When it comes to the term “search engine”, the vast majority of us would immediately think of Google, the search engine that has become the most popular in the world, with some estimating that it harbours up to 95% of all searches. But Google isn’t the only company that offers an advanced indexing engine; in fact, there are dozens to choose from, and each comes with its own pros and cons. Perhaps the most interesting of them all are the charity-based search engines; often powered by small companies trying to use global internet traffic to push money toward charities. For anyone that wants to try out a new search engine while giving back without investing a cent, these are the world’s best of 2020.
Lilo
Lilo is a search engine based on France that’s maintained by two engineers, and was first launched in 2015, making it much younger than many of the others. For every search that’s completed, the user will receive a water droplet. The droplets can then be donated to any charity of choice, and the user is able to donate as many droplets as they wish. The biggest drawback to Lilo is that because it’s mainly based in France, most of the charities are French based, too.
Ekoru
This engine is focused on cleaning all of the plastic out of the ocean, as well as reforesting the ocean floor with special seagrass necessary for many creatures. In fact, the planting of seagrass is of utmost importance, and is vital for keeping our oceans in a healthy and stable state. Ekoru’s searches are powered by Bing, and a total of 60% of their revenue is donated to the Big Blue Ocean Cleanup, making it a good search engine for anyone that loves the sea.
Ecosia
Ecosia is perhaps the most well-known charitable engine thanks to its continued popularity that has seen big spikes in growth in the last few years. Ecosia is known as the search engine that plants trees and donates 80% of all of its revenue to projects around the world that plant trees. It’s also one of the most successful on the list, having already donated enough money for 100 million trees to be planted globally, which also provides much needed income to the workers planting the trees. Like the previous entry, Ecosia gets the majority of its searches through Bing, making it perfect for everything from checking the weather to the latest election betting options.
SearchScene
SearchScene has perhaps one of the most well-implemented designs of all the search engines, mainly due to its integration with Microsoft’s Bing. It’s also the only engine that donates the vast majority of its donations to international charity organisations – 95% of all their donations go to charities. It’s a popular engine that’s yet to gain widespread attention, but it also offers a better user experience and better overall results, thanks to Bing’s advanced indexing features.