We all know and love Google. How else would we find where the nearest pizza place is? It’s the world’s most used search engine for a reason. It has several user-friendly features, and it customizes SERPs with the most relevant information for you by using cookies, crawlers, and your browsing history.
But maybe you’d like a change of pace. Or perhaps you’d like to learn more about alternative search engines so you can optimize content and up your search engine marketing game. Or you might be concerned about maintaining your browsing privacy and you’d like to keep your private information more secure.
Whatever the reason you’d like to try out an alternative search engine, we’ve compiled a list of some great options to help you get started.
What is the best alternative to Google?
The best alternative to Google will vary depending on your needs. We can help you narrow your preferences.
You can choose a search engine that prioritizes:
- Information privacy.
- Images and news articles.
- A question and answer format.
- Supporting causes you care about.
Read on to learn more about alternative search engines to find the right one for you.
Popular alternatives to Google
We’ll start with the heavy-hitters — the search engines that have their own loyal fan bases:
Bing: Microsoft’s Bing is the world’s second most used search engine — roughly 7% of searches were made on Bing in the last decade. It’s intuitive and beautiful with its daily rotation of background images. And just like Google, you can search images, videos, maps, browse the news by category, and shop.
It also has a travel tab to help you plan and find deals on your next getaway. If you’re a visual person, you’ll enjoy using Bing.
Yahoo!: Yahoo! was popular in the late ‘90s. However, it lost traction in the 2000s after it lost market shares to Google and Facebook. Lke Bing, Yahoo! is intuitive and more visual than Google. You can browse the news by category, access maps, and shop. The home page pulls custom news article recommendations for you, which can save you time if you enjoy reading news articles.
Dogpile: Dogpile is unique from other search engines because it pulls results from multiple SERPs. The creators of Dogpile noticed first page results were different for major search engines, but all were the “best” results according to their unique algorithms.
Dogpile pulls first-page results from Google, Yahoo, and Bing to save you time and pull the most relevant results from all of the popular search engine algorithms.
Search engines for privacy
It’s no secret that Google tracks and stores your browsing history and spending habits. They use the information to recommend useful content and tailor ads to your interests. If you’d rather forego targeted ads and maintain your browsing privacy, check out these search engines:
DuckDuckGo: DuckDuckGo doesn’t track anything at all — it doesn’t monitor, store, or share an iota of your browsing history, user information, or spending habits. It has a similar layout and user-friendly interface that all the major search engines have for ease of use.
Startpage: Startpage is similar to DuckDuckGo because it prioritizes your information privacy while being a breeze to use. It doesn’t use cookies or trackers, prevents browser fingerprinting, and overrides social media tracking.
Ecosia: Ecosia also prioritizes information privacy. Bing powers Ecosia, but they don’t sell your data to advertisers or use third-party trackers.
They don’t store your browsing history, but they do collect data to do statistical analyses to understand user behavior and optimize their search experience. However, they remove personal information from the search data so they can’t connect a search to an individual IP address. And what’s better — with Ecosia, every search funds its mission to plant the world’s trees!
Additionally, DuckDuckGo, Startpage, and Ecosia all have Chrome Browser extensions you can install.
Question and answer search engines
If you prefer asking questions and reading through answers from people from all walks of life, forums like Reddit are a great place to start.
Here are some other great question and answer style search engines.
Ask.com: Formerly known as Ask Jeeves, Ask.com centers around a valet-type character named Jeeves retrieving answers as a service. Ask.com declined in popularity after Google rolled around, but its question-and-answer style approach still provides value to its searchers.
Quora: Quora is unique because it has a reputation for quality answers from industry experts. Users can answer questions and post their own content in a blog-style format. You do need to create an account to use Quora, but you can typically find Quora answers on other search engines.
Other unique search engines
WolframAlpha.com: Do you have a question about an algebra problem you can’t solve? Or calculus? Or maybe physics? The list goes on, but WolframAlpha is about more than solving math problems — their goal is to solve all systematic problems and make the answers accessible to everyone. And it doesn’t end there. They have a range of topics to choose from and learn about — from finance to culture to that hobby you’ve thought about starting.
Blog Search Engine: Again, as the title suggests — Blog Search Engine will help you find blogs and blog posts on any topic or keyword you fancy. If you’re a blogger, it’s a neat place to learn more about potential competitors.
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