Best Search Engines; Search Engine Reviews

Best search engine overall

Google

Google remains the most popular search engine, the favorite among both users and professional reviewers for its speed and ease of use. Expert reviews give Google high scores for its disclosure practices, which make it… easy to distinguish paid ads from real results. Google also earns high marks for its maps and searches for images, videos and blog posts; you can even search inside books with Book Search. However, search experts say that no single search engine provides the most relevant results for all queries. Rather, reviews recommend you use Google in combination with one or two other search engines.

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Expert & User Review Sources:

University of California, Berkeley Library: Google is the first search engine recommended by experts at the UC Berkeley Library, but they note that only about half the web ...

InfoPeople.org: This site designed for librarians recommends Google as one of the three best search engines, noting its many specialized searches ...

Dolores Labs: Based on results of 500 random queries, testers find the results at Google about as relevant as those at Live.com and Yahoo! ...

SearchEngineLand.com: Google loses points to Live.com and Ask.com in this recent comparison review, because both the latter search engines provide ...

Laptop Magazine: This detailed review compares Google with Yahoo!, scoring each on eight different factors. Yahoo! outscores Google for some ...

StraightUpSearch.com: Google ranks second to Live.com (but higher than Yahoo! Search and Ask.com), based on a comparison of results from the search ...

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Best alternative search engine

Yahoo! Search

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Although Yahoo! Search ranks second in popularity and has a more cluttered interface, reviewers praise features like Search Assistant, which suggests search terms as you type. Reviewers also like the new Search Pad… note-taking tool. Most comparison tests find Yahoo! Search results as relevant as those from Google. You have to do a basic search before you can access the advanced search, but then the options are nearly as versatile as Google's advanced search.

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Expert & User Review Sources:

University of California, Berkeley Library: Yahoo! is the second search engine recommended by experts at the UC Berkeley Library, for use (along with Exalead) as a ...

InfoPeople.org: This site designed for librarians recommends Yahoo! Search as one of the three best search engines, noting that its advanced ...

The Wall Street Journal: This article praises the way Yahoo! Search offers its new Search Pad note-taking option automatically if it detects you might be ...

Dolores Labs: Based on results of 500 random queries, testers find the results at Yahoo! Search about as relevant as those at Google and ...

SearchEngineLand.com: Yahoo! Search loses points to Live.com and Ask.com in this recent comparison review, because both the latter search engines ...

Laptop Broker.com: This detailed review compares Yahoo! with Google based on eight different factors, including not only search results but also ...

StraightUpSearch.com: Yahoo! Search, along with Google and Ask.com, lose points to Live.com based on a comparison of the results on a search query for ...

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Search engine for direct answers, customization

Windows Live Search

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Windows Live Search (Live.com), the same search engine on the MSN portal, lags behind in popularity but provides direct answers for some queries, which can be a timesaver. Recent reviews rank Live Search higher than… Ask.com, which also provides some direct answers. In addition to searches for news, images, video and maps, you can search separate databases for health, travel, local results and more. You can even create your own customized search engine.

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Expert & User Review Sources:

Dolores Labs: Based on results of 500 random queries, testers find the results at Live.com about as relevant as those at Google and Yahoo! ...

SearchEngineLand.com: This recent comparison review praises Live.com for providing direct answers to a query for "oscar winners," though they're placed ...

StraightUpSearch.com: Live.com earns top ranking in this review comparing it with Google, Yahoo! Search and Ask.com based on a search for "Olympics." ...

Search Engine Watch: This article reports the December 2008 statistics from Nielsen Online, showing that Live.com fell way behind Yahoo! Search and ...

Phil Bradley's Website: Making the Net Easier: Live.com is one of four search engines recommended here for most searches. Though Google and Yahoo! Search rank higher, the ...

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Search Engines: Reviews

Best search engine overall

Best alternative search engine

Search engine for direct answers, customization