It is almost impossible to have a digital world without search engines. It is through search engines that we locate relevant information on the internet by checking and comparing different information pieces.
However, most online users don’t often pay attention to the critical role that search engines play in ensuring the accuracy of search results.
You can find many search engines on the market including Bing, Yahoo, Baidu and several others. However, the best search engine is Google which never stops improving its algorithm to help you get the most relevant search results for your queries.
Now, let’s learn more about these search engines and other alternatives you have.
Best Search Engines List
1. Google
On top of the list is Google and it needs no introduction. Most online users, including you, believe that Google is the only search engine.
For many people, Google is not just a search engine but a digital space of its own. Millions of online users visit Google daily, searching for information of interest.
Google is synonymous with the digital world. The search engine rules the internet as no competitor has neared, bridging the gap between Google and other search engines.
Google boasts of the largest market share in search engines, with an estimated 63,000 search queries per second or 5.6 billion searches daily. Google owns over 92% of the global search engine market.
These statistics mean that Google is not only the most dominant search engine but also controls the lion’s share of the digital world.
Billions of online users, including researchers, rely on Google to extract vast information of interest.
Google works like magic, and it is the epitome of the digital world. This search engine can be accessed from any device as long as you have an internet connection.
Thanks to the massive repository boasting over a trillion resources, users enjoy the most holistic and diverse results. Google has an answer to almost every question you ask.
From location searches, simple searches, product searches, and historical searches to recent trends and news, Google offers users a unique gateway to the internet. The search engine updates its algorithms at least 500 times per year, giving users access to top-notch quality and new results.
Google continues to be a revered search engine platform for businesses globally. The search engine’s ranking algorithm significantly impacts the clicks that a website records.
Besides, Google offers some of the most accurate results to users, thanks to its complex algorithms and detailed analytics. The reliability and increasing popularity of Google have made it top the list of search engines over the years, and it continues to dominate the charts.
2. Bing
Microsoft’s Bing is the second-largest search engine trailing behind the giant Google with 2.47% of the market share. The market share sometimes rises to as high as 12.61% making it Google’s closest search engine competitor.
Bing receives at least 900 million search queries daily, making it an equally influential search engine tool. Microsoft created Bing to contain the monopoly that Google had enjoyed on the web.
Bing is the world’s most visited website and a default search engine tool for all Microsoft devices. It was officially conceived in 2009 as a replacement for Microsoft’s MSN search tool.
One intriguing fact about Bing is that the platform prides itself on a super loyal fan base. The search engine is popular for its unique integration with Microsoft products.
Besides, Microsoft has a unique rewards program that serves as a strong selling point of the platform to its ever-loyal clients. Bing also has other outstanding features that make it earn the second spot after Google including;
- Reverse image search
- Visual search
- Trending images
- Top-notch image quality with vast image filtering options
3. Yahoo
Yahoo is an email service officially established in 1997 by American Tech Company Yahoo, Inc. The platform is among the largest and most popular email providers globally, sitting second after Google’s Gmail.
Yahoo’s search engine tool is an influential domain in the digital world, with a market share of approximately 1.48% globally. It is currently the third most popular search engine globally.
Yahoo’s email dominated the digital world before Google’s Gmail took over. However, its search tool has remained relevant in the search engine market.
The Yahoo search engine was powered by Bing between October 2011 and October 2015. Yahoo agreed with Google in October 2015 to provide search-related services, which saw Yahoo results being powered by Bing and Google until October 2018.
From October 2019, Yahoo’s search results were exclusively powered by Bing. The platform continues providing email and search engine services.
Yahoo has also been the default search engine tool for all Firefox browsers in the US since 2014. The Bing-powered web search engine serves as a web portal that guides users down a discovery path that extends beyond offering simple search results.
Yahoo’s search services are still top-rated among millions of users globally, especially in the US. Wikipedia ranks Yahoo as the 9th most visited online web portal globally.
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4. Baidu
Baidu was established in 2000, and it is hailed as modern China’s Google. The global market share for this search engine is about 1.68% making it one of the most popular search engines globally.
Baidu enjoys an unmatched fan base in China. Almost every Chinese person logged into the internet uses Baidu as the primary search engine platform.
The latest statistics from the search engine market reports reveal that Baidu receives approximately 504 million users monthly. According to Wikipedia, Baidu’s market share is steadily increasing globally, and it receives billions of search queries monthly.
The primary language for Baidu’s search results is Mandarin, making it inclined to rank Chinese served websites. The search engine provides a similar experience to Google by prioritizing ads on the first page of SERPs besides the organic results.
Baidu’s primary language is Mandarin, which means that it is not a very popular search engine tool outside of China. However, Baidu records approximately 3.3 billion search queries.
Baidu has dedicated massive resources to enhancing research and developing technologies such as artificial intelligence. These technologies have played a critical role in shaping and evolving the future of search engines in China and globally.
Do you run a purely Chinese-written website? Baidu should be the primary focus of your search engine optimization efforts.
However, it is worth noting that Baidu is a heavily censored search engine tool because of its prevalent use in China, where pro-democracy posts and images are prohibited.
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5. DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo controls approximately 0.63% of the search engine market share globally. The search engine provider handles at least 98.79 million search queries daily.
Research shows that DuckDuckGo is one of the fastest-growing search engine tools. The platform recorded a massive increase in the search volume of 73% from January 2020 to 2021 alone.
DuckDuckGo does not have its own search index, unlike most search engines. This search engine tool utilizes a collection of sources to display the targeted search results.
Would you like to keep your privacy as you navigate the internet? DuckDuckGo is the best search engine for online users that want to retain their privacy. It is best known for prioritizing the privacy of its users.
DuckDuckGo is a simple and clean search engine that does not store or rack up visitors’ personal information. It is the best search engine for online users fed up with digital companies or search engine platforms that share their personal information with advertisers.
DuckDuckGo allows you to search your target queries without the fear that your private information will be shared without your consent. The search engine’s high-security features prevent those disturbing ads related to your search from popping up on your screen.
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6. Yandex
Yandex is one of Russia’s most visited search engine platforms. It controls approximately 1.04% of the global market share and 65% of Russia’s search engine market.
Google findings show that Yandex is on the list of the ten most popular and most sought-after websites globally and the 4th most visited site in Russia.
One of Yandex’s most user-appealing features is the fluid user interface. The simple-to-navigate interface offers search results that do not lean towards American geography like most search engines.
Yandex is simple to operate like Google. Besides, it comes with a host of customization features and other elements that make it as appealing as ever, even to new users.
The company portrays itself as a technology-centric firm that utilizes machine learning to craft intelligent products and services.
Besides being dominantly used in Russia, Yandex is available in other European nations, including Belarus, Ukraine, and Turkey. The search engine’s popularity continues to increase beyond Russia’s borders by the day as more online users find the platform useful.
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7. Ask.com
Ask.com was formerly called Jeeves before acquiring its current brand name. The search engine is an influential website, especially in the U.S.
This web portal’s operation is based on a question-and-answer format, and users are encouraged to search for target results by posting questions. Questions on this platform are answered by other users, while some answers are in the form of polls.
Ask.com is also an excellent platform for finding specific blogs, web pages, or niches by entering a single keyword in the search toggle. It enables users to access a particular blog or web page by clicking a button.
Users are attracted to Ask.com because of its question/answer format. However, Ask is not as accurate as Goggle, Bing, or Yahoo.
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8. AOL.com
The old-time AOL.com is still a favorite millennial search engine. Verizon Communications acquired AOL officially in 2015, but the platform has continued to function as a search engine service provider.
This New York-based search engine traces its roots to its establishment in 1985, making it one of the pioneer internet service providers. AOL primarily serves users still keeping their original AOL email accounts.
To maintain its fan base, AOL has withstood the test of time and the wave brought by the new kids on the block, such as Google. Market surveys show that the AOL search engine has some of the most loyal customers, especially its email users.
AOL is a revered network popular for incorporating popular websites, including engadget.com, Tech Crunch, and Huffington Post.
Bing powers the generation of search engine results using AOL. AOL began its collaboration with Bing in 2016 to enable the search engine to generate more holistic results for its users.
Users can search vast queries on various topics of interest for accurate search results. The platform enjoys a broad fan base despite being an old-time site.
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Another popular search engine platform in this list is Naver.com. Naver is South Korea’s number top search engine, with a search engine market share of 22.75% in the country.
Naver was officially incepted in 1999, becoming South Korea’s first-ever indigenous search engine. It was established in a period characterized by internet evolution as Google had just celebrated its first birthday.
The search engine platform’s use expanded in South Korea among internet users. It is credited as one of South Korea’s pioneer search engines for compiling and curating search results from elaborate categories and simplifying them for users.
Since its launch over two decades ago, the platform has been incorporating new features. Naver continues to gain momentum as a global search engine tool in the wake of digital marketing.
Naver is more prevalent in Korea than any other search engine platform because it offers higher-quality search results in the Korean language.
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10. Ecosia
Ecosia is a social business founded in 2009 by Christian Kroll, and it is based in Berlin. The primary goal behind Ecosia’s creation was to offer financial assistance for tree planting and other restoration projects.
The website is also known as a tree-planting search engine. This Bing-powered search engine enjoys a 0.1% market share in the United States.
It is a global environmental search engine that allows users to participate in the company’s tree-planting efforts.
Ecosia is dedicated to internet users that value the company’s positive environmental conservation efforts. The company makes funds by displaying ads on their search results.
Ecosia gets a small share from every ad that a user clicks, and it takes approximately 45 clicks to finance the planting of one tree. The company’s search engine ad revenue is channeled to planting trees.
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11. Search Encrypt
There is no official report on Search Encrypted search engine’s global market share. However, digital marketers show that it is an influential search engine tool.
Search Encrypt receives at least five million search visits weekly, putting it on the 15 most popular search engines list globally.
This web portal is also a private search engine where users’ search queries remain confidential and anonymous. As a result, Search Encrypt is a viable solution for online visitors keen on ensuring that their digital footprints remain private.
The platform’s developers observe that user privacy is the web portal’s central aspect. Developers have enacted relevant strategies to detect and send immediate notifications on searches and possible results that could track users’ activities.
Here is a brief insight into Search Encrypt functionality; this search engine neither tracks your history nor retails any user’s server logs. Besides, it prevents internet service providers from remotely tracking your information and searching queries without your consent.
Search Encrypt enhances its privacy feature by integrating a collection of local encryption features for the best user privacy results. The platform allows you to install browser extensions for Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome for your searches.
12. The Creative Commons Search
Creative Commons Search is a search engine platform rolled out by CC Licenses maker. The role of CC is to retrieve publicly available works of art.
The retrievable works of art include sound effects and images. CC Search allows aspiring or upcoming art creators to access various forms of artwork that they can use for the purpose of non-commercial projects.
CC accesses millions of artwork databases to assist the user in efficiently locating the specific artworks that they are searching for.
If you are an artist looking forward to drawing inspiration from different artworks, CC Search is your solution. The art-oriented web portal is popular in the world of art as it offers vast solutions to artists searching for ideal content to reuse in their art globally.
13. Startpage Search Engine
Startpage.com is a Dutch-based search engine popular for its high-security features that enhance user privacy. The search engine platform traces its roots back to 1998, but it was officially established in 2006.
Startpage has often highlighted user privacy as one of its core distinguishing features. This web portal enjoys a significant fan base globally.
Startpage.com focuses on offering users a Google-level search result experience while safeguarding their privacy. The platform refrains from using third-party cookies and targeted ads.
Startpage.com does not store users’ personal information or search data. Besides, it removes all trackers that may make users’ private information vulnerable or accessible to third parties.
14. Qwant
Qwant is a top search engine that emphasizes the essence of safeguarding client data. The platform has a notable global search market share ranking it among the top 15 search engines.
Qwant was officially established in 2013 by Éric Leandro and Jean Manuel Rozan. The platform is based in the European Union, and search results are available in at least 26 languages.
The platform receives over 10 million search queries daily and at least 50 million monthly users. Qwant uses user-friendly and vibrant UI/UX features to offer clients specific information arranged in categories.
It is among the handful of search engine names within the European Union, offering search results powered by Bing combined with a few organic ones.
One of Qwant’s most popular features is the “search shortcuts.” This feature allows the users to enter their target searches from within a particular website by adding “&” ahead of the search query.
Qwant’s popularity grew significantly in 2018 when the French National Assembly directed all government systems to migrate to using the platform.
15. YouTube
Last on this list is YouTube. YouTube should have taken the second position, but it appears last in the list because it is a video search platform.
YouTube is a video-centric search engine platform that was officially launched in 2005. It was initially established as an independent platform, but Google acquired it after one year.
This Google-owned platform is the most comprehensive video search engine tool. There are billions of videos on YouTube covering vast topics ranging from entertainment, education, medicine, and other informative topics.
YouTube serves at least 1.5 billion logged-in users monthly, with the platform receiving at least one billion hours of content daily. It is a massive video platform that provides almost every solution to online users searching for video guides to perform their daily tasks.
YouTube is Google’s sister and offers an alternative search for videos. It is the most popular video search engine platform globally.
It dominates the video search engine world, making it a darling to many online users. There is no end to the videos that one can search on YouTube.
The search results depend on what the individual user is looking for. YouTube offers various features, including result filters, to enable users to single the most relevant videos as per their search topics.
You need to key in your keywords and thousands of videos will pop on your screen. YouTube is accessible through Google.
YouTube differs from the rest of the search engines discussed in the list because it is used to generate videos exclusively.
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Conclusion
In summary, search engine platforms play a crucial role in assisting users in getting answers to their questions. Besides, digital businesses use search engines to expand their ventures through SEO and digital marketing.
There are several search engine platforms in the digital world. The above list contains only a few of the best search engines that make your online experience more rewarding. Your choice of the search engine tool depends on various factors, such as your search query and region.
The good thing is that the existence of vast search engines sets a competitive stage for developers to optimize their web portals to offer the best customer experience. We hope that this list provides you with the best insights you need.
Tom loves to write on technology, e-commerce & internet marketing.
Tom has been a full-time internet marketer for two decades now, earning millions of dollars while living life on his own terms. Along the way, he’s also coached thousands of other people to success.