Everyone knows that Google rules the search engine world, but there are several other options. What’s more, a few of these alternative best search engines are immensely popular in their own right—they don’t appear as prominent when compared to Google’s gigantic presence.
Some of these alternative search engines may seem like some early internet-era search engines available from the birth of the internet many years ago. Others rule a particular region, like China, South Korea, or the Czech Republic.
Best Search Engines
1. Google
The first name on the list of best search engines is quite obvious. Google holds over 90% of the global search engine market share and accounts for the vast majority of mobile search traffic.
The enormous traffic potential makes Google a feasible option to capture organic or paid searches. The disadvantage, of course, is nearly everyone is running for the same traffic.
2. Microsoft Bing
One of the best alternatives to and top search engines for Google is Microsoft Bing. Bing holds around 3–4% of the global search engine market share, with significantly higher usage in the United States.
Bing is Microsoft’s primary attempt to challenge Google in the search market. But regardless of their efforts, they still could not convince users that their search engine could be as dependable as Google.
Their search engine market share is continually low, even with Bing being the default search engine on Windows computers. Bing originated from Microsoft’s earlier search engines like MSN Search, Windows Live Search, and Live Search.
3. DuckDuckGo
If you don’t like targeted ads or don’t want your search data stored and saved somewhere, you can try DuckDuckGo, which labels itself as “the only search engine that doesn’t track you.”
DuckDuckGo does not track users personally and does not store identifiable search histories, though it may collect anonymous usage data. You can search for a pair of jeans without being bombarded by follow-up ads. It’s worth mentioning there can be ads on DuckDuckGo—just not targeted ones.
4. Yahoo!
Despite not having the prettiest search engine interface, Yahoo still manages to capture a place in this list, with just under 3% of the global search engine market share.
Being powered by Bing, search results are extremely similar between these search engines. It remains one of the oldest and most established search engines, with more than 600 million monthly users.
5. Baidu
It is the most famous search engine in China. Its market share is growing gradually, and according to Wikipedia, Baidu is providing billions of search queries every month.
Baidu is available in the Chinese language only. Users can access it from anywhere. Presently ranked at number 6 in the Wikipedia website rankings.
6. Yandex
Russian search engine Yandex captures about 2% of the global market share. It is Russia’s most extensively used search engine, with Google having the second spot. If you are trying to do business globally and are trying to reach Russian customers, this search engine may come in handy.
For instance, Yandex provides many quality indicators, or badges, it can display beside search results. One of the most prominent is the SQI (Site Quality Index), which shows how helpful your site is to users.
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7. Ask.com
Ask.com, previously known as Ask Jeeves, is a search engine created to answer questions. According to Ask.com, its task is to help interested people to find the information they need.
The interface of Ask.com is quite similar to Yahoo’s interface. However, unlike Yahoo, which is powered by Bing, Ask.com focuses on question-based searches and relies largely on third-party search providers rather than its own independent index. Most of its traffic is from users in the United States, almost 51.8% of its traffic.
8. AOL
AOL, previously famous as America Online, is both an online media company and a search engine. The website’s interface provides a search bar and different news articles, along with local and international news and weather. A large part of AOL’s traffic originates from the United States, 86.38% to be precise.
The AOL network features many popular websites, such as engadget.com, techcrunch.com, and huffpost.com. AOL is now part of Yahoo Inc., which is owned by Apollo Global Management.
9. Ecosia
This one is a Berlin-based social business established by Christian Kroll. The chief reason for establishing Ecosia was to help in investing in planting trees and restoration of nature projects. It is therefore known as the “tree planting search engine.”
How does this work? Ecosia is one of Bing’s partners, which means Bing powers its search results. Ecosia generates money to support the planting of trees by showing ads in their search results. Every time an ad is clicked, Ecosia receives a portion of the share. It is estimated that roughly 40–50 searches are needed to finance planting one tree.
Regarding search engine market share, their share is approximately 0.10%. So, if you want to search for a laptop and take part in planting a tree, use Ecosia.
10. Seznam
This search engine and web portal is immensely popular in the Czech Republic. Until the introduction of Google, it was the leading search engine there.
Today, Google captures 85% of the Czech Republic’s market share, leaving only 15% to the Czech Republic’s native search engines and others. Seznam was established by Ivo Lukačovič in Prague.
It started as a simple search engine and online portal. Seznam developed financial, social, entertainment, and political news, with various TV programs, dictionaries, maps, weather forecasts, and much more. Seznam provides over fifteen different internet services and connected brands.
Other Notable Search Engines to Consider
These are certainly other best search engines you may consider:
StartPage: It was founded in the Netherlands. They claim their search engine is the world’s most private search engine. They claim to protect users’ privacy by not letting tracking systems record users’ search history.
Wiki: This is a search engine for Wikipedia. You can choose between all wikis, Wikipedia only, encyclopedias, or wikis suggested by others.
Openverse: This one is a web search engine that helps users to find content they can use again. Creative Commons licenses bind all results in their search index. Presently, only pictures and audio are included in their directory. They plan to add open texts and videos as well.
WolframAlpha: WolframAlpha is unlike all the other search engines. They promote it as a computational knowledge engine that can provide you with facts and data for various topics.
YouTube: YouTube is the most famous video platform and second most popular search engine. YouTube has over 2.3 billion users worldwide. Many users try YouTube first for answers or information on a specific topic.
FAQ
Q: What‘s the first search engine ever created?
A: The first search engine, Archie, was created in 1990. That was a simple tool for indexing and searching FTP sites and was the first attempt to create a searchable record of the contents on the Internet.
Q: Being one of the best search engines, can I access Google from anywhere?
A: Despite being the most famous search engine, Google is banned in China. They have their own search engine.
Q: Can native search engines of different countries be effective globally?
A: Countries such as China and Russia rely heavily on native search engines, where Google does not dominate. Some good search engines serve only in the native language.
