Do you know which are the best internet search engines or do you think Google is the only one that exists?
Have you ever wondered how difficult it would be to search the Internet for the characteristics of a product, the location of a restaurant, or information on an interesting topic without the help of a web browser?
Internet search engines have allowed us to have a large amount of information at our fingertips with a few clicks.
Although most of us use Google as our preferred search engine, we can also find curious alternatives to it. Do you know them all?
In this article, in addition to showing alternatives to the Google search engine, I will try to explain in a simple way what a web browser is, what it is used for, how it works, the types that exist, and which is the most used.
What is an Internet search engine and what is it used for?
A web search engine is a computer tool that explores files from web servers, by tracking their robots or web spiders.
Its main function is to sort and classify Internet information so that the user finds it quickly.
We can not deny the great importance and usefulness of Internet search engines, since it facilitates the search effort, showing us the most appropriate information for our query, efficiently and quickly.
In our day to day, we use Internet search engines for many reasons.
Whether it’s for work issues, finding a new job, writing an academic paper, looking up the opinions of a product, reading current news or just having a good time watching funny videos.
But do you really know how searchers work?
How do searchers work?
Each search engine has its own database formed by a large amount of information extracted from thousands and thousands of web pages from all over the Internet.
This database is constantly updated thanks to robots or spiders, responsible for finding websites, indexing content, and collecting information.
In addition, when tracking each website, they use the links hosted on them to find new sites (therefore, backlinks are very important).
All the information collected by the robots is sorted by the search engine.
Websites are organized according to the type of content they offer, the theme, the quality of the information, the keywords or terms they use, relevance, popularity, etc.
Also come into play the browsing history and the algorithms of each search engine, because (whether they are Google, Bing, or Yahoo) use different criteria to measure, for example, the relevance of a website.
Therefore, when we make a query in a web browser, it quickly reviews its database and returns the most relevant results according to its algorithm, classification criteria, and search history.
In addition, the results will coincide with the keywords we have used in our query, and understand this, it is a must for any SEO consultant.
What is the most used search engine in the world?
Surely you already know the answer … but it is worth knowing a few curious facts about our favorite search engine: Google.
Based on the ranking of “eBizMBA” on “The 15 most popular search engines” (updated in January 2019), we can say that Google is in the lead as the most used search engine in the world, with an average of 1,800,000,000 visitors a month. (This data has been prepared using an updated average of the US traffic, of each Quantcast website, and the global traffic rank of Alexa and SimilarWeb).
Continuing with the curious data, in 2018 Google had a market share of 73.62% worldwide. Surprised, right?
Apart from its famous search engine, Google has a lot of useful tools online, some essential for our day today. The most important ones are:
- Chrome – Web browser.
- Maps – GPS Navigator.
- YouTube – Videos and music.
- Android – SO Mobile.
- Gmail – Email.
- Drive – Files in the cloud.
- Google Ads – Advertising tool
- Google Adsense – Ad revenue.
- Google My Business – Local business cards.
- Analytics – Web analytics tool.
Types of web search engines and their characteristics
When positioning a web page it is essential to know the rules of the game of each one of the search engines, because apart from the fact that there are different types, each one has its own characteristics and peculiarities.
Hierarchical searchers
They are also known as search engines. These are the search engines we have explained at the beginning of the article.
They are the most popular and used worldwide. An example of them can be Google, Bing, Yahoo, or Ask.
Directories
The directories are links to web pages classified by categories. These links are arranged by theme or publication date and need continuous human maintenance.
In this case, the database is constructed manually. So, it is the people who introduce the links of the web pages, as well as the titles, the information, and the description.
Then, they classify them by categories and subcategories. They are also called thematic or search indexes.
Metasearch engines
They are responsible for searching for information in the main Internet search engines. Next, they analyze the results and offer the most relevant results according to their own criteria.
Their main characteristic is that they do not have a database of their own, but that they are nourished by other search engines and then filter the information and order the links.
Some examples of metasearch engines can be Dogpile and Metacrawler.
The 19 Best Internet Search Engines
Although most of us use Google as our default (and favorite) search engine, we can find useful and curious alternatives on the Internet.
According to our intention to search, consult or question, a search engine will give us better results than others. Do you want to know them all?
Bing – www.bing.com
Created by Microsoft, it stands out as the great rival of Google. It is a good alternative because it offers many services and searches for products. It is available in a large number of languages and countries.
It allows us to obtain immediate answers about finances, sports, purchases, etc .; local information (current traffic, list of companies, restaurants …); videos and images.
The interface is attractive and intuitive. A curiosity about this search engine is that its background image changes daily. They tend to be important places around the world and when you hover over them, it gives us information about the place.
Another of its strengths is that it allows integration with the Microsoft Office package, in addition to Hotmail and plugins.
Yahoo! Search – search.yahoo.com
It is a good alternative especially to know very specific information and ask very extensive questions. This advantage is due to the integration with Yahoo Answer (questions and answers from Yahoo!).
It also includes Yahoo Finance (financial information), Yahoo Weather (weather forecast), Yahoo Local (commercial information), and Flickr, where most of your images come from.
Baidu – www.baidu.com
It is the most popular search engine in China. Like other search engines, it offers complementary products such as Baidu Maps (web mapping services), Baidu Tieba (forum), Baidu Knows (questions), Baidu Yun (cloud software service), and Baike Baidu (encyclopedia).
Its most remarkable feature is that it allows searching audio files in different formats, with very precise results.
Ask – www.ask.com
It was the first Internet browser-type question-answer. It is still widely used by Americans. Its interface is simple and easy to use.
Currently focuses on responding to user queries, so it works more like a help portal.
Aol Search – search.aol.com
Its interface is simple and allows one to find information, images, videos, and news on the network. It also includes a tab to sort the results by date (day, week, or last month) and another to perform secure searches.
Duck Duck GO – duckduckgo.com
In recent years its popularity has grown thanks to its data protection policy.
Its strong point is that it respects the privacy of its users because it blocks ad crawlers, keeps the search history private, and does not “play” with personal data.
It feeds search engines such as Bing and Yandex to show results to users privately.
Another of its peculiarities is that it is open source, and only shows one ad for each query.
Wolfram Alpha – www.wolframalpha.com
It looks nothing like the search engines we are used to since it does not show the results in a SERP.
The results shown are direct, in the form of data and facts based on the question.
It is very useful to know scientific data, elaborate mathematical works, write academic reports, etc. It’s pretty smart, it sure will surprise you.
Yandex – www.yandex.com
It is the most used search engine in Russia and the first with support for DNSCrypt. Like the main search engines, it has its own marketing and analytical tools.
Highlights its web security tools such as protection against DNS spoofing and Wi-Fi protection.
Webcrawler – www.webcrawler.com
It is a metasearch engine that combines the engines of Yahoo and Google to show results quickly.
Activate search filters, see related keywords, and direct results of images, videos, news, and music related to the search.
Dogpile – www.dogpile.com
Analyze the results of Google engines, Yahoo and Yandex, to show the most relevant information to the user.
So it throws a large volume of information related to our query. Great, is not it?
In it, you can use search filters, categorization, preferences, and recent searches. It also allows you to install a toolbar in Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge.
Gibiru – www.gibiru.com
It allows us to see the content censored by most search engines. In addition, it ensures the user’s privacy, since it uses an anonymous proxy for searches.
Ecosia – www.ecosia.org
Did you know that a search engine can be ecological? To your surprise, there are also “green” alternatives to searching the Internet.
Ecosia is considered as such since it neutralizes all CO2 emissions from its servers, offices, infrastructures, and user devices.
The process comes from the hand of its partner Myclimate, through the carbon offset project.
In addition, he donates 80% of his income to non-profit organizations in charge of planting trees.
They are transparent regarding their financial reports and respect the user’s privacy (they do not sell data to third parties and allow to search anonymously).
Exalead – www.exalead.com/search
Do you want to try something different? Exalead enriches the results with statistics, advice, suggestions, and categorical and geographic information.
It offers the possibility to search with language filters, file types, geographical locations, categories, etc.
Factbites – www.factbites.com
Unlike Google, Factbites ignores the popularity of links to focus on the quality of content when presenting the results.
Collect information from online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia. Includes AskTheBrain and NationMaster tools.
Kiddle – www.kiddle.co
This search engine was created especially for children. It is totally safe and reliable since it censors the results with explicit, sensitive, or deceptive content.
In addition, it does not collect the personal data of users and eliminates its records every 24 hours.
Lycos – www.lycos.com
It is a web browser with many years and is quite outdated. It has free services such as email, games, videos, movies, weather information, etc.
Peekier – peekier.com
His way of showing the results is quite curious. Throw a list of results (in the form of windows) with the preview of each web.
We can maximize the preview of each of them to see if we are interested or find what we are looking for.
It saves time by not having to click on the link of each website to review your information.
Qwant – www.qwant.com
This French search engine states that it does not collect personal data, monitor its users, or personalize search results.
Its way of classifying the results is different from most and very visual. Divide web results, news, reactions on social networks, images, videos, and products for sale separately.
So you only have to click on the category that interests you most.
MetaCrawler UK – www.metacrawler.co.uk
A simple search engine that orders your results by the time users spends on each web for a similar search.
On the other hand, being a company from the United Kingdom gives priority to the results of your country or English.
Although most of us have become accustomed to Google (and do not want to change for convenience), sometimes we should look for other options that best fit our search intent.
If you are looking for very specific information, do not hesitate to use specialized search engines. You will save a lot of time by not clicking on crazy links.
Did you like the list of the best alternative search engines to Google? Did you all know them? Have you tried other interesting alternatives?
If you want to share your experience or add another search engine to the list, do not hesitate to write a comment.
