Ecosia

Pros

• Very strong user security
• 80% of profits go to reforestation
• Generally non-deceptive ad placement

Cons

• Bing search results can't compare to Google

Ecosia is a search engine that strives to make the world a better place by using its revenue to plant trees around the world. The Ecosia app is lightweight and completely free to use, and the final product is a very usable and relatively versatile search engine in its own right. If ecological sustainability is a big issue to you, you won't have to make a serious downgrade for the sake of using Ecosia.

If you've ever used Microsoft's Bing search engine, you'll be familiar with the Ecosia interface. That's because Ecosia uses Bing's search results as the basis for its own searches, though Ecosia's unique algorithms help tighten up the quality of your search results. Both the Ecosia browser and search engine are free to use, and profits are funded entirely by advertisements that appear alongside the regular search results.

Ecosia doesn't do much to set itself apart from the competition in terms of features or functionality, but it follows some fairly radical choices in terms of ethics. In addition to donating over 80% of their profits to reforestation, the developers behind Ecosia are also committed to providing full financial transparency and protecting the security of their users. All searches are encrypted, never sold to third parties, and not stored permanently.

Ecosia's ethical practices are some of the strongest you'll find in a search engine. And while Google may have the market effectively locked down, Ecosia's radical project is financing the planting of over a million trees a month. That may not be as impressive a raw number as Google's user base of over 4 million, but it's an important one.

While Ecosia is undoubtedly limited by being tethered to Bing, their approach to ads results in a cleaner interface than what either Google or Bing can offer. Advertisements are minimal, clearly labeled, and not designed to block out your search results. And the developers have made continued efforts to improve navigation in Ecosia too. A lot of new shortcuts have been introduced over the years so you can move to some of the most popular sites and platforms with nothing more than a keystroke.

That's an important thing to keep in mind. Ecosia is a young search engine without a huge amount of financial weight to spare, but it continues to be in active development. If there are features that are lacking, they'll likely be addressed sooner rather than later. If you decide to use Ecosia, you can always expect it to improve. Just don't expect it to promise quite the same level of sophistication or features as Google.

Pros

• Very strong user security
• 80% of profits go to reforestation
• Generally non-deceptive ad placement

Cons

• Bing search results can't compare to Google