Here’s a list of 3 anonymous search engine extensions for Chrome which integrate and give you the ability to search the internet without other people or companies (I’m looking at you Google) tracking your activities. Extensions that I mentioned on the list down below are going to incorporate some of the more famous anonymous search engines out there into your Chrome web browser. They are going to then allow you to easily search the web anonymously, without anyone tracking your search terms, keeping your search history, etc.
Let’s look at these below.
DuckDuckGo for Chrome
First extension that I’m going to mention is the extension for incorporating DuckDuckGo into Chrome. Those who aren’t aware of it, DuckDuckGo is one of the pioneers in the field of anonymous search.
It uses its own search engine to gather results, which are then displayed to users safely and securely, without anyone tracking your activity. What this extension does is it adds the ability to search with DuckDuckGo from the omnibar (type “d” and hit Space to start DuckDuckGo search). Other features include “instant answers” in other search engines, and of course quick access to DuckDuckGo web search from the top right corner drop down window (click on the icon there).
Also, have a look at Tor Browser: Free Ultra Secure Anonymous Web Browser.
Ixquick Toolbar
Ixquick is similar to DuckDuckGo. It offers the same anonymous web search capabilities that DuckDuckGo does, only with a twist. Ixquick is actually 2 search engines rolled up into 1.
First one is Ixquick, which is an anonymous search engine that combines and filters best results from multiple other search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. Results are then anonymously displayed to you. Second search engine is called StartPage which only works with Google and anonymously fetches Google results to you. This toolbar works with both websites (use top right corner settings tweaker to select which search engine you want to use). Ixquick also offers secure PGP encrypted email, but it sadly isn’t available for free.
Get Ixquick Toolbar.
SearchLock
SearchLock works with all search engines and it works in the background. It’s a recently released web search anonymiser which will keep track of what you do during web search by automatically anonymizing your search requests.
It should work with most search engines automatically, in the background. You don’t get to see what the extensions actually does, but according to developers it will not allow search engines to keep track of what you type into the search box, something similar to what Ixquick does, only a bit more subtle. This anonymous search engine extension has the TRUSTe security certificate.
Get SearchLock.
Also, have a look at Ask Any Question Anonymously and Get Answers.
Conclusion
I personally use Startpage for a long time now, and haven’t had any problems with it. Problems with DuckDuckGo and Ixquick are that you don’t get Google results, but rather results generated by their own search algorithms and their own search spiders. Such results aren’t always as good as the ones offered by Google, so using Startpage to get Google results anonymously seems like a nice compromise. Let me know which one of the 3 anonymous search engine extensions from the list above you liked the most by leaving a comment down below.
