Seven Search Alternatives to Google
Although Google is often used as a verb that's interchangeable with search, it's not the only search engine. It's not even the runaway favorite that it used to be. In December 2011, Google still ranked first among search engines with a market share of 65.9 per cent. But that was down from over 84 per cent a year earlier. Let's see who's giving Google competition, and some other search tools that you should keep handy... |
Searching For Search Engines?
Yahoo! (and its silly exclamation point) is in second place with 15.1 per cent of the market. That's actually down from 16.0 per cent a year ago. But it's up from 6.4 per cent in 2009, when Google had a larger share of the market. Compared with Google's rather spartan theme, Yahoo's home page looks more like a news portal than a search engine. But that search box at the top is the key to the search engine. However, it may surprise you to learn that it isn't Yahoo's search engine, but Microsoft's.
Yes, Microsoft's Bing provides the search functionality of Yahoo, so you may as well jump directly to Bing. But for whatever reasons, people have been slow to do so. Bing still ranks third in market share, although it's only half a percent behind Yahoo! Much of Bing's gains have come at Google's expense. Bing's search results, speed, and presentation compare very favorably to Google's; some say Bing search results are more useful than Google's.
DuckDuckGo is another search startup that would like to someday knock Google off its perch. See my review and analysis here: Can DuckDuckGo Beat Google at Search?
Special Purpose Search and Reference Tools
What I've discussed so far are all examples of general search engines. There are also specialized search engines that try to provide better coverage and search results within particular topics. For example,
Wolfram|Alpha can do things that even Google can't. For example, it can tell you how old Queen Elizabeth I was in the fourteenth year of her reign, or how long it would take to fly to Alpha Centauri. OK, those questions may not be on your list. The point is, Wolfram|Alpha can calculate answers to queries as well as look up answers that already exist in its index. It's a rather geeky technology, but it's already powering some Bing searches and helping out Siri on the iPhone.
If you want to find a person's address or phone number, try Yahoo People Search. If they're listed in the phone book, a search with last name and city should find them. You can also do reverse lookups by searching for a phone number, to see who is associated with it. If you want to try a reverse address search, visit 411.com. (In the past I've recommended WhitePages.com for searches like these, but that site has become a landmine, constantly trying to funnel searchers into paid search options. You can't even get a person's phone number for free now!)
Business.com is a searchable directory of resources and vendors for business. You can find human resources consultants, accountants, office supplies, commercial real estate, and more. If you're looking just for business results, this directory is worth a try.
LexisNexis.com is the leading source of legal and public records-related information. The Lexis.com database contains current U. S. laws and court case opinions dating from the 1770s to the present. It also includes statutes and case opinions of other countries such as France, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, South Africa and the United Kingdom. Nexis.com is a searchable database of over 20,000 news sources, company and industry intelligence providers, intellectual property records, legislative and regulatory filings, and other public records. If you plan to sue or avoid being sued, you will want a lawyer skilled in both Lexis and Nexis.
If you're looking for a job, see my list of Online Job Search Tools to find job listings, post your resume, and network with people who may be able to help in your employment search.
Need a dictionary, encyclopedia, or some other specialized search tool? My list of the best Free Online Reference and Research Tools will point you to over 40 of the best places to search for help with homework, medical questions, government information, movies, lyrics, genealogy, and much more!
What's your favorite search engine? Do you want to recommend a special purpose search tool? Post your comment or question below...
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Posted by Bob Rankin on 13 Jan 2012
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Most recent comments on "Seven Search Alternatives to Google"
(See all 23 comments for this article.)Posted by:
RW-in-DC
13 Jan 2012
Like Yippy (formerly known as Clusty) which clusters search results, so instead of Google's list of ten thousand, you get told there are ten thousand in five clusters. E.g., search on Civil War, get clusters of American, British, ..... which is helpful if you're looking for Michael Brown and want a dentist, not a rap star .....
Posted by:
Bill Ring
13 Jan 2012
I use Scroogle Scraper instead of Google... same search results as Google but without the ads!!
Posted by:
JP
13 Jan 2012
Although it uses Google as the search engine, https://www.StartingPage.com does not record your IP address and does not share your personal information with a third party, so it offers some degree of privacy. If you click "Proxy" to be taken to another site, StartingPage hides your IP address, displaying its own IP address to the new site, and that also means no cookies passed onto your computer. (The downsides to using the proxy option is slower page loads, you cannot fill out text forms, and since javascript is removed, some features may not work.)
Posted by:
Norbert Gostischa
13 Jan 2012
I have an addition to your list:
AllMyFaves
Here is mine:
http://www.allmyfaves.com/bob3160/
Posted by:
Sheri
13 Jan 2012
I'd like to thank Joel for the heads up on Dogpile! It found a specific printer that I wanted, faster than Google AND at a cheaper price than Google could find! So I will definitely use Dogpile from now on instead of Google! Cheers Joel.
Posted by:
trish
13 Jan 2012
When I click on the 411.com my malwarebytes tells me stopped a potential ?? from going out.
hmmm?
Tried it a few times...at least my bytes are working., but I dont know if it just thinks its a potenitial...or could it actually be?
Posted by:
MmeMoxie
13 Jan 2012
For anything medical, start with WebMD.com. For medical personnel, it is best to go to Medscape.com, which is apart of WebMD. The registration is FREE and you will find oodles of information, with lots of medical terminology, so that is why it is advisable, to have a good medical background, when using Medscape.com. Now, Medscape is also for patients, but, in all honesty, they will be looking up, a lot of words, on the Online Dictionaries, especially the Medical ones.
Medscape has been around since, 1994 and is a well respected website. I have used it for years and have a daily subscription to it's newsletter. Basically, Medscape covers all of medicine, from around the world, which is really nice, when you want a lot of information, about a medical problem or issue.
As for Google and many of the other Search Engines, I use Ad-Block Plus, to eliminate the ads. I know, that this Add-On is for Firefox, but, it works! Plus, I have other Add-Ons, that help protect my privacy. Tracking Add-Ons can really hinder, your Internet experience. Many times, they will prevent you, from going even to a well known safe, website. So, I take those Add-Ons, with a grain of salt.The BIGGEST tracker, of them all, is Facebook!!! Plus, Facebook is now, letting everyone know about everyone else's, whereabouts! Not good. }:O(
Posted by:
mike
14 Jan 2012
@Billk:Use 'startpage', totally anonymous!
Posted by:
Darryl
14 Jan 2012
I know Dogpile isn't given a lot of respect, but I just finished trying out a couple of other search engines for a month each, and Dogpile gave me better results for what I was looking for. I compared it with Izquick and DuckDuckGo, and somewhat with Google as well, I guess, and while all were good, Dogpile never let me down. All the others missed stuff at some point.
Posted by:
Doug
14 Jan 2012
I have been very pleased with search results from Ixquick.
https://ixquick.com/
Posted by:
Supun
14 Jan 2012
Hi Bob,
Nice update... What about Askjeeves,Hotbot and Altavista the ones we grew up with?
Posted by:
TheRube
14 Jan 2012
@JP: I LOVE www.startpage.com for the same reasons you just described! I want NO ONE tracking my online habits.
Posted by:
Dan Knorowski
14 Jan 2012
Please indicate which search engines permit Boolean expressions. I miss benig able to search for "Wanted item" - "not wanted".
Posted by:
Rivka
14 Jan 2012
I also use Dogpile.com. I was using it before Google came along and still prefer it.
It checks out all the other search engines too.
Posted by:
pete
15 Jan 2012
When is your connection speed negated by your processor speed. Lets say my computer processor runs at 500 MHZ, and my connection is rated at 5MB.Lets also say I have another computer running at 750 MHZ and 5MB.Will the computer running at 750 MHZ perform better while on the internet. You would have to think at some point a faster machine is going to lose the edge, unless you get an extremely fast internet provider
EDITOR'S NOTE: I think you're mixing apples and oranges, or rather megaHERTZ and megaBYTES. Think of it this way, your internet connection is like a water pipe. When the stream hits your router, it gets divided into substreams, one for each device (computer) on the network. I can't see why the faster machine would have any disadvantage.
Posted by:
Earle
15 Jan 2012
I always used dogpile it searches all of the other search engines.
Posted by:
Michael Meder
16 Jan 2012
Bob: I used to use Google, but all the rumors about Google storing information about its users worried me. I now use IXQUICK (IXQUICK.com) for searching. It claims to never save your information, and I also have installed it as my default browser search tool. Mike
Posted by:
Stephen Earle
16 Jan 2012
I have been enjoying Scroogle lately. Another search engine that does not track your tracks.
Posted by:
Butch Grey
17 Jan 2012
Been using Dogpile so long, I can't remember how I first found it. Works fine for me every time.
Won't use Google for same reason as Michael Meder
Posted by:
Linda
17 Feb 2012
I want to change from Google due to their changing privacy invasion policies.
I've tried to change my home page to something other than Google through control panel, internet options (XP), but even though I apply and save, it keeps changing back to Google. Can someone please help! I'm sure I'm missing changing it someplace.
I've also tried going to Yahoo and applying their homepage link.
Thanks!