Privacy-focused search engine Brave Search has finally introduced its own, independent image and video search capabilities, freeing it from dependence on Bing and Google for media search.
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In the past, Brave Search users were redirected to Google or Bing to perform image and video searches, potentially exposing themselves to surveillance scenarios.
With image and video search built directly into Brave Search, users can use one search engine for all their search needs.
“Users will no longer need to leave Brave Search for image and video search results. Now any Brave Search query can be served directly from Brave’s own index, allowing users to benefit from a fully independent search engine that protects their privacy and is resistant to censorship,” Brave’s announcement explains.
Brave removed Bing from its search API in April 2023 and gave users a temporary option to redirect to Bing or Google while its engineers prepared the media search implementation to be widely available.
This temporary solution wasn't ideal, but after about four months of work, Brave Search finally released its independent, privacy-preserving image and video search system.
The software company says its app is 100% private and anonymous, and that no data from media search queries ends up in the hands of “Big Tech” entities or extensive networks of third-party providers.
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This development is significant because media search on Brave Search was previously a loophole for privacy-conscious users, who can now rest assured that everything remains within the protected realm of the Brave ecosystem.
Brave's announcement highlights the importance of independence, using the example of Microsoft Bing, which has previously censored results for politically sensitive topics, such as the "tank man" of Tiananmen Square, for which it returned no results.
Brave says this censorship affected both it and DuckDuckGo due to their reliance on Bing's API for media search, which extended Microsoft's censorship decisions to their own platform and user base.
Something to note is that Brave Search's new media search engine will continue to offer the ability to use Bing and Google for those who need it, as it's too early to guarantee that it can compete with the largest search engine's vast search indexes in all cases.
Media search will also initially have limited functionality, meaning advanced filters like copyright license types and aspect ratio won't be available, but there's a promise that they'll be rolled out soon.
While it may seem like Brave was in a hurry to release the media search system, the team says it released it early because offering a privacy-friendly alternative is more important than taking more time until all potential features are available and working as expected.
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source of information:bleepingcomputer.com
