alone proxy service, Startpage.com Proxy, which is incorporated into the Startpage search engine. This feature, known as Anonymous View since 2018, allows users the option to open all search results (except advertisements) via the proxy.

StartMail

StartMail, founded in 2014 by Startpage CEO Beens, was developed to offer a privacy protecting

email Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...

service. StartMail also allows the creation of disposable and permanent email aliases for each account.

Phil Zimmermann Philip R. Zimmermann (born 1954) is an American computer scientist and cryptographer. He is the creator of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), the most widely used email encryption software in the world. He is also known for his work in VoIP encryption ...

, the inventor of the PGP encryption system who Startpage hired in 2018 to advise the company on privacy technology, has also helped develop StartMail's PGP-encrypted email service. Since Startpage.com does not collect user data, it does not serve

targeted advertising Targeted advertising or data-driven marketing is a form of advertising, including online advertising, that is directed towards an audience with certain traits, based on the product or person the advertiser is promoting. These traits can either ...

based on user data history. The company generates revenue from its search engine by providing

contextual advertising Contextual advertising (also called contextual targeting) is a form of targeted digital advertising. Contextual advertising is also called "In-Text" advertising or "In-Context" technology. Contextual targeting involves the use of linguistic fact ...

based on the keyword used to perform a search. File:Startpage screenshot 2011.jpg, Startpage website in 2011 File:Startpage 2009.png, First Startpage logo, until 2015 File:StartPage logo.png, Second Startpage logo, until 2018 File:Startpage.com logo.svg, Third Startpage logo, until 2021 File:Startpage 2021.svg, Fourth Startpage logo, current

Features

Startpage uses results from

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

, for which it pays. As of July 2020, Startpage allows searches in 82 languages, including Bengali, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese,

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

, Swedish and Turkish. The website has tabs for web searches as well as tabs for image and video searches. In November 2019, Startpage added a tab for news. According to the company, news searches are "not curated or personalized" and "every user who looks up the same term at the same time gets the same news". In June 2022, the company added " Instant Answers", a feature that displays information directly on the search engine for topics such as weather, maps and Wikipedia. Unlike Google, Startpage doesn't offer " featured snippets", which are answers extracted directly from relevant websites. In contrast, Startpage's "Instant Answers" only get information from a dozen websites.

References

External links

* {{Web search engines navbox Internet properties established in 1998 Internet search engines