Midland, Ontario — December 21st, 2017 — Presearch, the community-driven blockchain search project, announced today the launch of its new user customization feature that enables users to change their default search engine away from Google.

While the Presearch community develops its decentralized search engine, they have launched a beta search tool that enables users to search many existing search engines from a single search field.

Default Presearch Options

Prior to today’s release, all Presearch users were being forced to use Google as their default engine.

The ability to customize their homepage options and change the default search engine has been the #1 request received during the beta test, which has grown to include more than 2,000 users, half of which use the platform daily, each generating more than 20 page views per day on average.

Customized Presearch Options

Since launching its closed beta on November 9th, Presearch has handled more than 230,000 searches, with more than 150,000 of those coming in the past week.

One of the most exciting discoveries during the beta test program has been how often users have chosen the Presearch results page to answer their search queries.

Users have selected Presearch results for 39% of searches, compared to Google’s 54%, an impressive statistic considering users must choose Presearch intentionally, while, as default, Google is selected automatically.

It remains to be seen what effect the new customization options will have on usage and selection of search engines, but the Presearch team is optimistic that the ability to set the Presearch results as their default will drive even more usage of the feature.

“We are super excited about the results of the beta test so far,” said Presearch founder, Colin Pape. “And we’re proud to have delivered a simple and compelling way for Presearchers to be able to customize their search options so early in the testing process.”

To change their search options, users choose from a list of providers that can be searched or filtered, and they can then arrange their provider icons by dragging and dropping them in place.

The Search Providers selector

There are currently around 80 options to choose from, a number that is expected to grow significantly in the coming months, especially as Presearch begins offering users the ability to localize and add in their own search options, allowing them to search internal resources such as company intranets and CRM systems.

A number of providers have already approached Presearch to be included in future releases, and the team is developing a way for these providers to purchase featured placement in exchange for Presearch Tokens.

This release is just the first of many to facilitate user customization. The project is targeting internet power users who want to be able to choose where and how they access the information they need. Users will soon be able to build custom search collections, change the look and feel of the site and share their customizations with others.

For more information, please visit www.presearch.io or www.presearch.org to join the beta testing program.