5 Secret Search Engines Way Better Than Google

Written on November 21, 2011 – 2:38 pm | by bigoak |

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Google has become such an ingrained part of our society that people simply say, “I Googled it.” The search engine counts millions of internet users among its loyal followers, often making it seem as if no other search engine is even relevant anymore. But, in actuality, Google has some stiff competition, and if you’re willing to look, you’re going to find numerous websites that are actually even better than Google, including:

DuckDuckGo

Google’s in for some stiff competition when DuckDuckGo, now still a relatively secret search engine, spreads to the masses. Perhaps the biggest benefit of DuckDuckGo is it doesn’t collect nor does it share your personal information like Google does. In addition, DuckDuckGo doesn’t make users scroll through dozens of pages to find an answer. Let’s say you want to find out when the 2012 Presidential Election will be held. DuckDuckGo will return the answer at the top of your search page. Web users also enjoy the Web of Trust, which allows them to determine which sites are safe enough to visit, and pointless pages thrown up just to make revenue but without any real content never appear in search results.

Blekko

Blekko is a dream come true for those web users fed up with spam and being taken to pages from content farms and promises spam-free results. If a website’s content does not live up to Blekko’s strict requirements for quality, it isn’t included in the search results, quite a difference from Google. Users can also use the settings to ensure theirs searches are related to specific topics, such as news or the date content was published.

Ixquick

The self-described “most private search engine” in the world, Ixquick does not store users’ browsing histories, nor does it keep track of IP addresses, making it an ideal option for web browsers who want to keep their information private. In fact, all searches are encrypted to provide you with complete privacy.

Yippy

Yippy is an ideal search engine for families and those who are fed up with porn sites ending up in their search results. The search engine promises extremely tight security. It asserts that it doesn’t store any of your private information, your search history, your email addresses, and other vital information. Search results return with a box on the left hand of the screen, allowing you to choose which way information is best presented to you: By time, by source, or by sites.

Gigablast

Gigablast advertises itself as the “Green Search Engine,” as it runs on wind energy, providing search results for an estimated 10 million web users. Gigablast has been around for nearly a decade, and the search engine searches through all websites on a particular keyword or phrase, rather than just individual pages. Parents can use the “family filter,” and Gigablast implements numerous spam filters to ensure users aren’t greeted with spam websites on search result pages. While Google, Yahoo, and Bing are currently the most popular search engines, particularly with English speakers, web users do have other options that offer them more flexibility, more privacy, and promise they won’t be inundated by spam and useless content that often show up in the search results from the more well-known search engines.

Frank Anderson is an Internet researcher and writer. He has been working on exchange 2010 hosting for some time and continues to learn about what the Internet is capable of.