Swisscows Private Search 17+

I downloaded Swisscows because I was sick of being tracked, advertised to, and generally cajoled into following the pre-ordained black holes of the internet algorithms that are so ubiquitous across Chrome, Safari and the other big ones. I just wanted to be able to make simple web searches for things like recipes, the news, or answers to encyclopedia-type questions. Swisscows has been perfect for that. My internet usage has rapidly diminished (according to my Screen Time reports) and I feel like the internet is now actually a good tool for me to use rather than the dangerous firebrand in my hands that it once was. Thank you Swisscows for simplifying the modern age. One note for users: most webpages and blogs these days have video ads, and on Swisscows those videos immediately pop out and have to be closed or minimized to return to the webpage. I actually don’t mind this feature, because I primarily use the app to reduce my internet use, and the annoyance of these pop outs makes me want to use it less, but it may be much more annoying to other users. Also, Apple, at this time, doesn’t support any interfacing with Swisscows, so you can’t click on links in iMessage and expect to open them in the app, or in Maps. Again, minor inconvenience that I actually see as a strength for my purposes, but that may discourage others from using Swisscows.

"The developer does not collect any data from this app."

In this age of ubiquitous data collection, storage, transference and commodification, how refreshing it was to read that statement prior to downloading the SwissCows app. Even if the search engine was sub-par (which it's not), this practice of respecting its users data would, on its face, entice me to support SwissCows as much as possible.

I first stumbled upon SwissCows through the advice of an expert in all things pertaining to privacy and data protection in this hyper-digital world we now find ourselves in. It was one of only TWO search engines he felt comfortable recommending to his audience - with the other being Brave Search - but having now used both engines, I feel confident that SwissCows is the superior of the two. SwissCows had the highest commendation from him for its transparency, privacy protection and respect for its customers and the often sensitive information they provide to these engines.

Sure, there are things that could be improved upon - as with any search engine - but I am truly impressed by the product that the team at SwissCows have created. They have my support and will continue to do so as long as their engine remains honest, transparent and free from the typical data-harvesting techniques employed by the sociopaths at Google, SuckSuckGo, Bing, and the like. 5/5 Stars.

This is a really cool concept if I have a quick question or basic topic I want to search, but I still have to use the Google or Bing search engine if I want more thorough results for specific questions like for homework or hobbies.

There’s also a really annoying issue with ads if I follow a link to a website that I don’t have a problem with using other apps/search engines. If I go to a blog, an article, a critic site or anything with ads (which is everything), the ads will automatically keep going full screen like a movie and completely block my view no matter how many times I click out of them or change cookie settings. Even if I scroll past any video ads on any site through a link I find with this app they still keep going into full screen mode over and over again and it’s extremely hard to view or scroll through any websites I find using Swiss Cow :(

If I open the page in Safari, I don’t notice this problem, so idk why this is happening, but I hope something will change because I want to keep using Swiss Cow for certain censored topics.