A quick look at the new You.com search engine

Tú 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. You are currently ad-free and have 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 can use the search engine with or without an account. Using an account trains the AI it uses to deliver better search results to the user.

It has a number of features that set it apart from traditional search engines. One of the features is support for applications. Basically what this does is add supported fonts to a section of the results list. If you trust a particular source, say Stack Overflow for coding, BBC News for news, or Yelp for information on places, then you can add them to your search experience.

The source list currently has around 150 entries. There is no option to add your own fonts, and at least some of the fonts appear to have been chosen for popularity rather than quality. Also, at least in Beta, You is focusing on the United States. You can check the list here.

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The layout it uses to display search results is also different. You have the option to use a compact or detailed layout for the results, and you can also switch between dark and light themes. When you start typing a search query, the suggestions are automatically displayed.

The search page may seem cluttered at first glance. The following screenshots show the default compact result layout first, and then the verbose layout.

Both feature a list of apps at the top, CNET, with no results for the Windows 11 query, and below that, the actual results. It uses a card layout to display results horizontally and vertically. The results of a specific section are scrolled horizontally. There is no option to change that behavior,

Quick jump links are displayed at the top and sides of the interface to jump to a specific part, for example, 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 change that with a click on the menu and toggling “open links in a new tab” if you prefer.

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Its private mode may remind you of the browser’s private browsing mode at first sight. Does not save search queries or IP address while the mode is active.

In addition, all search queries are routed through proxy servers provided by you so that the sites that provide them do not come into direct contact with the user’s IP address or device.

closing words

You don’t mention how you get your results. Are you crawling the web on your own or using the results of one of the major search engines? I tried to find the answer to that, but the FAQ doesn’t reveal it.

I used You.com for some time, but not long enough to judge the ultimate quality of its results. My impression so far is that their results were neither better nor worse than those provided by other search engines for the most part.

One part that stands out is the results related to coding and programming. It shows code snippets when possible, and these often reveal what you need right away.

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The apps feature sounds good on paper, but in my opinion it’s too limited even for a beta version and the quality of some of the fonts used isn’t the best.

In conclusion: You is a search engine that has some distinguishing factors compared to other search engines. The layout may seem too cluttered for some, and horizontal scrolling isn’t everyone’s cup of tea either. For some types of queries, for example code snippets, it seems to offer better results than traditional search engines like Google.

Now you: Have you tried You.com?

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