Personalized search results

When the personalized search results setting is switched on it means that we can improve your search results based on your previous search history. To achieve this we pass an anonymous unique identifier to our search partner Bing. 

The differences are generally quite subtle, but the more you search with this setting switched on, the more personalized the results will become. 

Why would I want personalized search results?

Let’s say you enter the search term "Australia". Without any other context it is very hard for a search engine to serve you the most relevant results for your specific intent. You might be looking to plan a vacation, or maybe you’re a movie-buff and instead you’re searching for details regarding the movie Australia.

By having the personalized search results setting enabled, it will help us provide you with most relevant results. 

How do I turn personalized search results off?

If you would prefer your search results not to be customized based on your past search activity, you can turn off personalized search results at any time in your settings.

Personalized search results and privacy

Ecosia does not permanently store your IP address or any unique identifier and our partner Bing automatically deletes your search history and the unique identifier after 18 months according to their privacy policy.

If you have enabled “Do not track” within your browser setting, this will automatically turn off the personalized search results setting.. If you want to turn on personalized search results you need TO disable “Do not track” within your browser settings.

You can learn more about do not track and how to enable/disable it in your browser here.

Please read here for more info on Ecosia's privacy policy.