IxQuick Changes Name To Startpage

IxQuick, which bills itself as “the world’s most private search engine,” has changed its name to the much-easier-to-remember Startpage.

Startpage is a meta search engine that’s tried to differentiate itself from the pack by using privacy as a marketing feature. In 2006, shortly before the mistaken release of three months of AOL search data, the service announced that it would purge its users personal data within 48 hours. This past January, IxQuick stopped recording IP addresses completely and began offering secure searching via the https protocol.

But judging by the general lack of awareness about IxQuick/Startpage, the focus on privacy hasn’t resonated yet with the general search population. Meanwhile, the big three search engines currently hold on to user data for three months (Yahoo), nine months (Google), and 18 months (Microsoft/Bing).