The best way to preserve your privacy is to use a search engine that does not keep your logs in the first place. That's the approach used by Startpage and its European parent company, Ixquick.

Google appears to be the worst of the major search engines from a privacy point of view; Ask.com, with AskEraser turned on, is among the best.

Everyone and his Big Brother wants to log your browsing habits, the better to build a profile of who you are and how you live your life - online and off. Search engine companies offer a benefit in return: more relevant search results. The more they know about you, the better they can tailor information to your needs.

I'd rather have a search engine or a compiler on a deserted island than a game.

Good SEO is the one that brings quality traffic to your site, not just to increase the traffic of your site.

There are excellent public interest grounds to have a search engine whose rankings are transparent.