The ad-free search engine has launched a Google competition in Europe.
Neeva claims to provide web users with honest search results without tracking, advertising or affiliate links.
It aims to eliminate the corporate bias that it says hampers traditional search, and instead creates a search engine that delivers “the best results as quickly as possible.”
The California-based company, which has gained more than 600,000 monthly users since its US launch in 2021, allows users to choose their sources of information, such as news outlets, stores, software development sites, travel sites and others, based on personal preferences and relevance, not what advertisers offer.
The firm, which raised $40 million in a Series B round last year, was founded by Sridhar Ramaswamy, the former SVP of advertising at Google, and Vivek Raghunathan, the former VP of monetization at YouTube.
“Neeva is a first-of-its-kind platform focused on private transparent search versus an advertiser-serving search engine,” Ramaswamy said.
“The internet should be your own private corner of the net, not a barrage of ads, SEO spam and irrelevant information.
“We’re reinventing search by giving users control over sources; providing accurate and transparent results and private and individual experiences uninfluenced by corporate bias that are tracked across the web.”
Neeva offers a freemium model and will first launch its private free basic service with no ads in Europe, and later introduce a premium subscription model with additional features such as a VPN and password manager.
It runs its own independent search stack, returning lightning-fast results with a high level of accuracy, drawing on an index of billions of web pages. In addition, Neeva allows users to connect personal applications such as email, Dropbox, Slack, Figma and others, making it easier to find your most important personal documents while maintaining strict privacy controls.
“Google dominates the search engine market, holding more than 90% of the market share. Neeva will challenge this advantage by creating a better search and browsing experience that will delight users,” said Ramaswamy.
“Users should be in control of what they search and do online, not let one company decide what information they see. The ad-supported Internet has created vastly misaligned incentives that have made the big tech monopolies and advertisers richer while exploiting users’ privacy and personal data. It’s time for a new approach to search that puts people first.”
