This is why it is important to know other search engines. I use more than one simply because some can find things others cannot but the ones that can search more results are the ones that do naughty things like that.
The MOST Popular Search Engines:- Google
- Bing
- Yahoo
- Baidu
- Yandex
Source: Most Popular Search Engines (
https://www.dopinger.com/blog/most-popular-search-engines)
I am not going to list all the pros and cons of those so the link is there. Click it if you want to read about each of those.
Best Alternatives to GoogleDuckDuckGo is the king of privacy-friendly search engines. Using it is like using the incognito mode on Chrome.
You can also get the
DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials browser extension to block trackers and keep you safe online.
From my OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE I will say that some online bank use will NOT login if you have it installed however... DuckDuckGo isn’t perfect, though. According to CNET, it uses Bing to power its results; for that reason, it has some Microsoft trackers that it is contractually obligated to use.
Nevertheless, it’s still light-years ahead of Google regarding privacy.
Brave is a privacy-focused browser with ad blocking, tracker blocking, and other safety features. It now also has a search engine, called Brave Search.
Brave Search is the default search engine on the Brave Browser. However, you can also use it at search.brave.com, whether you’re using Chrome, Firefox, or any other browser.
Brave search tracks nothing – not what you search for, not what you click on. Since it doesn’t have any user data, it can’t give it to governments or sell it to advertisers.Unlike DuckDuckGo, Brave Search uses its proprietary index to bring you results. That means that it will never be forced by Bing or other large search engines to include hidden trackers.
However, it does rely on Bing for most image and video results. Also, it uses fallback mixing to check results from Bing if it can’t bring up accurate results of its own.
It uses community suggestions and feedback to improve its results and bring you more accurate ones.
It also has a beta Goggles feature, which allows you to customize your own search results with rules and filters.
Brave Search is supported by ads, and Brave plans to incorporate those ads into the Brave Rewards program in the future.
Bing is the second-largest search engine in the world. The main reason to use it instead of Google is its rewards program.
You’ll get rewards just for browsing the web on Bing. You won’t earn much – but every few weeks or months, you cann redeem a small gift card for Amazon, Walmart, Target, Starbucks, and other stores.
Not only that, but you can also get scratch-and-win rewards, enter sweepstakes, and more.
DogPile is an interesting addition to this list.
Founded in 1996, it is older than Google, Bing (originally MSN Search), and AOL.
It has a weird name, and its interface looks a bit outdated. However, DogPile continues to fulfill its original goal – to be a metasearch engine that includes results from multiple other engines.
One of the issues people have when choosing a search engine is that some engines might be more relevant for different searches. For example, you might prefer Bing’s results for one keyword search, even if you prefer Google’s results for a different keyword search.
DogPile includes results from Google, Bing, Yandex, and other search engines. It will filter out duplicates, allowing you to get more results than you would get from using just one engine.
However, DogPile is no longer as practical as it used to be, as many search engines it used to rely on for its results have gone offline or been bought out by bigger search engines like Google.
People all know about Google but it was NOT the first Search Engine by far! Heck I remember the days of Search Jeeves and AltaVista and DogPile search engines! But the FIRST Search Engine was Archie. It was made in 1990. That was before I used a search engine as those were the days before the net. I was only into BBS back then and did not yet own my own computer.
Did you know that Google changes its algorithm between 500 and 600 times a year? In a way that is excellent as it prevents CEO's from manipulating the search results to benefit only their companies. This I learned about over a decade ago before I even had my own domain.
Backrub was Google’s first name. Interesting, huh? Even I did not know that.
The funny thing is that now, when people are searching for something online, they now use “Googling” as a verb to mean searching for something on the internet. I still say searching. I am old school
but the kids today .. this is what they call it.
The average search engine result page includes 10 organic listings and about 4 paid advertisements.
Myself, I use a combination of Duck Duck Go and Bing. My mom uses Yahoo Search. I also use AdBlock Plus but still if you use Google you will always get the ads that are embedded in the searches above and below the results you want.
I am not going to list the pros to using search engines here as we are all geeks and already know what they are off the top of our heads. But do you know all the cons? Especially of popular ones like Google?
Here is a list of cons about search engines:
- Privacy concerns
- Spread of false information
- Bias
- Advertising
- Addiction and overuse
- Lack of critical thinking
- Keyword manipulation
- Algorithm changes
- Information overload
- Spam and malware
