StartPage.com launches 'the world's best private image search' and Instant Answers

Privacy-focused search engine StartPage has launched an upgraded private image search feature. With extreme concern mounting about plans for ISPs to be granted permission to sell customers' browsing histories without express permission, interest in untrackable browsing is on the increase.

Based in the Netherlands, StartPage is outside the reach of US law enforcement agencies, and it uses a secure connection so there is no way to tell what users have been searching for, and also secures click-throughs using a proxy. In addition to the private image search enhancement, StartPage has also launched Instant Answers to provide searchers with easy access to key information.

StartPage is powered by Google so it is possible to benefit from the power of the search behemoth, but there are none of the downsides of search tracking and targeted advertising. While image searching is not a brand new feature for the site, it has now been greatly improved to allow for filtering and fine-tuning of results. It's a feature that will be of interest to people looking up information about health conditions, for example, without wanting to share that information with all and sundry.

But it is not just the search results themselves that are private and secure, as StartPage explains:

In addition to serving Google search results in privacy, StartPage provides a free proxy link with every search result. When users visit third-party websites through the proxy links, no one can see them or interact with their browsers -- not the websites, their advertising partners, or ISP's. This protects against spyware, viruses, and annoying targeted ads that stalk users across the Internet.

StartPage's new Instant Answers feature is its version of Google's Quick Answer Box, providing at-a-glance information about questions you might ask. This can be used to pull in information from Wikipedia without having to visit the site, quickly look up the weather forecast, flight times, movie screenings and much more.

Head over to StartPage.com to try it out.