> Yeah I think they are trying to get a search-results-only view without the ads etc.

If that was the case then their description is completely off, as what they are doing is not creating a search engine but filtering results from other search engines.

I mean, just because you pipe your output to grep it does not mean you created an entirely new app.

startpage does have ads, it's just somebody else than google tracking you.

You have just claimed that startpage is lying in their privacy policy.

Please provide evidence for such a claim.

https://www.startpage.com/en/privacy-policy?t=device

"Our search result pages may include a small number of clearly labeled "sponsored links," which generate revenue and cover our operational costs. Those links are retrieved from platforms such as Google AdSense. In order to enable the prevention of click fraud, some non-identifying system information is shared, but because we never share personal information or information that could uniquely identify you, the ads we display are not connected to any individual user."

You're right, I thought they were collecting and not sharing to third parties, but they claim they do not collect at all.

Still, there are ads.