When I was configuring my searxng I noticed a search engine that piqued my interest. Link: yep.com
From their about page:
Here’s how it works.
We offer an unbiased, private search experience that rewards and compensates the makers behind the content. To do this, we use a 90/10 revenue share business model where we pay 90% of advertising revenue directly to these makers.
Simply put, when you use Yep, you’re directly putting money in the pockets of your favorite content creators.
It’s like fundraising, if you have to ask if they fulfill their promises, you should know it won’t be long before you hear they didn’t. Besides, this sounds like a con from the way they describe it. So yeah, that’s gonna be a no from me, dawg.
They’re talking too much business to be a ‘private’ search. They don’t make any effort to explain how their search is private at all (except the 90/10 share model).