The choice of a search engine is important in order to optimize the expected results. With the number of search engines available today, it is not always clear which one will best meet your needs. By the way, you should know that Google and Bing are not the only search engines that exist on the world market. To help you choose, this article will examine the best current search engines. You will also see the best ways to use a search engine and the role it plays in your online navigation.
Functionalities and characteristics of search engines
Search engines have a wide range of functions and features that make them powerful and useful. In fact, there are three parts to the operation of a search engine. When users launch a query, the search engine :
- Uses algorithms to crawl all the pages of all the sites registered on the internet (web crawling);
- Indexes all the contents of the web pages it has just explored;
- Uses ranking systems to determine the order in which results are displayed for the user’s query.
Search engines are also capable of supporting additional features such as :
- Voice searches;
- Image searches;
- Video searches;
- Data searches of all kinds.
In order to collect the data relevant to the user’s query, search engines crawl the web from one website to another .
The main search engines
Since the creation of the Internet, the number of search engines on the market has been increasing. Here are the best search engines available to users today.
Google: the king of the web
Despite the criticisms it faces regarding its policy on the treatment of Internet users’ data, Google remains the king of the web. Indeed, Google is still the most popular search engine in the world.
Today, Google counts nearly 80,000 searches per second, or about 6.9 billion queries per day. In addition, more than 15% of these searches are new queries, or 500 million per day.
Thanks to particularly efficient algorithms, Google has the largest share of the search engine market. In addition, Google has developed a very innovative feature on the display of results, which allows users to view an excerpt of an indexed web page without having to open it.
Bing: the only real competitor to Google
Driven by Microsoft, Bing is the only real competitor to Google. At least in terms of the quality of the results it offers. Moreover, both search engines are known for their privacy policies and the use of personal information of its users. Indeed, like Google, Bing does not hesitate to recover and use the private data of Internet users.
Another similarity between the two search engines is that Bing also relies on advertisements for its revenue. However, the ads on Bing are even more intrusive than those on Google. The only point where Bing is perhaps better than Google is the interface, especially the home page.
Yahoo: the leader among chaser groups
As one of the most famous email providers in the world, Yahoo is the third largest search engine with 3.90% of the market share .
Between October 2011 and October 2015, Yahoo search was carried entirely by Bing. Nevertheless, it has made a deal with Google to get search-related services since 2015. Now, Yahoo is powered by Google and Bing simultaneously. Note that Yahoo has been the default search engine on the Firefox browser since 2014 in the United States.
DuckDuckGo: a search engine that advocates privacy
At first glance, DuckDuckGo’s interface looks like Google’s, but the similarities between the two search engines end there. Unlike the king of the Web, DuckDuckGo makes a point of respecting the privacy of Internet users and does not target results. In addition, DuckDuckGo has its own page indexing robot. It can therefore offer results from third-party engines along with those from its internal crawler. For revenue, DuckDuckGo is forced to display ads.
With more funding, DuckDuckGo can hope for a larger market share than the 0.24% it currently has. According to the statistics, DuckDuckGo counts nearly 30 million searches per day.
Ecosia: the ecological web browser
Ecosia is not a search engine like the others. Indeed, it is a web browser that allows you to plant trees without leaving your desk. Actively involved in ecology, Ecosia donates its advertising revenues to NGOs that work for ecology in the world.
Ecosia is also a company that advocates total respect for the privacy of Internet users. Instead of using personal data, Ecosia simply uses search history to display targeted ads.
Regarding queries, Ecosia does not yet have its own algorithms and the results displayed are mainly from Bing and Yahoo. For those who don’t like Google, you can always use a feature that allows you to re-run a query to Google.
Use a search engine
Using a search engine is relatively simple. Just type the term you want to search for in the search bar and click on “Search”. The results corresponding to the query will then be displayed. You can refine the search results by adding additional keywords, limiting the search to a specific website or choosing a search type, such as an image search.
Example of a French search engine
France also has its own search engines. Obviously, they are still far behind giants like Google or Bing.
Qwant: the perfect opposite of Google and Bing
By choosing to develop its own algorithms, Qwant has taken a big step forward in its goal to compete with Google. However, Qwant did not stop there as the French search engine decided to implement a privacy policy in contrast to Google and Bing.
In addition to caring about privacy, Qwant also offers several very interesting variations:
- Qwant: the traditional version;
- Qwant Lite: a version that relies on a rather minimalist interface;
- Qwant Junior: a version specially adapted for children.
Lilo: a web browser with a social approach
Lilo is also a French search engine that tends to become popular very quickly. Indeed, theLilo company has a solidarity approach which aims to finance French projects. Concretely, Lilo has a mode of operation quite similar to the participative platforms.
After each request, the user is given drops. One drop is worth about 0.002 euro. Afterwards, the user can go to the “Projects” tab to see the existing projects and choose the one that suits him. With a sober interface and less intrusive ads, Lilo can hope to become an essential search engine in France.
The world of search engines is populated by small browsers that can be alternatives to Google or Bing. You can choose according to your desires and preferences, especially when it comes to privacy.
