A quick look at the new search engine You.com

Martin Brinkmann
Apr 14, 2022
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You is a relatively new search engine that is currently in beta. The creators describe You as a search engine "that summarizes the best parts of the Internet" for its users. Currently, You has no ads and strong privacy features, especially in private mode.

According to You, sensitive data is never stored by the service or sold or distributed to third-parties.  Users may use the search engine with or without an account. Using an account trains the AI that You uses to deliver improved search results to the user.

You has a number of features that differentiate itself from traditional search engines. One of the features is support for apps. Basically, what this does is add sources that are supported to a section of the results listing. If you trust a particular source, say, Stack Overflow for coding, BBC News for news, or Yelp for information about places, then you may add these to your search experience.

The list of sources has about 150 entries currently. There is no option to add your own sources, and at least some of the sources appear to have been picked because of popularity and not quality. Also, at least in Beta, You is focusing on the United States.  You can check out the listing here.

The design that You uses for displaying search results is different as well. You get the option to use a compact or detailed design for the results, and may switch between dark and light themes as well. When you start typing a search query, suggestions are displayed automatically.

The search page may look crowded on first glance. The following screenshots show the default compact results layout first and then the detailed layout.

Both feature an app listing at the top, CNET, with no results for the query Windows 11, and below that the actual results. You uses a card layout to display results horizontally and vertically. Results of a specific section scroll horizontally. There is no option to change that behavior,

Quick jump links are displayed at the top and the side of the interface to jump to a specific part, e.g., to jump to image or video results, or to a specific application. A click on a result opens it in the same tab, but you can switch that with a click on menu and the toggling of "open links in a new tab" if you prefer it.

You's private mode may remind you of the browser's private browsing mode on first glance. You does not save search queries or the IP address while the mode is active.

Also, all search queries are routed through proxies that You provides so that the providing sites do not come into direct contact with the user's IP address or device.

Closing Words

You does not mention how it sources its results. Is it crawling the web on its own or does it use results by one of the main search engines? I tried to find the answer to that but the FAQ does not reveal it.

I used You.com for some time but not enough to judge the definitive quality of its results. My impression so far is that its results were not better or worse than those provided by other search engines for the most part.

One part that stands out is coding and programming related results. You display code snippets when possible and these often reveal what you require right away.

The Apps feature sounds good on paper, but it is too limited in my opinion even for a Beta and the quality of some of the used sources is not the best.

In conclusion: You is a search engine that has a few distinguishing factors when compared to other search engines. The layout may look too crowded for some, and horizontal scrolling is not everyone's cup of tea either. For some query types, for instance coding snippets, it appears to offer better results than traditional search engines such as Google.

Now You: have you tried You.com?

Summary
A quick look at the new search engine You.com
Article Name
A quick look at the new search engine You.com
Description
You is a relatively new search engine that is currently in beta. The creators describe You as a search engine "that summarizes the best parts of the Internet" for its users. Currently, You has no ads and strong privacy features, especially in private mode.
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Comments

  1. gerald brennan said on April 17, 2022 at 2:17 pm
    Reply

    If you trust “BBC News for news” then no search engine in the world will fix your issues.

  2. Graham said on April 16, 2022 at 12:05 am
    Reply

    The main page suggests “Ethereum” as a search term.
    I’m already skeptical.

  3. PJAG said on April 15, 2022 at 8:35 pm
    Reply

    I have been really enjoying You for reddit, Reddits own search option is totally unusable and having to type [query] + reddit to search for reddit in google is stressful. With You I found myself searching for anything and directly getting useful results from reddit.

  4. Amused Chocolate Bar said on April 15, 2022 at 4:50 am
    Reply

    Yuck – it requires JavaScript enabled in the browser.

    No. Thank. You.

    I get by with DDG .onion via Tor:

    https://duckduckgogg42xjoc72x3sjasowoarfbgcmvfimaftt6twagswzczad.onion/html

  5. DoubleCopiumShake said on April 14, 2022 at 4:43 pm
    Reply

    Well, you didn’t even mention how at the bottom of the screen it says: “Some web, image, video, or news results are powered by Microsoft – Privacy Statement.” which means they share information with MS, and they will keep it for many months, which is the same thing the other 90% of search engines uses.

    What is it going to be different from Bing? not so much, and since they are still influenced by Microsoft Bing, that’s censorship on top of censorship.
    I must admit it has some not so bad thing in some cases, but it is mostly crap and it gives you the same results Bing would give you. so what would be the reason not to use Bing at this point? dark theme?
    It is like pretending Brave won’t give you mostly polluted Google’s search results, well, You is going to give you polluted Bing results.

    Yes, I have to make comparisons so people understand some little differences.

    But at least having Bing will have a better start, you can search for cgpersia or audioz and you will actually get their domain and as first result, something you don’t get in Google, startpage or Brave, since they only show the domains in page 100+ (blog) which is useless, so You giving you normal results about those pages as first results is fine, that’s how it should be even if some people think those websites are controversial.

    I searched for George Eliason and it was okay, gives you better results than what you would get in Startpage/Google. with his usual username gheliason you get decent results, not great but better than startpage.
    For its layout, searching for someone like patrick lancaster gives you some decent results even his telegram and some decent results compared to something like Brave which doesn’t show his telegram or anything.

    Searching for something more specific like odessa october 23 2014… well, you will not get much on the internet, but You seems to give ONE results related to it and couple ones that can be called decent, at least related to odessa, in other search engines you will get 2 results odessa (not about october 23) and then nothing about anything. Bing also gives the same result, not as a first result like on You but it is there, so we have to think the only reason they got that is because of Bing even if Bing said they would never show a source like that (it is on page 2 on my side)

    Now, use something more controversial, something that might be banned or whatever from the internet, for example ‘stormfront’, well, You.com will not even get their domain, but that’s how Bing and Google works.
    Even if you disagree with it, people should literally get the domain and as a first result, but no, ‘we will hide it, because we disagree with it’. For example, if you use Gigablast, it will not care if you like it or not or if you agree or not, it will show the domain as first result with a badge and all, that’s how it should be.
    You.com would be better if they didn’t even show search results, because you get shit like Snopes and their garbage BS ‘news’, like “it’s shutting down” but stormfront.org still work today, so it is BS search results… I mean, just having snopes there is terrible, but that’s not my point.

    Search for another controversial stuff like goyimtv and unlike startpage, you get the domain as first result, the problem about searching for it is… will a search engine gives you something related to it? or something against it? well, Startpage-google, Bing and Brave, you get everything against it, and only the domain once, in You.com you get the domain many times and couple stuff against it, some useless result, so it is kind of weird the way it works compared to others.
    Which is interesting because something like Gigablast has all the results about it, mixed, against it, about it, telegram, but seems like on most search engines they try to just give you the domain, which is at least better than nothing but and then censor everything else and tell you how you can read about it.

    At least searching for Ukraine on fire will give the relevant information about the documentary, Brave for example will put stuff that is not related to it, which is weird because startpage gives all results about documentary, the only one that fails adding unrelated stuff is Brave.

    You.com seems to have a nice layout but seems to suffer the same other search engines suffer, some people might disagree and say it doesn’t matter because they won’t try to find controversial stuff anyway, but some do.
    But anyway, it obviously is based on Bing API so it is not going to be much better than the other million search engines based on it.

    I could have used more current controversial topics but I don’t really care much to do that, there was a substack post with a test like that, they didn’t include Brave (which it would have been the worst for the OP’s perspective anyway), https://michaelsuede.substack.com/p/search-engine-censorship-test-results?s=r

    But that post shows how Yandex is the least biased one, even if some people will complain because it is Russian and it will derank some results like cnn, but it seems to be the one that gives more related stuff to searches in many cases.
    The interesting thing about Yandex is that it even gives you Nitter results, something I only saw in Bing with I think Patrick Lancaster test, they give you alternative pages that no other search engine does.
    Of course stuff changes if you use the English vs lang:en and all that, but seems to give you more results related to your searches in many cases, not perfect, sometimes I use startpage, but I really don’t see benefit on You.com besides the layout, but then the layout seems too cluttered and weird for normal searches.

    I mean, search for something like 2*2 and you will get calculator result, just text, not like a calculator you can use later to do other operations like you can do in any other search engine, and then you get a bunch of useless crap.

    So I don’t think it is even that great for simple searches, because they will add sources that will not matter in the end in simple searches like that.

    I mean, I remember some searx instances having reddit as a source on by default, and simple searches would bring a bunch of adult results from it and all that and reddit would just be there polluting the results, that’s more or less what happens in You.com, you will not get clean results but it is not too bad either, just seems like another Bing API search engine trying to get some quick bucks like all the others while promoting “privacy” but they still have to share info with Bing, and Microsoft AI will obviously know who you are even if “we hiding your IP”.
    But it seems they don’t even do that well, since they have the proxy thing ‘Private Mode’, so it is a weird thing to have.

    What I really don’t understand how a supposedly privacy whatever search engine literally has a “SIGN UP” button on it. Sign up for what??, it’s just a search engine!!
    You have to give your name and EMAIL! is that what a privacy search engine would request just to ‘customize your experience’?
    Sounds like a way to grab people’s information easily and then… are they going to keep it safe or….?
    That should be a red flag for anyone, it is not like they offer email or anything else, it is just a search engine.

    I can’t see any benefit and since it gets Microsoft stuff, then not much will change compared to other (most) search engines that use Bing API already.

    1. Anonymous said on April 16, 2022 at 2:49 am
      Reply

      Yes, Yandex is not biased.
      It is the great Russia that tells the true news.
      Anything other than Yandex is filth.
      It proves that you should not use the services of western nations, which are full of lies and propaganda.

  6. Anonymous said on April 14, 2022 at 2:34 pm
    Reply

    My guess is that the bulk of search is coming from Bing. Results from You and Bing look similar. Also, states “Some web, image, video, or news results are powered by Microsoft – Privacy Statement.” on bottom of web page

  7. beemeup5 said on April 14, 2022 at 12:52 pm
    Reply

    I think Mojeek is still one of the few truly independent search engines which I really appreciate despite its results sometimes being a bit scattered and random compared to the bigger engines.
    I think Brave Search is also wholly independent using its own web crawler and ranking algorithm.

    https://www.mojeek.com/

  8. An said on April 14, 2022 at 12:21 pm
    Reply

    “Using an account trains the AI that You uses to deliver improved search results to the user”

    that is just THE thing you would like to avoid at all costs. No Bubbles!!
    no personal profiling

  9. Gerard said on April 14, 2022 at 11:59 am
    Reply

    Corporation/people behind you.com?
    You.com’s source of revenue? Ads?

    It did not work with NoScript enabled.
    “You is focusing on the United States”.

    I’m not interested. There are sufficient alternatives.

    1. Peter Parker Kent said on April 14, 2022 at 4:09 pm
      Reply

      SuSea, Inc.

      See https://you.com/legal/terms and https://you.com/legal/privacy for more. I’m just starting to dig…

      1. Peter Parker Kent said on April 14, 2022 at 4:12 pm
        Reply

        Update:
        From their description, etc. for their Crypto Product Manager position for hire (https://jobs.lever.co/you/4f7aa6fd-9240-40c1-8926-3c2462e6b7d2)
        [courtesy of https://jobs.lever.co/you/%5D

        “[…]We’re not just wide-eyed dreamers – we’re pragmatic doers, too. Our founder and CEO, Richard Socher previously started an AI company called MetaMind. Salesforce acquired the company, and Richard became Chief Scientist, leading the company’s AI efforts. Prior to MetaMind, Richard received the best Ph.D. thesis award from Stanford for his groundbreaking work on deep learning. Bryan McCann, co-founder and CTO, is a scientist and philosopher who led natural language processing teams at Salesforce after completing his Master’s in C.S. at Stanford. Our founding team members have built companies worth hundreds of millions of dollars and scaled software to serve millions of users. For fun, we run marathons, paramotor, write poetry, read Latin, hike, and camp in the middle of nowhere.
        If this sounds intriguing, say hello!”

      2. Anonymous said on April 15, 2022 at 1:51 am
        Reply

        @Peter
        lol nice find. I bet their future motto is ‘you can get c?r?y?p?t?o? rewards while b?r?o?w?s?i?n?g? searching’

  10. TelV said on April 14, 2022 at 11:16 am
    Reply

    My search query this morning on You.com: “Android: can’t receive verification code for LINE app” resulted in “Sorry, no resources were found”.

    As regards the problem with the LINE app it couldn’t send messages anymore and messages from friends arrived late or not at all. So I decided to uninstall/reinstall it again, but now the verification code fails to arrive when trying to login.

    I’ve already been in touch with LINE support, which by the way is handled by Salesforce.com according to the email headers, but they only send copy/paste answers from their database (presumably provided by LINE) regardless of the question the user has.

    To my way of thinking LINE’s bulk SMS server is misconfigured and verification codes are never actually sent. But how to get that through to Salesforce?

    1. TelV said on April 14, 2022 at 6:49 pm
      Reply

      I managed to persuade LINE support to send the missing verification code to my Tutanota.com email account which is encrypted instead of using SMS the latter of which is less secure and didn’t work either. So my precious LINE app is working again now. :)

  11. Paul(us) said on April 14, 2022 at 9:54 am
    Reply

    You were trying to fingerprint ( a tracking technique that advertisers and companies use. Think Edward Snowden) me when I was coming for the first time on their page? Not a really good start.

  12. Tom Hawack said on April 14, 2022 at 9:32 am
    Reply

    You [https://you.com/] established connections to :
    [app.launchdarkly.com], [clientstream.launchdarkly.com], [plausible.io]

    uBlock Origin’s ‘AdGuard Tracking Protection’ filter list blocks connection to [plausible.io] with this filter :
    ||plausible.io/api/event

    Hence, You tells me ‘Please reload the page, something went wrong.’. Something *is* wrong and it’s You. Not you, but You.

    My first morning Web joke. Lost 5 minutes, but what’s 5 minutes for a big laugh?

    1. Shiva said on April 14, 2022 at 3:56 pm
      Reply

      ‘Please reload the page, something went wrong.’ Seems this happens if I put user.js using a new profile. Not a big deal.

      1. Shiva said on April 14, 2022 at 5:02 pm
        Reply

        It seems that You.com needs:
        – first party cookie enabled
        – beacon.enabled = true

    2. MeH said on April 14, 2022 at 1:59 pm
      Reply

      Well, I have uBO (always had) with ‘AdGuard Tracking Protection’ filter on and I have no problem using You.com. Searched some keywords and it seems OK.

      The way it presents search results is a bit new though. Different from other engines like Google, Bing and Yandex.

      1. Tom Hawack said on April 14, 2022 at 5:24 pm
        Reply

        @MeH, correct. I’ve added you.com to uBO’s trusted sites and page still doesn’t display correctly.
        I assumed too quickly that ‘AdGuard Tracking Protection’ filter ||plausible.io/api/event was the culprit.
        Likely a clash with my Firefox configuration. First time this happens. I’ll investigate when I have the time.
        My configuration is set to cause no issues, but one site may require what is blocked and there we go spending substantial time to find the culprit. I’m sure what is required shouldn’t be …

      2. Tom Hawack said on April 14, 2022 at 6:49 pm
        Reply

        I’ve found the culprit in my Firefox configuration :

        // disable sending additional analytics to web servers
        pref(“beacon.enabled”, false); // DEFAULT=true

        – When false, You [https://you.com/] does not start and displays ‘Please reload the page, something went wrong.’

        – When true, You [https://you.com/] runs correctly.

        Took me half an hour to find it. Not sure I’ll enable sending beacon for the sake of one site. Never encountered this before.

    3. Yash said on April 14, 2022 at 10:04 am
      Reply

      A quip. Pun is for five second laugh, while sarcasm is really not a laugh but a smile.

      1. Tom Hawack said on April 14, 2022 at 12:29 pm
        Reply

        I’ve just learned two words, ‘quip’ and ‘pun’ :=)
        I’m totally uneducated, I often laugh when others smile; worse : I laugh of my own jokes which is the ultimate of an uneducated poor soul. LOL (there I go again). But I seldom goof (I try to be tactful) :=)

      2. Yash said on April 14, 2022 at 5:15 pm
        Reply

        Well I also often find myself laughing or more specific sniggering at my own actions. Was pondering if this is a good or bad thing, but after reading your comment maybe it is good afterall.

        You’ll really find The Fiver – if you’re into football – as a good source of amusement. As fiver readers would constantly remind everyone it makes you laugh when others are in serious mood. My favourite is – ‘In 1950, they opted to travel to Brazil by boat having been spooked by Superga, then stank the place out and flew home anyway.’ Link – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/mar/25/the-fiver-italy-defeat-unusually-large-number-of-widescreen-humiliations-world-cup
        Never before words have been used in that way which constanly brings a different laugh everytime I read it.

  13. Neutrino said on April 14, 2022 at 8:27 am
    Reply

    Testing a search engine is actually very easy – search for “climate change”, “covid”, “9/11 connection to Is…”, and if it only gives you some “official” or MSM garbage in the results, then it is no better than the Poogle.

    1. truesthecsiense said on April 18, 2022 at 7:04 am
      Reply

      Thanks Neutrino,

      this search engine goes directly into the waste bin as it didn’t pass the litmus test, I noticed it connects to Bing.net, so is this Bing in disguise?

      And what’s up with all the shill comments, I have to say Yandex is almost the only neutral search engine left, except perhaps for certain Russian related stuff which is not my main search topic of interest anyway.

    2. Peter Parker Kent said on April 14, 2022 at 4:04 pm
      Reply

      Actually, you can test any search engine by seeing what search results are prioritized and from what sources (Fox News and/or CNN and/or One American News and/or The Atlantic, ad nauseum). Everyone is biased in one way or another. At least you can get a feel which way a particular search engine’s seesaw tends to lean.

      1. Peter Parker Kent said on April 14, 2022 at 4:05 pm
        Reply

        *typo: One America News Network

    3. boris said on April 14, 2022 at 11:43 am
      Reply

      Do not forget to cover the whole body with tinfoil before sitting at your computer.

      1. Trey said on April 14, 2022 at 10:03 pm
        Reply

        @boris
        Yes. Thank you comrade. See you at Yandex. Only true, true news. Verified by the motherland.

      2. boris said on April 14, 2022 at 11:03 pm
        Reply

        @Trey

        All irony aside, Yandex is less truthful than MSNBC. And for me its a lot.

      3. Anonymous said on April 15, 2022 at 5:11 am
        Reply

        Yandex is only good for sailing the high seas

    4. Electron said on April 14, 2022 at 10:51 am
      Reply

      Lol
      if any search engine out there, would only give me official (peer-reviewed science based) results and not this garbage ‘alternative facts’ and ‘but a friend of my grandmother expierenced something different’ stuff, which you find on EVERY plattform, I would switch immidiatly and never look back

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