Android devices now offer a blockchain-powered, decentralized search engine
Move follows a 2018 EC ruling to prevent Google from using Android to drive away other search engines
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All new and factory-resetAndroiddevices in the UK and Europe will now allow users to replace the defaultGoogleSearch option with one of several others, including theblockchain-based,privacy-centricsearch engine Presearch.
Presearch says its private, decentralized search engine has than 2.3 million registered users and 1 million searches per day, which it claims is an increase of more than 300 percent since January 2021.
“With Android running on about four-fifths of the world’ssmartphonesincluding hundreds of millions in Europe, we see this as a huge win in taking decentralized services and blockchain mainstream and driving mass adoption,” said Colin Pape, Founder of Presearch.
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Presearch is a decentralized search engine that employs geographically dispersed nodes to process search queries. In return, Presearch offers the node operators rewards throughEthereum-based PRE tokens.
Penalizing Google
The move to enable Android users to choose their default search engine follows a 2018 decision by the European Commission to impose a fine of€4.3 billion on Googlefor misusing Android to increase its search engine market share.
As a result, Google, earlier this year, announced it would increase the number of search providers on its default settings page.
Starting September 1, 2021, Android devices will list the five most popular eligible search engines in each European Union country, in random order, at the top of the Android choice screen. These will be followed by up to seven additional search engines at the bottom.
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Pape believes the move could help Presearch potentially gain millions of new users, which he sees as one of the biggest wins for any project in the crypto space.
With almost two decades of writing and reporting on Linux, Mayank Sharma would like everyone to think he’sTechRadar Pro’sexpert on the topic. Of course, he’s just as interested in other computing topics, particularly cybersecurity, cloud, containers, and coding.
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