You.com Search Engine Announced to Take on Google Search, Founder Says Will Not Rely on Ads for Results

You.com, a new search engine, has been announced to take on Google Search. This new search engine has been made by former Salesforce chief scientist Richard Socher. In a world where consumer search is plagued with clickbait content for monetary gains through advertising, You.com looks to be a trusted search platform with privacy controls, legit reviews, and AI-driven comprehensive results. The search engine is reportedly built using advanced natural language processing for refined relevant search results without having to rely on advertising.

The You.com website is live, but is currently taking registrations for early access. The site says You.com offers privacy controls to let users customise their browsing experience. The company says it ‘never sells your data to advertisers or follows you around the rest of the Internet.' You.com also takes into account your values, helps you give back and support the right causes with the right tools, and makes it easier for you to search and shop according to your values. The site claims to offer trustworthy reviews from real users and experts, letting you know both the pros and cons of a product. You.com claims to also offers faster results, with priority given to real results over paid content and ads.

Socher spoke to TechCrunch about You.com. He said, “We are building You.com. You can already go to it today. And it's a trusted search engine. We want to work on having more click trust and less clickbait on the internet.” Socher goes on to add that You.com was conceived over the need to offer relevant and accurate search results a priority from the vortex of information that is available online. The need for user data privacy is also increasing and has been of significant importance in 2020 as more of the world moved towards the Internet.

The former Salesforce employee asserts, “The biggest impact thing we can do in our lives right now is to build a trusted search engine with AI and natural language processing superpowers to help everyone with the various complex decisions of their lives, starting with complex product purchases, but also being general from the get-go as well.” The principal differentiator from Google Search will be that You.com will not rely on advertising or what it knows about the user to throw results.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and venture capitalist Jim Breyer are primary investors in You.com, and Socher reportedly also has a team that is actively working on building the product. There is no clarity on when it will see a commercial launch.