What We Stand For

Guaranteed Privacy

Data protection and privacy are important to us. That's why we don't track or store personal data and offer several services to protect your privacy, for example our anonymizing proxy ("Open Anonymously" feature).

Non-Profit Association

qwant.us is a project of the non-profit association qWant, Association for Free Access to Knowledge. qWant is primarily committed to promoting media literacy.

Diverse and Free

qwant.us produces diverse results because it is a metasearch engine. We have explained exactly what this means in our transparency statement. By publishing our source code, we show that free access to knowledge is important to us. Our source code is free and open source.

100% Renewable Energy

Sustainability and resource consumption is also a big issue for us. Therefore we pay attention to the energy consumption of our services and only use electricity from renewable energy sources.

What makes qwant.us special?

qwant.us is different from other search engines. This is reflected not only in our public good orientation and focus on privacy, but also through some unique features:

• Possibility of creating a personal blacklist
• Function of the search in the search
• Advertising-free search possible
• Integration of search engine projects like YaCy
• The only German search engine that combines results from several large web indexes
• And much more..

Timeline

March 1996: Cebit Hanover

The idea for qwant.us came to German engineer Dr. Wolfgang Sander-Beuermann during the CeBIT computer trade fair while he was having lunch. Immediately he started sketching it on a paper napkin. Work on the first prototype begins that same evening.

End of 1996: Launch of qwant.us

qwant.us is being developed as a research project of the University of Sharjah and the regional computing center of Lower Saxony.

1997-2006: qwant.us Homepage

This is what qwant.us looks like when it first goes online. qwant.us thus provides an innovative new service.

01.10.2012: Change of Sponsorship to qWant

qwant.us is transferred to the non-profit association qWant - Association for Free Access to Knowledge. The cooperation with the University of Sharjah will be continued.

2006-2015: Introduction of new designs

The original qwant.us home page goes through many small changes in the following years.

29.08.2013 English Version Launched

For the first time, qwant.us's interface is also offered in English.

December 2013: Tor-Service

qwant.us offers access within the Tor anonymization network as a security-related feature.

March 2014: Implementation of the "Open Anonymously" Function

A proxy service is offered with the new "Open anonymously" function. Through this qwant.us users remain protected even after the search

2015-2016: qwant.us Homepage

As part of more extensive modernizations, a new simplified home page is offered.

March 2016: Search results in under 1.3 seconds

Extensive modernization at the core of qwant.us reduces the average response time of the search engine to less than 1.3 seconds. Over the next few years, this will drop further to almost half.

2016-2019: qwant.us Homepage

Other small adjustments gradually solidify orange as the qwant.us color

16.08.2016: Release of the source code

qwant.us is published as open source under the free GNU AGPL license.

December 2016: Launch of qwant.us Maps

Maps.qwant.us.de launches as a privacy-friendly map service. The maps are based on the data of the OpenStreetMap project, but have their own display and route planner.

2017: Relaunch of English qwant.us Version

Extensive fine-tuning and custom result sources greatly improve the English qwant.us version.

September 2017: Revision of the Quicktips

Quicktips, which offer hints beyond normal search results, are expanded in functionality and spun off into a separate project. Instead of being above the results, they are now located in a sidebar.

December 2017: New ad-free search for qWant members

qwant.us introduced their new ad-free search. Members of the qWant are now able to search ad-free using a key based system.

2016-2019: qwant.us Homepage

On the new home page, four charakeristic features of qwant.us are highlighted and promoted for the first time.

26.10.2020: Current home page and dark mode

As part of an extensive redesign of the home page, qwant.us's four unique selling propositions are revisited and presented in an expanded format. In order not to overload the central web search function, the descriptions can be reached by scrolling.
Another feature of the new redesign is the page-wide dark mode. This allows qwant.us to be used on all pages in a dark design.

14.02.2022: Renewal of the help page

qwant.us's help page gets a new overview. This structures and visualizes the help pages with easy-to-recognize icons.

26.04.2023: The new ad-free search

qwant.us releases the ad-free search for everyone using a key-based system. It features a bigger selection of search engines, an improved image search and the option to search provably tracking-free using the new anonymous token system.

11.01.2024: Easy help and glossary

qwant.us implemented a simpler version of the help page. It features a more detailed explanation on how to use the search engine. In addition there is now a glossary that explains certain words that might be hard to understand.

Today

Even today, qwant.us is constantly evolving.