Startpage, a search engine focused on privacy, on Thursday
debuted a tab for News results -- adding to features like web searches, images, videos, and anonymous views. Microsoft will provide the News feed through Bing.
The new relationship between
Bing and Startpage marks an evolution in the company’s news services with a focus on privacy -- a News tab with an anonymous view. It also gives digital publishers one more place for their
content to serve up, under the Startpage search engine News tab.
Bing will feed content into the Startpage News tab, showcasing the most relevant search results, which users can filter by
date.
The deal guarantees a private browsing experience, allowing users to peruse the news free of any search history tracking.
“Users will see results based on keyword
search, recency, and the relevance of the content in Bing,” said Robert Beens, Startpage’s CEO.
Google will continue to power the web search feature.
The News
page layout initially will not include categories, but Beens expects to add that feature in the near future.
For now, advertising isn’t part of the partnership between Microsoft and
Startpage, but Mark Ballard, VP of research at the agency Merkle, thinks it will be interesting to see how Bing’s relationship with the privacy engine develops. Microsoft does supply
ads to another privacy-focused search engine, DuckDuckGo.
“Bing may be a more palatable ad partner than Google for platforms looking to serve users that are concerned about where and how
their data is being used,” Ballard said.