Qwant
 | This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in French. Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
 Qwant's logo | |
Type of site | Search engine |
|---|---|
| Available in | French, English, German, Italian, Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Spanish, Basque, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese and Russian[1] |
| Headquarters | |
| Owner | Qwant SAS |
| URL | www |
| Launched | 4 July 2013 |
| Current status | Active |
Qwant is a privacy-oriented search engine, originated and hosted in France, and is available in 13 languages.[1] It has over 50 million total visits worldwide.[2]
Search engine
[change | change source]Qwant users can create an account, which allowed them to post on boards using Qwant boards (discontinued).[3] It also allows them to save their preferences.
Qwant was first beta tested on 16 February 2013.[4] The stable version was released on 4 July 2013,[5] with an updated version being released on 17 April 2015.[6]
On 10 December 2014, child-friendly version of Qwant, called Qwant Junior was beta tested in cooperation with the French Ministry of Education.[7] A stable version was later released.
On 5 October 2015, Qwant Lite was released. Qwant Lite is a version of Qwant, specifically made for legacy web browsers.[8]
When the Brave web browser was released in 2017, it featured Qwant as one of the default search engines.
In 2018, the French government declared that all government web searches are going to be made with Qwant.[9]
Parent company
[change | change source]The self titled company, Qwant SAS was founded in February 2011 by Jean-Manuel Rozan, Éric Leandri and Patrick Constan.
It has over 160 employees in Paris, Nice, Ajaccio and Épinal. It also has offices in Germany and Italy.[10]
From 2011 to 2014, Qwant SAS acquired a total of €3.5 million.[11]
In 2016, the European Investment Bank invested €25 million in Qwant.[12]
Privacy
[change | change source]Qwant offers protections based on the GDPR.
Qwant's Privacy Policy says that "as a principle, Qwant does not collect data about its users when they search". It claims not to use any cookie nor any other tracking technology.[13]
Reception
[change | change source]The New York Times compared Qwant to Quaero, another search engine made to rival Google. Quaero shut down in 2013.
The service received public support from Emmanuel Macron, then Minister of the Economy and Finance and the future President of France.[14]
References
[change | change source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Qwant". Qwant settings menu.
- ↑ "qwant.com Traffic Statistics". SimilarWeb (in French). Retrieved 2021-01-06.
- ↑ "Qwant Boards". Qwant Boards. Archived from the original on 2020-12-23. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
- ↑ "About Qwant". About Qwant. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
- ↑ "Qwant : le nouveau moteur de recherche français est officiellement lancé". Atlantico.fr (in French). Archived from the original on 2021-01-07. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
- ↑ "Welcome to the new Qwant! | Blog Qwant". Qwant Blog. 2015-04-17. Archived from the original on 2015-05-22. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
- ↑ "Qwant Junior". Blog Qwant. 2014-12-01. Archived from the original on 2021-01-09. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
- ↑ "Qwant Lite est spécifiquement adapté aux utilisateurs d'anciennes versions de navigateurs". 2015-05-22. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
- ↑ Goujard, Clothilde (2018-11-20). "France is ditching Google to reclaim its online independence". Wired UK. ISSN 1357-0978. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
- ↑ "Qwant press kit" Archived 2021-01-08 at the Wayback Machine (2019).
- ↑ "Qwant wants to be alternative to Google". 2014-12-31.
- ↑ "France: EIB provides EUR 25 million for start-up Qwant: Innovative financing for a European search engine with strong growth potential". European Investment Bank. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
- ↑ "Privacy Policy". About Qwant. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
- ↑ "Macron fait la pub du « Google français » : vous ne connaissiez pas ?". L'Obs (in French). Retrieved 2021-01-06.