After the EU ruled that Google should offer Android users a choice of search engine and browser, the company held an auction for alternative search engines that wanted to participate. The choice screen rolled out to users in the middle of last year, which brings us to today – Google announced the most popular alternative search engines per country.
The clear winner is the privacy-focused DuckDuckGo. It was the top choice in all EU countries but one – the UK. There, Bing was on top. Unfortunately for Microsoft, its engine didn’t even make the Top 3 everywhere else.
The clear runner-up is Info.com, a meta search engine with a social networking twist. PrivacyWall, Qwant and Yandex were other popular choices, you can see the full list below.
You will be asked to pick a default search engine when setting up an Android phone
The choice screen currently appears the first time you launch the Play Store. However, starting in March this year, the screen will become part of the initial setup of the device.
Note that the options for search engines vary by country, each engine is free to bid in the auction for the countries it’s interested in. The three highest bidders plus Google will be shown in a random order. This might explain why Bing appears so rarely in the list – maybe Microsoft only bid for for placement in the UK.
Here’s the breakdown per country. To be clear, these are the most popular non-Google search engines.CountryWinnersAustriaDuckDuckGo, GMX, Info.comBelgiumDuckDuckGo, Info.com, QwantBulgariaDuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWallCroatiaDuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWallCzech RepublicDuckDuckGo, Info.com, SeznamDenmarkDuckDuckGo, Givero, Info.comEstoniaDuckDuckGo, Info.com, YandexFinlandDuckDuckGo, Info.com, YandexFranceDuckDuckGo, Info.com, QwantGermanyDuckDuckGo, GMX, Info.comGreeceDuckDuckGo, Info.com, QwantHungaryDuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWallIcelandDuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWallIrelandDuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWallItalyDuckDuckGo, Info.com, QwantLatviaDuckDuckGo, Info.com, YandexLiechtensteinDuckDuckGo, Info.com, QwantLithuaniaDuckDuckGo, Info.com, YandexLuxembourgDuckDuckGo, Info.com, QwantMaltaDuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWallNetherlandsDuckDuckGo, GMX, Info.comNorwayDuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWallPolandDuckDuckGo, Info.com, YandexPortugalDuckDuckGo, Info.com, QwantRepublic of CyprusDuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWallRomaniaDuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWallSlovakiaDuckDuckGo, Info.com, SeznamSloveniaDuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWallSpainDuckDuckGo, Info.com, QwantSwedenDuckDuckGo, Info.com, PrivacyWallUnited KingdomBing, DuckDuckGo, Info.com
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