A billion searches a year, now built in: Startpage comes to Firefox

Firefox users were choosing Startpage long before today — to the tune of more than a billion searches a year, every one of them required some assembly: an extension, a manual setting, a workaround. 

Today, starting with Firefox 154, that choice becomes as easy as head to the drop-down menu, hit ‘select,’ and start searching. Startpage is now a built-in search option for Firefox users on desktop in Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Android and iOS are coming soon. Whether you want to search with Startpage, or another preferred search engine, it’s as easy as opening your search settings, picking a default, and done.

And if you’re happy with your current search engine, nothing about your setup changes.

Why Europe first

This launch starts in Startpage’s home markets: a Netherlands-based search engine, now built into the browser for some of the most privacy-conscious users in the world. At a moment when so much of the web experience is decided by a handful of very large companies, a search option that’s private by design and European by origin isn’t a small thing. 

What Startpage delivers

Startpage delivers full, high-quality search results without the privacy trade off. Queries aren’t stored or linked to you, and there are no AI answers pushed above your search results. In fact, there’s no AI at all. Based in the Netherlands, Startpage built its product around a simple idea: great search and personal privacy can go hand in hand.

“So much of your web experience is prescribed before you ever open a browser. We’d rather you decide how you want to search. Adding Startpage puts a genuinely private search engine option — real results, zero profiling, AI-free — one click away for millions of people in Europe,” said Ajit Varma, Head of Firefox.

Users asked with one billion searches

Startpage ranks among the most-requested search engines in the Firefox community. When demand is this clear, our job is to remove the friction. 

“More and more of what people use online comes from a handful of very large companies, and search is where that concentration gets felt most directly. Firefox has always been the browser for people who want to make their own decisions about the web, which makes it a natural home for private search. Firefox users already run over a billion Startpage searches a year. Now Startpage is built in for everyone in these markets,” said Stewart Marlborough, President of Startpage.

That’s the pattern we want: people who use Firefox every day tell us what they need, and we ship it.

Search is a choice. Firefox treats it like one. 

Most browsers have already decided how you’re going to search. Firefox hasn’t. Pick your search engine, control what happens to your queries, decide who sees data about you, even turn AI on or off. It should always be your call. Not everyone wants the same thing from search, and a browser shouldn’t pretend they do.

Try it out

If you’re in Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, or the Netherlands, update to Firefox 154 and you’ll find Startpage in your search settings.

The post A billion searches a year, now built in: Startpage comes to Firefox appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.