Cowl, our private search engine, launches Friday the 13th

Every search you type tells a story about you: what you’re worried about, what you’re shopping for, where you’re headed next. Most search engines are happy to keep that story, connect it to everything else they know, and sell the ending to advertisers.

Cowl doesn’t. And it launches this Friday, November 13. Fitting, for a search engine that wears a hood.

Search without being seen

When you search with Cowl, our server sends the query to search engines like Google and Bing on your behalf. They see a request from Cowl, not from you. Your IP address, your location, and your history never reach them.

• No tracking. No cookies following you around, no profiles, no ads.
• We don’t keep your searches. Queries aren’t logged or stored.
• Results from many engines at once, so one company’s filter bubble isn’t the only answer you get.
• Images load through Cowl too, so even the pictures in your results can’t phone home.
• Free to use. No account, no sign-up.

To keep bots from abusing the service, Cowl’s bot protection briefly tracks request rates by IP address and then lets them expire. It’s never tied to what you searched.

Built on proven open source

Cowl runs on SearXNG, the open-source metasearch engine trusted by privacy-minded people around the world, and is hosted and maintained by Mist Technologies. Our customizations will be published openly at launch, so you can see exactly what you’re running.

Mark your calendar

Cowl goes live Friday, November 13. We’ll post the link here and on our home page the moment it’s ready.

Questions before launch? Email help@misttechnologies.net.