You might wonder as to why in the first place are we discussing which search engines are the better ones against others when all of them do is display results against a search query? The simple answer to that query is simple – ‘not all search engines are created equal’. Furthermore, search engines are of various kinds i.e. you have separate search-engines to search websites, videos, images etc.
List of Top Search Engines
In this write-up let us discuss some of the best search engines available around the globe and try to rank them in from 1 to 10 based on various factors that I am going to discuss in the later part of the article. Google for absolute reasons would top the chart, you can learn more about the alternatives you have.
1. Google
As we all know Google is a well known and most popular search engine that attracts almost 79% market share. By its sheer market capture numbers, it is definitely my number 1 search engine. In addition, the Google search engine algorithm is one of the most sophisticated pieces of code ever written and it evolves each passing day. Google’s primary objective from its search engines is to be as user-friendly as possible by providing the right set of results for every search query made by users.
Although Google is well known for its accurate organic search results, it has been noticed recently that it has been reducing organic CTR in favor of paid ads i.e. Google ad words.
In addition to web searches, Google is also compatible with video, image, news, maps, books, flights searches etc as well. This makes it all in one search space catering to all kinds of content.
With over 50,00 searches every second, which sums up to over 1.5 trillion searches every year worldwide, Google is definitely my number one search engine and is a must check for all. Google’s searches vary from everything you can think off and everything that can be asked for.
2. YouTube
YouTube is a video platform owned by Google’s umbrella company Alphabet and is the second best search engine in the market today. Specifically designed for video searches from around the globe, YouTube primarily focuses on videos related to news, entertainment, sports, fashion etc. YouTube processes over 3.5 billion searches per month, and at the moment is the fastest growing video sharing platform in the world.
Another interesting fact that I must bring to your notice before I forget is that YouTube has over one-third of all the internet users, which account to around 1.6 billion users. With such staggering numbers by its side, YouTube is one search engine that every digital marketer should focus on for the sheer size of traffic it can build on your website.
YouTube allows everyone to access and create their own YouTube account and post their videos as long its users are following the set guidelines. Many vloggers (video bloggers) and You-Tubers (who are individuals like you and me) continue to post interesting video content while making millions of dollars by renting videos for ads.
For all these reasons, YouTube is my # 2 search engine, which has answers to anything that you want to ask it.
3. Bing
This Search engine is a web-based search engine, which currently ranks second in terms of volume of web searches on it. Bing is well known to be a decision-based search engine that throws results are based on queries put forth by users, unlike in Google where search results are displayed by matching and scanning texts from search query.
Another reason why Bing is consistently gaining on popularity is its reward system, where it rewards users with points for searching on its engine. These accrued points can be accrued and redeemed later on major shopping websites and outlets.
Recently, Bing collaborated with Yahoo! Web search to come up with Yahoo-Bing Network, which currently caters to over 15 billion searches every month. With such a volume, ignoring Bing could probably be one of the worst mistakes for any business to commit.
As per a data, a Bing search engine user spends 7 percent money than that of a Google user. As a business if you are looking at ROI closely, make sure you are optimized for Bing as well.
4. Baidu
While Google and Bing search engines have wide popularity in US and rest of the work, Baidu is a China-based search engine and captures over 82% of the country’s search market share. China has over 725 million internet users, which makes it the largest for any other geography in the world and Baidu owns 82% of this volume.
Baidu search engine is known to extensively invest in Artificial Intelligence, which can be attributed to its growing popularity among the new generation internet users.
As a China-specific search engine, Baidu is well optimized for the local language, thus making it more popular than Google China. So, if you are in China looking for the information you must definitely consider Baidu as against others, for it offers better and optimized search results.
5. Pinterest
Pinterest is a very popular search engine for image searches and is only next to Google Image search platform in terms of the numbers. This search engine boasts to have over 2 billion searches every month. Powered by artificial intelligence, Pinterest offers one of the finest image results that are based on both searches and comparable image options via its lens app.
As of 2018, Pinterest boasts to have 150 million active users, who spend on an average 100 minutes every month. This number offers great potential for brands to market themselves more actively than ever before while enhancing their brand presence – ideal for brands from fashion, beauty, arts, crafts, health, and similar spaces that can be portrayed widely through images.
6. Yahoo! Search
Yahoo! Search comes next to Google and Bing to be the third largest web-based search engine in terms of search volume. I am not considering Baidu in this context solely for it’s a regional search engine.
Yahoo currently holds up to 4.7% of global market share in search space and has an extensive user base in the news, finance, sports, and news sectors. It is also one of the top 5 digital media companies in the US market.
Yahoo Video Search is another search engine from Yahoo that is specific for Video content searches. It also lets you navigate and browse videos available on other video platforms including YouTube, MetaCafe, Hulu, Daily Motion and others.
7. Ask.com
Formerly known as Jeeves, Ask.com holds just 0.16% of the market share making it the 6th best search engine in our list. Even with this tiny market share, it is a well known and popular search engine that answers general queries. Although the engine is very primitive in comparison with others, it has not failed to grow since its inception.
For digital marketers, Ask.com is a must try search engine for growth as it is a grand engine to find related keywords i.e. Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) against a primary keyword. This makes it easy to understand the audience better in real time.
8. AOL
I must concede that AOL is a deserving candidate to be in our top 10 search engines list, although it has only 0.04% market share. AOL is a dial-up internet search engine and has over 2.4 million users in the US alone.
AOL’s search engine is believed to have gained more prominence among users, as a result of its algorithm upgrade after it was acquired by Yahoo. Yahoo acquired Verizon, which is a parent company of AOL.
9. DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo is an anonymous search engine that began its operation in 2009. Its rapid growth year on year can be attributed to its objective to not employ a user’s private information in displaying search results. DuckDuckGo is probably the only search engine in the top 10 of our list that is completely safe.
As of 2016, DuckDuckGo search engine had swelling search numbers of over 10 billion a year, which accounts for over 170 million every day. With these numbers, I can definitely say, DuckDuckGo is surely making it to top 3 search engines in the days to come.
10. Internet Archives
Last but not the least – Internet Archives has made it to my list of this year’ top search engines. Also known as Archives.org, this search engine stores and retrieves data from search queries of websites and blogs since 1996. Whether a website or a blog is in existence or has been completely shut down, you can find data of them with Archeive.org.
Internet archives are ideal for digital marketers who seek to research the history of websites in order to strategize SEO activities. If you are aspiring digital marketer, you must definitely bookmark this search engine.
There are thousands of search engines out there to try, but only some qualify to be known amongst the best for one simple reason. That reason is their uniqueness. In the list of 10 best search engines that I have discussed, I am 100% sure that each one of them continues to be unique in its own way. Based on their exclusivity, people rush to them for answers. This is simply going to continue as per my experience for many more years to come.
