Search engines other than Google

For most people Google is the only search engine worth using. And, for many web marketers it’s the only search engine worth optimizing for. At about 65-70% of the market share, who can blame theme? Google tends to give people the results they want, and has been attempting to weed out content farms and other types of sites that optimized on Google’s previous algorithms. But recent Panda updates have destroyed traffic to many sites, cementing the reality that Google can make or break businesses. So what other search engines are out there? And, are they worth looking at?

Bing is rated second to Google, but with only about 15% of the market. Funny enough, Microsoft has been caught using Google’s search results in their own results, an embarrassing revelation that may have people shying away from using the product.

There is, of course, search/portal veteran Yahoo! who has recently integrated Bing results into some of its search results. Yahoo!’s market share has been slightly declining by the month, and currently averaging around 5% of the market.

If you want to try something fun, use one of the newer search engines and see what results you get. Blekko (http://blekko.com/) is one company you might want to check out. They use a method called “slashtags” that filter results to specific sites or content. And, their search engine attempts to rid results of content farm links.

Another interesting search engine is called DuckDuckGo (http://duckduckgo.com/). DuckDuckGo attempts to omit “useless sites with just ads” in their search results. They also provide “zero click” answers in a red box above all the results, which might save you time in searching through results listings. And, they have a great looking duck for a logo!