They have switched to Disconnect.me as the default search engine. It's hosted by Amazon, in the US. Why did they decide to use it?
Also, the image searches link to Google ("https://www.google.com/url?q=...") whilst saying it's protected. With that said, I prefer the design in comparison to Startpage. But privacy should take priority. Honestly, Startpage could dramatically improve their design just by removing that background image.
Interesting point about image search. In fact, when I perform a Google image search through disconnect and click on an image I see a record of it on google.com/history (while the search itself is not present).
I suppose its only to be expected once one thinks about your observation that the links are pointing at google.
from comments below the blog post: "Startpage was not happy with our traffic and showed sometimes CAPTCHAs. Disconnect on the other hand approached us with respect to search engine traffic and donated some money."
Especially since they are available via a hidden service, removing the "malicious exit node" risk: http://3g2upl4pq6kufc4m.onion
(Note, if you're reading Gabriel, the http://ye.gg/tor url you've handed out in various places including the privacy page - is dead and redirecting to just http://ye.gg/)
Also, the image searches link to Google ("https://www.google.com/url?q=...") whilst saying it's protected. With that said, I prefer the design in comparison to Startpage. But privacy should take priority. Honestly, Startpage could dramatically improve their design just by removing that background image.