I would not be surprised if some readers have not heard of Presearch. However, I would expect that most of them have heard about Google. There is no denying that Google has dominated the market for search engines by far. So the easiest way to explain to someone who asks what Presearch is would be to say "It's like google"... But believe me, Presearch is nothing like Google.
My case against Google and friends… a rant
I have always wanted to rant about Google, and thanks to this writing competition that I get to spread my gospel to let people know that they deserve a search engine that respects their privacy, and sees them as a valued user rather than a product. Read on.
Google is one of the biggest companies in the world, with a market capitalization of over 1 trillion dollars! It offers email, web browser, navigation, file sharing, search engine, and many other services which are all offered free of charge. Well, they also sell phones, tablets, computers, and watches. However, their market share as far as these gadgets go is nothing to write home about. So what is Google’s product or service that makes it one of the most valuable companies, really?
As of 2020, Forbes reported that more than 80% of Google’s revenue came from advertising. Meaning that only less than 20% of the revenue came from the sale of its gadgets, software, and other services. Therefore, to classify Google as a tech company is one of the greatest myths of the 21st century. Google is simply an online advertising company. However, if they called themselves an online advertising company, it would highlight just how much of a monopoly they really are. It would also shed light on their monopolistic antics to stifle competition and shove their choice of ads down our throats. Basically, Google shows you whatever they want you to see. Or, more accurately, Google shows you whatever the highest bidder wants you to see based on all the things Google knows about your life.
But why does Google make so much money from advertising? Because it is an advertiser like no other. Google search engine is like a giant octopus, and all other Google products are its tentacles. By using any of Google’s products and services, Google collects data such as location, browsing history, device type, web activity, app activity, et cetera, which is used to power its advertising engine. These data points are used to construct a profile of you so that adverts are highly personalized and targeted. How much money does Google make off you? Billions! How much of that money comes to you? Zero, zilch, zip, nada, nothing!
More than 90% of search queries on the internet are looked up on Google, so it’s not hard to see that it’s the 1 billion global users of Google products/services that feed the monster. Google will go to great lengths to collect as much data from you as possible just to power its advertising business, even if it means pretending to offer you free products and services. On several occasions, the European Union has slapped heavy fines on Google after investigations revealed that Google was using underhand methods to push certain search results to the top of the page while pushing legitimate top hits to the bottom of the page.
In short, Google does not care about your privacy because the more they know about you, the easier it is for them to target you with adverts; and the more money they can charge advertisers. Advertisers outbid each other, and whoever bids the highest is showed to you first. In Google’s eyes, you are the product that they are selling to the highest bidder! Now I could go on with my rant about Google and similar search engines who have followed in Google’s footsteps, but we do not have all day.
Most search engines have followed in Google's footsteps
...Along came Presearch
Presearch is a decentralized search engine that protects privacy and rewards users. It was founded by Colin Pape in 2017 even though the idea was birthed as far back as 2011. According to Colin, the idea of a decentralized search engine was born after the company he founded, ShopCity.com, was deliberately and unfairly pushed to the back of Google search results by the Google algorithm in favor of Google’s own competing products. A formal anti-trust complaint was filed with the Federal Trade Commission.
It is at that point that Colin Pape realized that a truly independent search engine was needed. Presearch is designed to be independent and decentralized. Users’ IP address, device information and location data are protected because search queries are powered by a decentralized network of independent nodes that directs ads according to search queries. This basically eliminates the need to collect personal information. Value is in the search term, rather than in your personal data.
Presearch respects privacy and personal data
Get rewarded in PRE tokens
PRE tokens are paid for by sponsors to reward users and node operators. Oh yes! Presearch rewards you with PRE tokens for performing searches, and literally anyone can run a node and receive rewards in the form of PRE tokens. When I just joined Presearch some months ago, I would get 0.25 PRE per search. However, I am now getting only 0.12 at the moment. I am guessing the reward structure was amended in order to accommodate the surging number of new users. Presearch now boasts of more than 2 million users performing close to a million search queries every day.
This system currently provides searchers with the opportunity to earn up to 8 PRE per day at a rate of 0.25 PRE per search, with reward amounts set to adjust automatically based upon platform tokenomics (supply and demand) in Q4 2020. The daily maximum may ultimately be increased, or even eliminated - Presearch Vision Paper
According to Presearch, Tokens can be withdrawn when a Presearch user reaches 1000 eligible tokens. The algorithm is designed to detect fake searches that are just done in order to inflate the rewards, so Presearch allocates a level to every search query (level 1 – 9). Only PRE level 5 or higher tokens can be withdrawn. Moral of the story: Do not try to cheat the system.
This user's 139 Rewards Tokens are all eligible for withdrawal
Opportunities for advertisers: Keyword staking
Presearch provides an opportunity to earn traffic to your website by locking up a certain amount of PRE tokens and assigning a search term to it. You commit an amount of PRE tokens to a specific word or phrase, and your ad will show up on top when someone searches for that term. The catch is that you still own your PRE tokens, and you can sell them when you decide to unstake them. Basically, you could buy some PRE, stake it, push traffic to your website, unstake it and sell your PRE. Meaning that you earned some traffic for free! PRE tokens can be bought in the market place using BTC, ETH, and USD (Wire, Visa, or Electronic Money Transfer).
How to join the wonderful world of Presearch decentralized search engine
To join Presearch and start earning PRE tokens go to Presearch and sign up.
Once registered, you can earn PRE tokens by searching on presearch.org, iOS, Android, or installing the Presearch extension on Brave browser, Chrome, and Firefox.
Presearch makes searching even easier by making it possible to get results directly from a number of search providers (Yes, including Google!). See some of the search providers that you could get direct results from making a search query with Presearch.
It's even possible to add your own custom search providers
Conclusion
Mining personal information and using it to fatten their advertising revenue is a business model that has been propagated by Google, and many search engines have followed suit. Thanks to a blockchain-based company like Presearch for disrupting the status quo. Presearch is doing a great thing by going against what has become to be regarded as normal in the search engine industry. Not only is Presearch helping to decentralize the internet, but it is also providing a rewarding incentive to users and advertisers alike, thereby eliminating the need for anyone to not respect privacy.
