Brave Search adds native support for image and video search

Brave, best known for its privacy-focused web browser, is adding image and video search to Brave Search that now relies on the company’s own private index instead of Bing or Google. 

In a press release published on Thursday, Brave says this new image and video feature for Brave Search — the default search engine used by the Brave browser — is designed to preserve user privacy and be resistant to censorship. Certain capabilities like advanced filters for license type and aspect ratio will not be immediately available but will be added “soon,” according to Brave.

“With the ability to search for crucial vertical categories such as images and videos directly within Brave, users can now access even more content than before,” said Brave in its press release. “Additionally, by keeping all searches within the Brave ecosystem, users benefit from increased speed and privacy when compared with the multiple search engines that rely on third-party providers.”

The previous image and video search functionality built into Brave Search relied on API calls to Google and Bing. Brave severed ties with all third-party APIs for Brave Search earlier this year, but the company had to temporarily redirect users to Google or Bing while it developed its own solution for image / video search.