14 Alternative Search Engines

1. WolframAlpha

1.1. WolframAlpha is a ‘computational knowledge engine’, or super clever nerd to you and me. Ask it to calculate any data or ask it about any fact and it will give you the answer. Plus it does this awesome ‘computing’ thing while it thinks about your answer (which can take a short while.)

2. Giphy

2.1. Because really, when it comes down to it, we could imagine a worse dystopian future than one in which we all communicate entirely in Gifs.

3. IxQuick

3.1. Another search engine that puts its users’ privacy at the forefront. With IxQuick none of your details are stored and no cookies are used. A user can set preferences, but they will be deleted after 90 days of inactivity.

4. Ask.com

4.1. It’s still a slightly mediocre search engine pretending to be a question and answer site, but the ‘Popular Q&A’ results found on the right hand side are very handy if Jeeves himself can’t satisfy your query. And what a good use of the right-hand side space, huh Google.

5. SlideShare

5.1. SlideShare is a really handy place to source information from presentations, slide decks, webinars and whatever else you may have missed from not attending a conference.

6. Addict-o-Matic

6.1. “Inhale the web” with the friendly looking hoover guy by creating your own topic page, which you can bookmark and see results from a huge number of channels in that one page (including Google, Bing News, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr).

7. Creative Commons Search

7.1. CC Search is particularly handy if you need to find copyright free images for your website (as discussed in this post on image optimisation for SEO). Just type your query in then click on your chosen site you want to search.

8. Bing

8.1. Microsoft’s search engine is the second most popular search engine in the world, with 15.8% of the search market.

9. Dogpile

9.1. Dogpile may look like a search engine you cobbled together with clip-art, but that’s rather the point as it pulls in and ‘curates’ results from various different engines including Google, Yandex and Yahoo, but removes all the ads.

10. DuckDuckGo

10.1. The key feature of DuckDuckGo is that it doesn’t retain its users’ data, so it won’t track you or manipulate results based on your behavior. So if you’re particularly spooked by Google’s all-seeing, all-knowing eye, this might be the one for you.

11. Quora

11.1. Ask any question and its erudite community will offer their replies. Or you can choose from any similar queries previously asked.

12. Vimeo

12.1. Of course if you’re going to give up Google, then you’ll also have to give up YouTube, which can be a terrifying prospect. But there is an alternative. And a pretty good one at that… Vimeo. The professional’s choice of video-sharing site, which has lots of HD video and no ads.

13. Yandex

13.1. This is a Russian portal, offering many similar products and services as Google, and it’s the dominant search engine in Russia.

14. Boardreader

14.1. If you want to get into the nitty-gritty of a subject with a variety of different points of view away from the major publications, Boardreader surfaces results purely from forums, message boards and, of course, Reddit.