Globally, we know that the most used search engine is Google but there are other good search engines you can put to effective use. It can be of some good use to you to know at least the basic workings of search engines. It is also a known fact that most traffic to a site comes via a search on a search engine.
Here are 19 search engines you should consider using
TABLE OF CONTENTS
In our quest for answers, search engines have become important to us in our daily lives.
Google is not just another search engine, it's ubiquitous and is often used as a transitive verb. When in doubt, google it! With constantly changing algorithms, a dominant online advertising platform, and a personalized user experience, Google has achieved 87% of the global market share.
Nobody offers better search results than Google. At least that's the common belief. But is that still the case? Google's user-friendly interface and personalized user experience come at a price. It's no secret that the search giant catalogs its users' browsing habits and shares this information with advertisers and other interested parties.
If you don't want to trade with privacy or have specific research needs, there are many alternatives offering a better search experience.
Let's take a look at these search engines
1. Bing
At the beginning of the year 2020, Microsoft's websites had processed a quarter of all inquiries in the United States. It is the second-largest search engine behind Google at 3% of the global market share.
It could be argued that Bing somehow outperforms Google. Bing has a rewards program that you can use to earn research points. They can be redeemed on the Microsoft and Windows stores, which is a nice bonus.
In my opinion, Bing's image search UI is better than the competition and a lot more intuitive.
Bing is great for video search without the YouTube bias because it displays the results as large thumbnails that can be previewed with audio by hovering over them.
2. DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo is the perfect search engine for those who value privacy and are put off by the idea of tracking and logging every query. It has a very clean interface with minimal ads and infinite scrolling, which makes the user experience pleasant and streamlined.
There is absolutely no user tracking and you can even add the DuckDuckGo extension to your browser to keep your activity private. This search engine has a very useful feature called Bangs that allows you from DuckDuckGo to search within another site directly by entering a prefix.
Search Encrypt is a private search engine that uses local encryption to keep your search private. Using a combination of encryption methods, including Secure Sockets Layer encryption and AES-256 encryption.
When you enter a query, Search Encrypt pulls the results from a network to find partners and provide the requested information. One of the best things about Search Encrypt is that your search terms eventually expire, so your information stays private even if someone has access to your computer.
4. Yandex
As the fifth most popular search engine in the world, Yandex is widely used in its native Russia, where it holds about 60% of the search engine market share. Belarus, Kazakhstan, Turkey, and Ukraine are some other countries it is also used.
It offers a service very similar to Google and allows you to search for web pages, pictures, videos and happenings in a user-friendly layout.
It has additional functions such as mobile apps, maps, translation, cloud storage, etc.
5. Onesearch
Verizon Media launched OneSearch in January 2020 with a focus on data protection. Some of its benefits include:
- No cookie tracking, retargeting or personal profiling.
- No transfer of personal data to advertisers.
- No user search history is saved.
- Unbiased and unfiltered search results.
- Encrypted search terms.
6. StartPage
StartPage collects answers from Google, making it the perfect choice for those who prefer Google search results but don't want their search history to be tracked and saved. It also includes URL generator, proxy service and HTTPS support.
The URL generator is particularly useful because cookies no longer have to be collected and instead your settings are saved in a privacy-friendly way.
7. Gibiru
Gibiru's tagline is "Unfiltered Private Search," and that is exactly what it delivers. By downloading the AnonymoX add-on for Firefox, all searches will be sent via the IP address of the proxy.
This ensures private and unbiased search results and ensures that other computer users cannot follow your history. Search queries are not stored on Gibirus servers and records are deleted within seconds of the search.
8. CC Search
CC Search should be your first port of call when looking for almost all royalty-free content. This search engine is perfect if you need music for a movie, an image for a blog post, or whatever without worrying about some angry artist coming in to grab their work.
How CC Search works is simple: it downloads the results from platforms such as Soundcloud, Wikimedia, and Flickr and shows the results marked as Creative Commons material.
9. Wiki.com
Wiki.com draws its results from thousands of wikis on the Internet and is the ideal search engine for those who value community information such as Wikipedia.
10. Swisscows
Swisscows is a unique option on this list that stands out as a family-owned semantic search engine that also prides itself on respecting users' privacy and never collecting, storing, or tracking data.
It uses artificial intelligence to determine the context of the user requirement. Swisscows promises to answer your questions with surprising accuracy, eventually.
11. SlideShare
SlideShare lets you search for documented slide presentations, eBooks, and PDFs, which you can download for use. This is a great tool when you need to prepare a business presentation.
12. Ecosia
Do you want to save the planet, one tree at a time? Then check out this eco-friendly search engine! It might sound surprising, but your Google search actually contributes a decent amount of CO2.
To counteract this, Ecosia uses the income from search queries to plant trees. Typically, it takes about 45 searches for Ecosia to plant a new tree, and for each search (provided by Bing), the income generated goes to the tree-planting program.
13. Boardreader
Boardreader is a forum and bulletin board search tool that allows you to search for forums and filter the results by date and language. It's a useful content search tool as it makes finding content written by real users very easy.
Finding the forum you are interested in is pretty easy with just a few keystrokes.
14. Internet Archive
As the name suggests, this search engine looks for a large collection of documented files, including millions of free movies, books, music, and software.
Basically, the web archive is a huge web library that gives you access to almost anything you can think of.
15. Baidu
Baidu is a leading search engine in China with over 70% of the Chinese internet market share, although in Mandarin it is strikingly similar to Google, has a similar appearance in design, makes money in advertising and uses large snippets, however Baidu is heavily censored and some images and even democracy-friendly websites are blocked from the search engine.
16. Yahoo
Yahoo has been around longer than Google, and while some consider it obsolete, it remains the third most popular search engine in the world and even Firefox's default search engine.
One of the best things about Yahoo is that there is so much more to it. Yahoo's web portal brings email, messaging, online shopping, gaming, and more in one place. The integration with Flickr, Yahoo Answers and Yahoo Finance provides better image results and a large amount of information on a wide variety of topics.
17. Qwant
Qwant, based in France, is a privacy-based search engine that does not log your searches or use your personal information for advertising purposes. The intuitive user interface organizes search results on the web, in news and communities and even contains a special music area in which artificial intelligence can be used to search for texts and discover new music.
Use a quick search feature that lets you type "&" in front of a website name (or a dedicated shortcode) for instant external search results.
18. Ask
Formerly known as Ask Jeeves, Ask's simple question-and-answer format allows for natural language searches, making it very easy to use, especially for those less familiar with search engines such as Older computer users.
They also display frequently asked questions about the search term, which can provide useful resources and help you further search.
19. Twitter
Twitter is top real-time search engine that can give even Google a run for its money. It's a suitable area to get up to the moment updates in an emergency. The Google set of rules will ultimately recover, however in the heat of the moment, there isn't anything that beats a tweet.
Summary
While Google is the most popular choice on search engines, it is not always the best choice based on your needs and priorities. This is just a taste of the world of alternative search engines and what they offer.
If you're looking for more privacy, better usability, or objective results, there are many options to choose from.
Try a few and see how you do. You never know that you might find a new favorite or something to use alongside Google.
That is all folks!
Are there any search engines I did not mention in the list above, drop them in the comment section.
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