Best Google Search Alternatives
By Corbin HartwickUpdated on June 20, 2018
If Google Search isn’t giving you what you want, or you just don’t find it to your liking for whatever reason, here are some other popular search engines that you can try.
1. Yahoo Search
Yahoo Search is the second most popular search engine on the planet, next to Google Search. It contains many of the same features as Google Search does, but integrates them with Yahoo’s own services, such as Yahoo News, Yahoo Sports, and Yahoo Answers. It contains a feature called “SearchScan”, which can warn you if a web page that shows up in your search results might try to sneak a virus or other nasty program onto your computer.
2. Ask.com
Ask.com is what is known as an “answer engine”, which is basically a search engine with a twist. The twist is that it works best if you ask it a question, rather than just type in a word or phrase that you’re looking to find something related to. It will give you results based on where it thinks you’ll find the answer to your question, or — if you’re lucky — its community of users will already have an answer ready for you.
3. Bing
Formerly known as (Windows) Live Search and MSN Search, Bing is Microsoft’s search engine. Available in over 40 languages, it provides many of the same services that Google Search and Yahoo Search do. However, as it is integrated with many other popular and trusted websites on the Internet, you can narrow your search focus to things like recipes, what’s happening on social networks, events such as concerts and sports matches, or even what travel accommodations are available and when to book them.
4. DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo is a search engine that takes a different approach than many of its competitors. Instead of focusing on making your search results as personally relevant to you as possible, its number one priority is making sure that what you search for on the Internet is nobody’s business but your own. This means that it won’t keep a record of what you search for, and will give you the same results each time you search for a specific term (as opposed to skewing your results based on what it thinks you might be interested in). The interface also isn’t as cluttered with advertisements as some other search engines. Finally, it allows you to quickly search for something on other common search engines — while still maintaining your privacy — with a single mouse click.
5. StartPage/IXquick
Like DuckDuckGo, Startpage is another search engine that takes your privacy seriously. It doesn’t keep a record of what you’ve searched for, nor does it collect information like your computer’s identity when it is connected to the Internet (these can be used to track who you are and where you go on the Internet). In addition, it allows you to quickly view web pages and other types of results using a “proxy” service, which tricks websites into thinking that your Internet connection is coming from somewhere that it’s not. You get to look around to see if the website is safe, but the website itself doesn’t know where you really are, so your computer and privacy are secure.