User growth for Swisscows

More and more companies are switching - away from established search engines. The winners are independent search services like Swisscows. The reason: data security. The Landschaftsverband Rheinland (LVR), for example, recently made the decision to "Google-free" 18,000 PC users. The anonymous search engine from Switzerland, Swisscows, won the race. Selection and implementation were in the hands of LVR-InfoKom, the LVR's systems house. The changeover took place in a very short time, with little administrative effort. "We work with sensitive data at LVR. Therefore, we are very interested in the full anonymity of a search engine. Swisscows also offers the best compromise between functionality, compatibility and privacy protection," explains Wolfgang Weniger, Managing Director of LVR-Infokom. The systems house provides the entire association with IT services tailored to its specific needs. As the largest nationwide service provider for people with disabilities, the LVR alone operates 41 special schools, ten clinics and numerous cultural institutions. In addition to the logging of web searches, the storage of the IP address also spoke against the further use of the previous search portals.

Semantic search

Users benefit from the special features of the "Swiss Made" search engine. This includes the cloud view, called Data Cloud, of suggested narrowing of the search term. With Swisscows, LVR also uses semantic search, the most advanced technology to date. The so-called intelligent answer engine is a development of the Swiss company Hulbee, also there the trend among companies to secure web search is unbroken. "Switzerland as a banking and business location is sensitive. Quite a few banks and companies, for example, exclude the use of Google services such as Translate because the texts entered there are also stored and evaluated with the IP address. This is extremely critical," says Andreas Wiebe, CEO of Hulbee. That's why Swisscows now also offers a translation service that can be used completely anonymously - another argument for companies to switch.

Without violence and porn

Sophisticated filter technologies completely exclude violent and pornographic content from the search results. This means that Swisscows can also be classified as child-safe and can be used without criticism on public computers. This also applies to the numerous institutions of the Landschaftsverband Rheinland, where the computers are sometimes used by changing users. Swisscows is operated on its own server facilities in Switzerland and is thus beyond the reach of other countries. In addition to an image search, Swisscows also offers a music search with integrated player as well as a video search.

With Swisscows the web search is anonymous, no user data is stored or used. The strict data protection regulations of Switzerland allow the most secure servers without access from the EU or the USA. In addition to the search field, a data cloud with current topics and keywords provides quick access to information. The other functions include a complete web and Image searchMoreover, Swisscows is childproof. Erotic and porn sites cannot be found - making Swisscows particularly suitable for children and young people. Swisscows' operator is Hulbee: the company specializes in in-house software solutions for targeted searches of business data. It has also developed the Swiss price comparison portal Kauftipp.ch.

On the subject: "User data is of no interest to us" - Interview with Andreas Wiebe from the Werbewoche print edition.