Brave unveils a privacy-focused search engine, as it acquires an open source search engine developed by the team behind the Cliqz anti-tracking browser
Brave, the privacy-focused browser co-founded by ex-Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich, is getting ready to launch an own-brand search engine for desktop and mobile.
Context & Ripple Effects
Brave began as an open-source browser that blocked tracking ads by default, and this acquisition extends that privacy position into search. The move became the foundation for Brave Search’s beta launch and, later, its replacement of Google as Brave’s default search.
First-order effects
- Brave gains the open-source search technology and the Cliqz team’s work as it prepares a desktop and mobile search product.
- Cliqz exits its browser and search services, while keeping its Ghostery subsidiary operating.
Second-order effects
- Brave can make its browser and search offerings a single privacy-focused product, reducing its reliance on Google as the browser’s default search destination.
- Cliqz users lose its standalone browser and search services, while Ghostery remains the continuing product for the former Cliqz business.
Third-order effects
- Brave’s acquisition points to privacy browsers competing through vertically integrated search, not only through tracker blocking.
- The later shift of image and video results to Brave’s own index shows that control of search infrastructure, rather than a privacy-branded interface alone, becomes the durable differentiator.
The trend: Privacy-focused browsers are expanding into owned search infrastructure to control more of the user experience and reduce dependence on incumbent search providers.