Qwant

Qwant
Société par actions simplifiée
Industry Web search engine
Founded Paris, France (16 February 2013 (2013-02-16))
Founder Jean-Manuel Rozan
Éric Leandri
Headquarters Paris, France
Website www.qwant.com

Qwant is a French company providing an eponymous web search engine available since 2013. It claims not to use user tracking nor filter bubble to provide search results.[1] Psychreg founder Dennis Relojo described Qwant as a search engine that makes every strenuous effort to ‘respect the privacy of its online visitors while providing a safe environment and relevant results’. [2]

The service initially launched on 16 February 2013, as a beta version, with a stable version released on 4 July 2013.[3] A new version was made available in April 2015.[4]

Search

Qwant offers several types of results including conventional websites, online stores, news websites and social networks.[5]

According to its founder, Qwant does not want to compete with Google but "to show something different".

In Search mode, the results are organized in columns:

It is possible to refine the search for each column by typing another keyword.

The "Media" mode is for photos and videos; while the "People" mode if for finding people or organizations on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and Myspace.

Users can create a free account allowing them to create notebooks and notes.

Creation and launch

This search engine was cofounded in 2011 by Jean-Manuel Rozan, a financier, and Éric Leandri, specialist in computer security.

It was launched February 16, 2013, after two years of research and development.[6]

Communication

Several French newspapers and news sites talked about Qwant just after its beta launch in February 2013 and its final launch in July 2013.

Criticism

Shortly after the release, some observers expressed doubts about the nature of Qwant. According to them, Qwant may not really be a search engine but simply a website aggregating results of other search engines like Bing and Amazon, and that the "Qnowledge Graph" is based on Wikipedia.[7] The company has rejected the reports and asserts that they do have their own Web crawler and use other search engines for semantic indexing related purposes.[8]

Qwant Lite

In October 2015, Qwant released a lighter and faster version of Qwant.com, aimed at being user-friendly for those with older browsers and others that do not have powerful or resource-rich computers. Integrated features like video playback and JavaScript were removed and the on-site content was streamlined.[9]

Notes and references

See also

External links

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